179 
TRIALS  OF  AGRICULTURAL  MOTORS 
AT 
Manor  Farm,  Bygrave,  Baldock,  Hertfordshire, 
August,  1910. 
| W.  Woeby  Beatjmont,  M.Inst.C.E.,  Outer 
Judges:  J Temple,  222,  Strand,  London,  W.C. 
( R.  J.  Bayntun  Hippisley,  Ston  Easton  Park,  near  Bath. 
The  Society  decided  early  in  1909  to  offer  a gold  medal  for  the 
best  Agricultural  Motor  to  be  presented  for  trial  in  1910.  The 
agricultural  motor  intended  to  be  the  subject  of  the  trials  was 
described  as  “ any  form  of  Motor  using  either  Steam,  Oil, 
Petrol,  or  Electricity  as  its  motive  power,  which — 
(a)  Shall  be  capable  of  hauling  direct  in  work  a Plough, 
Cultivator,  Harvester,  or  other  Agricultural  Implement. 
(b)  Shall  be  capable  of  driving  such  Agricultural  Machines 
as  a Threshing  Machine,  Chaff  Cutter,  Grist  Mill,  etc. 
(c)  Shall  be  capable  of  hauling  a load  along  a road  and  on  the 
land.” 
These  trials  may  be  looked  upon  as  supplementing  the  trials 
of  self-moving  vehicles  carried  out  by  the  Society  at  Manchester 
in  1897,  and  at  Birmingham  in  1898,  and  it  must  be  noted  that  the 
trials  carried  out  at  Bygrave  in  August  last  were  more  especially 
intended  to  ascertain  the  capability  of  tractors  for  field  work  by 
motors  which  should  also  be  capable  of  the  ordinary  work  of  a 
prime  mover. 
For  the  purposes  of  the  trials  it  was  necessary  to  obtain  a 
considerable  area  of  land  which  would  offer  the  same  haulage 
resistance  to  ploughs  to  be  pulled  by  all  the  tractors  in  competi- 
tion, and  land  on  which  the  areas  to  be  reaped  might  be  approxi- 
mately the  same  as  to  levels  and  gradients  for  the  reaping 
machines  to  be  hauled  by  all  the  tractors.  These  requirements 
were  found  to  be  eminently  satisfied  by  the  land  on  the  Manor 
Farm,  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Society  by  Mr.  C.  Edward  E. 
Cooke,  at  Bygrave,  near  Baldock,  Herts,  and  by  whom,  and 
n 2 
