The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-20 00:00:00

CAPE TOWN.

The traffic returns on this company's railway for
for the month of May, 63 miles open, amounted for
30,739 passengers to £2,281, and for 1,833 tons of
goods to £l,l2o—total £3,401, being at the rate of
£l2 4s. per mile per week.

Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting.

PLYMOUTH, Wednesday.

A splendid day and the Royal visit have brought
great numbers of people to the show-yard ; up to
1 o'clock 14,000 half-crowns had been paid into the
exchequer, and visitors were continuing to flock
round the main entrance and squeeze through the
turnstiles.

Soon after one o'clock the Prince and Princess of
Wales arrived at the yard, entering by a side gate
to avoid the principal press of the crowd ; and they
were here received by the President, Sir Edward
Kerrison, the members of the Council, the Secretary,
Mr. Hall Dare, and the Honorary Director, Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs. Their Royal Highnesses drove
round the main avenues, and reviewed in turn the
prize horses, the prize shorthorns and Herefords,
and the prize sheep, the animals carrying their gay
rosettes of honour being led round the rings, which
were kept clear of the multitude of loyal subjects.
The mechanical department of the Show contains
more than the usual number of novelties. Enter-
ing the yard you at once come upon the ring, where
the traction-engines are making themselves dizzy
with continuous rounds, steep up-hill and down-hill,
and with a sharp curve. Aveling and Porter's eight-
horse power locomotives, constructed on the lightest
and simplest, while at the same time powerful
and durable, plan, travelled here from Rochester,
hauling another engine and a couple of heavy
trucks along the turnpike roads, at the rate of about
50 miles a day. John Fowler and Co. have brought
out a ten-horse power single cylinder engine, fitted
for traction purposes and stationary driving only,
without the cultivating gear, and this engine has
been demonstrating by various experiments
its great power and remarkable facilities at
different speeds and varying loads upon all sorts of
curves and gradients. The Leeds Steam-plough
Works exhibit here both the single and double en-
gine system of steam culture ; and some actual field
work has been performed for the benefit of the
south-western farmers, among whom the process is
at present somewhat of a novelty. Messrs. Howard,
of Bedford, show the peculiar adaptability of their
new traction engine for working upon hill-sides, the
boiler being placed crosswise upon the carriage
frame, and thus preserving the water-level. The
steerage is effected by a single wheel. They exhibit
apparatus for both single and double engine steam
cultivation. Blackburn's traction-engine is of very
peculiar form, the boiler being carried inside a large
plate iron drum, designed to travel over softground
without sinking. As so much inventive skill has
been bestowed upon agricultural " tractors" and
engines for common roads, it is probable that the
Society will soon inaugurate a competition for
prizes in this class of machinery, with a sufficiently
extended trial_ of all their various capabilities.
Allen's portable expansive engine has attracted con-
siderable attention upon the stand of Messrs.
Toxford and Sons, who exhibit also an improved
horizontal-cylinder engine, having an amazingly re-
duced consumption of fuel and water. Wright
shows a quite new form of straw elevator, in which
travelling forks take the straw from the thrash-
ing-machine and carry it upon endless ropes to any
distance to any height. Willis has invented a new
method of supplying a continuous cattle-trough
with prepared food,—a combined oilcake-breaker
and turnip-slicer travels upon a tramway alongside
the trough, propelled by the crank-handle that
is crushing or cutting the stuff. Brown and
May have a compact arrangement of the " Can-
non" pump upon the side of a portable en-
gine. Barrows and Carmichael show a thrashing
machine, with spring-hangers to a table straw-
shaker. Webber and Co. dispense with the ordinary
vibrating board in the thrashing-machine, by means
of staple-shaped scrapers under the shaker boxes.
Maynard exhibits the most powerful of all chaff-
cutters, working with four knives, cutting up straw
into very fine chaff (and sifting it) as fast as the
straw can come from a thrashing-machine. This
machine is found of inestimable value in the eastern
counties. An entirely new method of preparing straw
for horse and cattle feeding has appeared at this
meeting. Messrs. Garrett have brought out a machine,
much resembling a thrashing-drum, for bruising or
rather triturating straw into fine soft shreds, making
the sharp, hard fodder palatable to stock, and, in
fact, doing for our straw what pulping has done for
our roots. The demand for these machines at pre-
sent is mainly in Spain, Egypt, and countries where
a valuable pithy straw forms the main diet of the
farmer's draught animals ; but chemistry has long
told us what great nutriment is contained in straw,
though living physiology has failed to find it—mainly
owing to the mechanical condition in which it is pre-
sented. If the bruiser answer its purpose the English
farmer will be able to avail himself of the rich ana-
lysis of his cheap and bulky straw. Driven by an
eight-horse engine, the machine is capable of pre-
paring some half to three-quarters of a ton per hour.
Other makers also are turning their attention to the
utilisation of the least costly and most wasted pro-
duct of the farm; and Messrs. Ransomes and Sims

can now finely grate up the straw as fast as it falls
from.the thrashing-machine shaker, and with only
a couple of " horse-power" added to the driving
engine. One novel implement is the " rotary
spader," or digging machine, of Mr. Comstock,
an American inventor—a new form of the
old idea of a revolving fork drawn by horses.
This was not taken to the trial-field. Skelton's
turnwrest plough, with rack and pinion movement,
is a new and meritorious implement. Picksley and
Sims have an improved machine for crushing and
reducing gorse. Brinsmead shows a thrashing and
" need-making" machine for preparing the un-
broken straw which makes the unequalled thatch
prevalent in Devonshire. The grain is stripped out
of the ears by revolving fork tires, the straw being
held in bunches, much after the manner of holding
flax in a scutch mill. One of the oddities of the
exhibition appeared on this stand—namely, " Child's
self-exercising nursery chair, giving the child exer-
cise without exertion and pleasurable excitement
without fear." It is a chair suspended and dancing
upon wood springs ; and a real live baby is here
employed in illustrating the capabilities of the
apparatus.

In the department of seeds, &c., Messrs. Sutton
and Sons have a handsome stall, and. Messrs. T.
Gibbs and Co., of Halfmoon-street (the Royal
Agricultural Society's seedsmen), have a magnifi-
cent display of grain and seed samples, and speci-
mens of roots, grasses, and corn in the ear.
The results of the chief implement contributions
are at last determined and made public. Wood
wins a prize of £lO for his grass-mower, £7 for his
combined reaper and mower, and £9 for his one-
horse reaper. Hornsby and Sons win £8 for their
grass-mowers, £8 for their combined reaper and
mower, £5 for their one-horse reaper, £lO for their
two-horse reaper, £5 for another two-horse reaper,
and £25 for their reaping-machine with self-side de-
livery. Kearsley takes £7 for his grass-mower; Picks-
ley and Sims gain £5 for their two-horse reaper ;
Banilett take £5 for his grass-mower; Samuelson
and Co. takes £7 for their one-horse reaper, and £l5
for their self-delivery reaper. Burgess and Key's
grass-mower is " highly commended," and Cuth-
bert's one-horse reaper is " highly commended."
Of the numerous prizes for drills and manure-dis-
tributors, the largest sums go to Priest and Wool-
nough, Hornsby, Sainty,Coultas, Reeves, and Gower.