Safety Rejected . 
477 
1882. 
set in with 1878-79 seemed over, and the easterly winds 
during the spring months were less persistent than usual. 
Consequently vegetation was unusually advanced, and the 
appearance both of the field-crops and of fruit-trees was 
promising. April, however, was colder than the average, 
and since then the character of the year has declined. The 
months of June and July must rank among the most un- 
seasonable on record. The temperature has been low, the 
winds high, the rainfall excessive, the skies generally cloudy 
by day and clear by night, thus cutting off the earth from 
the rays of the sun, and allowing it to become chilled by 
unchecked nodturnal radiation. The hay-harvest has been 
disastrous, and in many parts of the kingdom must prove 
an entire failure. Without a speedy change, of which there 
is little apparent prospedt, the wheat will fare no better, 
whilst in many districts the potatoes are already rotting 
from excess of moisture and from lack of heat. 
We recapitulate these sad fadts, not in the spirit of 
Pessimism, not exulting in the discomfiture of the weather- 
prophets and of the irrigationists, who in such seasons must 
surely find their avocation gone, but for the sake of pointing 
out the consequences of our national rejection of the remedy 
which is ready to our hands. 
Last autumn it seemed as if the drying machine of Mr. 
W. A. Gibbs, after its successful adtion had been demon- 
strated on a pradtical scale for so many years, was about to 
meet with general adoption. This consummation has been 
“ blocked ” in a most curious and unexpected manner. A 
Mr. Neison has come forward with a rival scheme, which he 
asserts he has developed seven years ago, but which he has 
only made public within the last twelve months. This 
scheme offers the advantage of immediate, or at least appa- 
rent, cheapness, and thus naturally appeals to classes so 
depleted as the farmers, and indeed the landowners, must be 
after the recent succession of disastrous seasons. 
We are, of course, far from maintaining that the appara- 
tus of Mr. Gibbs is incapable of improvement. The inventor 
himself entertains no such notion, for, till lately at least, he 
has been busily and successfully engaged in improving his 
machinery from the points of efficiency, economy, and dura- 
bility. It is, however, quite conceivable that some person 
might see a method of distributing hot air through the hay, 
corn, &c., to be dried, more effectual than anything as yet 
suggested. 
Mr. Neison, however, as we understand him, moves in 
another direction. He proposes altogether to dispense with 
