Report on the Trials of Implements at Reading. 669 
are marked " wet," 4 " heavy showers," 7 " dull," 1 " cloudy," 
and 2 " fine." 
Not unnaturally, in the opinion of the vast majority of the 
public, these meteorological conditions, so unfavourable and dis- 
astrous to the farmer who had not yet accepted the assistance of 
science, were a godsend to the exhibitors, who ought to have 
wished for nothing better than a thoroughly bad hay-time to 
enable them to show their skill. But if the eulogists of the hay 
dryers had been a little intemperate, the public were certainly a 
little unreasonable in their expectations. 
The Judges thought it desirable that, in the first trials, the 
different competitors should as far as possible be consulted as to 
the management of the hay and the time for stacking it. With 
complete unanimity the exhibitors declared that they could not 
deal with wet grass. Mr. Champion, on behalf of Gibbs's 
machine, said : " Give me half-made hay and I don't mind its 
being water wet." The exhibitors of fans, on the other hand, 
said : " We can take gree7i hag, if only it is drg." The dis- 
tinction between the two processes is thus very clearly shown. 
Mr. Gibbs aims at expelling the moisture of the hay, whether 
natural sap or rain-water. The exhaust fans are designed for 
the reduction of the high temperature which is the result of 
fermentation. 
On Monday, the 3rd of July, six of Samuelson's mowers 
were started at 2 P.M., in Plots 1 and 2, assigned to Coultas and 
Champion. The hay-tedders and the Yorkshire hay-makers fol- 
lowed closely after them. This portion of the meadows had 
been manured with town-rubbish, of which old boots, sticks, 
cinders, brick-bats, and broken glass bottles seemed to have 
been important constituents. Whatever value they might have 
had as manure, they were disagreeable obstructives to the motion 
of the mowers. Bystanders from the neighbourhood declared it 
impossible to cut Plots 2, 3, and 4 with a machine : and 
that it was useless to attempt it. Certainly the grass was laid 
close to the ground, and matted together. Considering all these 
difficulties, very fair work was made ; and as all of the machines 
were sold on the ground, and the purchasers of them were most 
anxious to remove them before they could be spared, it is 
clear that their work was approved by some of those who saw 
it. Though close and dull, the weather on this day and the 
next was not unpromising. 
On Tuesday the 4th, and Wednesday the 5th, the whole of 
the remaining plots of the first trial were mown ; and the 
tedding was continued whenever the hay was dry on the top ; 
but rain on Tuesday night, and frequent showers during 
Wednesday, very much interfered with the work. It was im- 
