Rep(yrt on the Trials of Potato-raising Machines. 223 
without this addition. Anyhow, it was decidedly the second 
best, and therefore reserved. 
No. 1808. John Cooke & Sons. This implement, worked as 
a one-way plough, with the skeleton mould board on the right 
side, is capable, by the alteration of the share and the addition 
of mould boards on each side, of being converted into a ridging 
and earthing plough. Or it can be worked as a general purpose 
plough ; or as a digging plough, being Cooke's No. 45 con- 
vertible plough. It is a thoroughly strong, well-made imple- 
ment, and if all the various additions are included in the price, 
41. 15s., it is a cheap implement, although, as a potato-raiser 
even in such favourable soil, the work was anything but efficient, 
the furrow being turned over almost unbroken, and a large por- 
tion of the crop was consequently buried. 
Lastly, we have the implement No. 1631, exhibited by 
Lankester & Co., of London, manufactured by Messrs. B. F. 
Ai'enj & Sons, of Louisville, U.S.A., described as a steel wing 
potato-digger. It consists of a very short beam, with a broad 
double-winged share, and steel tines on either side, which are 
placed much too near the under side of the beam. It is without 
front wheels, and consequently difficult to keep straight ; more- 
over, when dealing with the crop in its natural state, owing 
to the defects we have pointed out, it continually blocked and 
could not make good work at all . When worked on the haulm- 
less crop, by dint of constant agitation of the stilts it did ex- 
tremely well, and appeared to separate the tubers from the soil 
more perfectly than any of the others in the same class. Of 
course, a machine that can only be successfully used when the 
tops are removed is not qualified to take a prize. It has the 
merit of being very reasonable in price, viz. 21. 10s. 
Engineer's Report on Dynamometrical Tests at Potato- 
raising Trials at Newcastle. 
Exhibitor 
Catalogue No. 
Mean di'aught in lbs. 
1540 
576/ 
1557 
383 = 
1667 
363 3 
1670 
377 ^ 
1766 
425 5 
1835 
366 s 
1628 
372 
Remarks on Individual Exhibits. — ' Two runs gave each a mean pull of 
515 lbs. and 536 lbs. ; in these the machine was not set sufBciently deep to 
clear all the potatoes. A third run, with machine set deeper, gave 679 lbs. 
mean pull. 
^ The first run gave a mean pull of 431 lbs., the last two a mean of 369 
and 348 lbs. 
