416 Report on the Trials of Implements at Cardiff. 
shafts are well known to be the parts of the machine most fre- 
quently requiring expensive repairs. 
Any one who has examined the shaker-cranks that have done 
much work, will at once understand that much power must have 
been exerted to cause so much of the metal to be worn away in 
a comparatively short time. We find this to be especially 
noticeable where double following cranks are used. We shall 
have occasion to remark upon the advantages of the Brinsmead 
shakers when describing Messrs. Ransomes, Sims, and Head's 
machine ; and we may here note that ,the form of box-shakers 
used by the other exhibitors, although many of them did theii 
work thoroughly, does not seem so mechanically satisfactory as are 
the other parts of these complicated and highly-finished machines. 
Four or five wooden troughs or boxes, each about 10 feet long, 
and jointly occupying the whole breadth of the machine, jerked 
up and down by two long crank-shafts, or by one crank-shaff 
supplemented by rocking links, require for their movement much 
vertical space within the frame, and can hardly be considered an 
economical arrangement for effecting the separation of stray corns 
lying loose among the straw, although long usage has made us 
so familiar with the method that it seems almost rash to call in 
question such a time-honoured proceeding. 
We find a very considerable difference in the time occupied 
(column 17). This point is determined by the judgment and 
activity of the man who feeds the drum ; activity without good 
judgment in such work is most detrimental to the interest of the 
emplover. So much depends upon the skill of the feeder that the 
Judges are unanimously of opinion that in future trials it would be 
well to have all the machines fed by one man. A good machine 
badly fed cannot do its work to perfection ; and in some cases 
the feeder seemed to think that the only object to be desired was 
throwing the sheaves in as fast as possible. This was especially 
noticeable in the machine that made the quickest run, No. 4228. 
When will labourers understand that such machines, like animals, 
should be fed regularly ? The food if bolted in either case will 
prove troublesome afterwards. It must be most aggravating to 
an exhibitor to find his chance of success thrown away by the' 
stupid determination of a servant to perform the work as though 
speed were the only point of merit. The effect of irregular 
feeding was always shown on the dynamometer ; with many of 
the machines the power required to drive them was at one 
moment three times as great as at the next. Thus, machines 
that on the average of the whole run used 10-horse power, would 
give a net strain frequently varying from 5 up to 15-horse power. 
We may be sure that in these trials the feeding was much betterj 
done than it usually is upon a farm, an efficient mechanicafl 
