696 Report on the Trials of Implements, at Reading. 
boxes in the ground, as he was able to open or close the 
communication with either stack by means of the inlet slide. 
The shaft in these stacks was formed bv a wooden cage, 2 feet 
square at the base, and tapering to 13 inches square at the top. 
In Stack A the height of this cage was 9 feet 6 inches ; in B, 
for some reason, !Mr. Coultas increased the height to 12 feet 
6 inches. 
Mr. Phillips placed his fan a little in front of the line of 
stacks, and, consistently with his theory that all angles should 
be avoided, laid his flues in two curved lines, which started 
from the stack centres and touched each other just in rear of 
the fan. These flues were tubes of galvanised iron, 8 inches in 
diameter, and made in 3-feet lengths, with a tapered edge at one 
end of each section. In the centres of the stacks, and under the 
shafts, were damper-boxes of the pattern described at page 658, 
with one opening only. A rod reaching a little beyond the 
outside of the stack supplied the means of opening or closing 
the communication between the flues and shafts. These latter 
were made, as in the hav-stacks, around light circular cages, 
which were drawn up to the height desired, and then removed. 
Messrs. Lister and Co. put their fan between the two stacks, 
and ran a continuous flue of sheet-iron, 9 inches in diameter, 
in a straight line from the centre of one stack to that of another. 
Midway between the stacks a right-angled junction with the fan 
was made. In the centre of the stacks square damper-boxes 
were laid down. It should be noted that in this case the air 
in its passage from the interior of the stack to the inlet of the 
fan had its direction changed at a right angle no less than five 
times — 1, at the junction of the shaft and flue ; 2, from the flue 
upwards ; 3, horizontally towards the fan ; 4, upwards ; 5, hori- 
zontally into the fan. At least two of these abrupt turns might 
have been avoided easily ; and if the other angles had been 
rounded off, it is reasonable to suppose that the fan might have 
proved more effective. The shafts in these stacks were made 
by circular cages, 7 feet high, 30 inches in diameter at the base, 
and 18 inqhes at the top. After the first stack had risen to 
some little height, an attempt was made to raise this cage ; and 
three or four men were engaged for a while in the hopeless effort 
to lift themselves and the sheaves on which they were standing, 
in order to raise the cage. 
To return, after these necessary digressions, to the field of 
work, it must be noted that, although the barley was cut and 
carted on all three plots simultaneously, one set being at work 
for each exhibitor, yet there was a considerable difference in 
the condition of the corn when it was stacked. Mr. Coultas 
was most lucky, and Messrs. Lister and Co. got by far the 
largest share of the thistles and "trumpery;" while Mr. Phillips, 
