ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 137, 22 September 1870, Page 7

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The first exhibition of stock and implements held under the direction of the lloyal Agricultural Society of England took place at Oxford in the year 1839. Now, after thirty years' absence, the same great body has returned to its original starting-place, there to hold the show of 1870. The contrast between the small beginning of '30 and the full development of the present exhibition is remarkable, not merely as a proof of the successful working of the society itself, but as showing beyond all question the sterling progress which has been made by that very British farmer who is still popularly, though erroneously, looked upon as a thorough Conservative, opposed rather than favourable to the adoption of modern improvements. When the JRoyal started on what has proved to be a long and prosperous career, a seven-acre field was large enough to contain all the live stock and implements sent for exhibition. This year's show-yard at Oxford extends over sixty acres ; you may walk seven miles .through the roadways of the long lines of implement stands, and you are invited to inspect no fewer than 7851 specimens of scientific and mechauical art. So extensive has this department become that the society is obliged, from the sheer impossibility of trying all the classes of machines that are entered annually, to adopt the plan of selecting different kinds of implements for adjudicating upon, at each anniversary. Those coming within the category of the present year's trial are — fixed steamengines, horse gears, mills, crushers, chaff-cutters, oilcake-breakers, turnipcutters, steaming apparatus, dairy implements, bone mills, guanobreakers, flax-breaking, tile machinery, and draining tools. Trials of some of these began on Monday last in the show-yard at Oxford. The awards will probably be made known on Monday next. The list of exhibitors includes the names of many of the most eminent firms in tho country in the respective kinds of machinery open for competition ; and it may be safely said that, either here or in the vast range of non-competing articles, scarcely a single English maker of note is unrepresented. Chaff-cutters, worked by steam-engines, lent for the purpose by Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth, and by Messrs. Bansome and Sims, were under trial, the object being to ascertain which of the cutters performed most work of the regulation length under a given and fixed power of steam. Flax-breaking machines, which are somewhat of a novelty at these shows, are exhibited by Mr. Hodgkin, Dening, and Co., and Fisher and Co., and were also in operation yesterday. Brick and tile making and stone-breaking by machinery were likewise actively pursued. Messrs. Fowler exhibit several of their ponderous steam-cultivators, some of them so heavy that grave doubts were expressed as to the prudence of allowing them to cross the bridges en route to the show-ground. Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth have, as usual, an imposing array of steam-engines. Messrs. Howard, of Bedford, have an extensive and varied show of implements, including a

three-furrow plough; Messrs. Ransome, Sims, and Co., who in the first year of the society's exhibition sent what vva3 then considered to be the important contribution of six tons of machinery, conveyed in waggons, have in the present exhibition eight steamengines, a long line of horse-rakes, and a number of new ploughs. A double furrow plough which worked well in a stiffish loan at Taunton has becu improved upon by a three-furrow plough for use with a four-horse team in light soils. Messrs. A. Kansome and Co., of Chelsea, exhibit extensive and powerful saw-mill machinery. The week's work so far has been confined almost exclusively to the judging by successive stages of the implements selected for the present year's competition, and to the still more difficult duty of adjudicating upon the respective merits of twenty-one farms in the neighbourhood of Oxford. Mr. James Mason, ex-Sheriff of the county, has offered a prize fer the best cultivated farm within the area of the present show ; the society has added £50 as a second prize ; and three competent judges are now engaged in inspecting farm. Entries both of stock and implements have been regularly growing ever since the society started, and have never shown any retrograde movement, except in the cattleplague years, when cattle shows were prohibited. The entry of stock for the present show will, we believe, be found to be even larger than that of Manchester in all divisions except horses, which may be numerically less strong. All stock will be in the yard by to-morrow afternoon. On Sunday morning Divine service will be performed within the grounds. The Bishop of Oxford will preach in the morning ; the rector of the parish in the afternoon. On Monday the public judging of stock will commence. The price of admission to the yard on that day is five shillings ; Tuesday and Wednesday, half-a-crown ; and Thursday and Friday arc shilling days. A large number of Australian colonists have made arrangements for visiting the show on Monday next. The desirability of having the very best agricultural implements in Australia is fully realised by colonists who have had an opportunity of inspecting European agricultural processes. — " Home New?."