402 
Senior Stctcard's Report. 
necessarily by a mere comparison of ttis animal with that, but 
rather, perhaps, in a running- review of those particular breeds 
over which he has been invited to act, and where, as a conse- 
quence, his authority is acknowledged. 
XX. — Report of the Senior Steicard on the Exhibition and Trials 
of Implements at Cardiff, By C. Ween Hoskyns, Esq., M.P. 
(Senior Steward.) 
Seldom, if ever, in the history of the country meetings of the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England has an area of equal 
extent presented results of such interest or value as that part of 
the Show-yard occupied by the competing machinery at the 
Implement Trials this year at Cardiff, during the tempestuous 
week beginning on the 8th Jul^'. The heavy rainfall which 
occurred during several days of the trials, while it proved the 
patience and persevering labours of the Judges, added in no 
slight degree, by its effect on the condition of the grain and 
straw, to the severity of the test in the case of the chief com- 
petition — that of threshing-machines. The visitation was not 
altogether useless or inappropriate, as barn machinery, though 
not entirely exempt, rarely comes in for those vicissitudes which 
affect the trials of field implements by the many varieties of 
soil, condition, and weather in this climate. 
The accompanying Report, from the pen of Mr. Roberts, is 
so full and descriptive that little could be added to its masterly 
and clear account of the results and the character of a series of 
protracted trials such as have not been exceeded, for accuracy 
or competitive severity, on any former occasion ; and it is only 
due to the gentlemen acting as Judges for the Society on this 
occasion, to record the opinion of the Stewards, that . more 
indefatigable labour could not have been given, or^ more dis- 
criminating pains taken, to discover the points of excellence 
in all the classes of machinery on trial. Of the Threshing- 
machines as a class, since the extended adaptation of the dressing 
and finishing apparatus, it is hardly too much to say that they 
have nearly reached the point of practical perfection ; nor could 
this be easily denied of the engines driving them. The resolu- 
tion of the Committee to have all the corn re-tlircshcd met with 
C(jual acceptance and satisfaction at the hands both of Judges 
and Exhibitors, and this not least on the ground of its having 
almost superseded the long acknowledged evil of 'racing.' This 
work of re-threshing was performed by a machine, for the timely j 
loan of which the thanks of the Society are due to Messrs. Ran- I 
I 
