L6 
Agricultural Progress and 
of the farmer the case is still more clear. The advocates for the 
abolition of the trials of the Royal Agricultural Society, mean 
of course that the precedent should be followed by all local 
agricultural societies, otherwise it would simply amount to a 
proposal that, the National Society should abdicate its functions 
in favour of lesser local societies, who would with inferior means 
have to grapple with a difficulty which by the hypothesis is 
beyond the strength of the strongest. We will suppose therefore 
that competitive trials were generally abandoned. For a year or 
two, perhaps more, the want would not be greatly felt. The 
marks of the "prize system would not have worn out, but after a time, 
new wants and new inventions would have brought into the field 
a new generation of implements, and as there would be no 
opportunity of comparing the efficiency of the productions of the 
whole country and conferring on the winners a national reputa- 
tion, the natural tendency to patronise neighbouring and local 
makers would resume its sway. Certain implements would 
become famous in particular districts, and if the intelligence of 
the age would allow of so long a suspension of what would soon 
be perceived to be a national requirement, we should at length 
relapse into a similar state to that which existed in 1839, 
when the plough of Yorkshire was a totally different implement 
from the plough of Kent, and the Suffolk drill was only a visitor 
in the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. 
It is important when considering this question to keep promi- 
nently before us the main object of Implement Shows, and the 
following sentences extracted from the Reports of the Society's 
Exhibitions of Implements in 1848 and 1849 are quite in 
point : — 
" The principal advantages to be derived from Shows of 
Implements may be classed under three heads, of which the first 
and most important is, that the awards of prizes should point 
out to every farmer who enters the Show-yard the best imple- 
ments in their respective classes which the kingdom produces. 
Farmers, as a . body, have neither the means nor the leisure 
required for travelling about to visit the manufactories of the 
various implement-makers ; nor, if this were practicable, could 
they safely decide on the comparative efficiency of their 
respective productions by merely seeing them in the makers' 
yards. It is, therefore, a great advantage to the farmers of any 
district to have a large show of implements brought into their 
neighbourhood, especially when the best of each class are pointed 
out to them by competent judges after a fair trial." * . . . . 
" The attention of some of the leading members of the Society 
* ' Journal,' vol. ix. p. 378. 
