the Royal Agricultural Society. 
17 
(especially of the late lamented Mr. Handley) was earnestly 
directed to the improvement of this department, and they soon 
perceived that little was gained by collecting implements in a 
Show-yard for people to gaze at, unless an adequate trial could 
be made of their respective merits. To attain this end great 
exertions were made, and every improvement in the mode of 
trial was followed by so marked an increase in the number and 
merit of the implements brought forward at subsequent shows, 
as to prove the strongest incentive to further effort The 
additional amount offered in prizes at the later meetings has 
undoubtedly assisted in creating this great increase of competi- 
tion, but it cannot be considered the principal cause, since the 
implement-makers are unanimous in declaring that, even when 
most successful, the prizes they receive do not reimburse them 
for their expenses and loss of time. How, then, are the increased 
exertions of the machine-makers to be accounted for ? Simply 
by the fact that the trials of implements have gradually won the 
confidence of the farmer, so that, when selecting implements for 
purchase, he gives the preference to those which have received 
the Society's mark of approval 
" It thus* appears that concurrently with the extension and 
improvement of the trials a corresponding increase and improve- 
ment has taken place in the exhibitions of implements ; and 
though it is difficult to prove that the one has been the cause of 
the other, still the probability that such is the case almost 
amounts to certainty, when it is found that classes of implements 
which are so faulty in construction as to be strongly animadverted 
on by the Judges at one meeting, are at the next nearly free from 
those defects which had been previously pointed out If 
the foregoing reasoning be correct (and the facts on which it is 
founded will not admit of question), the Society may fairly 
claim to have been, in great measure, the authors of the very 
rapid improvement made of late in almost every kind of agricul- 
tural implement."* 
If this could be said in 1849, it may be affirmed with much 
more confidence in 1864. The general diffusion of the best 
implements at the present time makes the proof much more 
complete, and much more easy to obtain. Should any one be 
sceptical, let him visit the premises of some improving farmer. 
Without doubt he patronises steam, and thus economises horse 
labour — thrashes his grain in less time — dresses it better for 
market — leaves less in the straw. He also chaffs his fodder, 
slices or pulps his roots, and crushes his horse and cattle corn ; 
VOL. XXV. 
* ' Journal,' vol. x. p. 528. 
C 
