1882.J 
The Reading Competition . 
673 
upon the faCts before them the judges could have no other 
option but to award the prize to the Gibbs machine. But 
no : a man “ convinced against his will ” can generally find 
some loop-hope for escape. The judges therefore refused to 
award the prize at all on the singular ground that this 
system did not make such good hay as could be produced 
by field-work ! Were this assertion as true as it is 
inaccurate it would still be no justifiable plea for with- 
holding the prize. The farmers’ difficulty comes from the 
faCt that in many seasons field-work is useless. There are 
persons who question, not only the fairness and the logic, 
but even the legality of the decision. Suppose a prize offered 
for the best make of artificial teeth : could the judges refuse 
an award on the ground (true or false, as the case might be) 
that the best were, after all, inferior to natural teeth ? 
We could with very little trouble put our finger upon a 
man, who, at this same Reading trial, overheard a gentle- 
man connected with the Royal Agricultural Society exclaim : 
“ Oh, this is the scheme I threw cold water on at Man- 
chester, twelve years ago ! ” We hope this gentleman feels 
that he has not lived in vain. He has done what in him 
lies to prevent a useful invention from being adopted, and to 
perpetuate a heavy national loss. It is true the agricultural 
papers with one accord admit the value of the Gibbs machine ; 
it is true that the testimony of such gentlemen as Mr. G. P. 
Fuller, of Neston Park, Corsham ; of Dr. Tristram, Q.C. ; 
of Mr. Botting, manager of the Duke of Northumberland’s 
home farm ; of Mr. C. J. Morris, J.P., of Wood Eaton 
Manor, Stafford, &c., ought to outweigh the results of this 
unfair award at Reading. But, unfortunately, very little is 
needed to encourage the British farmer in his almost 
fatalistic apathy under removable evils, and his reluctance 
to accept the means of safety when offered. How we, with 
our method of treating inventors, ever became a great indus- 
trial nation is a miracle. 
VIII. SAFETY CHEQUES. 
< 2 _£ 
» T not unfrequently happens that when an inventor has 
devoted years to perfecting some idea and bringing it 
into a practical, business-like shape, and finally secures 
his results by means of letters patent, others appear upon 
the scene and offer us something aiming at the same object. 
