CONDITIONS RELATING TO MACHINERY.

SECTION I., CLASS 1.-FIXED STEAM-ENGINES OF FOUR-HORSE POWER, WITH BOILER COMBINED.

1. No four-horse power Engine will be eligible to compete in Class 1 unless it be mounted on its own boiler, or together with a boiler on one foundation-plate.

2. The Cylinder of the Engine must not exceed 7 (that is, seven and a quarter) inches in diameter.

3. The Boiler must be fitted with a Steam Indicator, in addition to the ordinary Spring Balance.

SECTION I., CLASS 2.-FIXED STEAM-ENGINES OF ABOVE FOUR-HORSE POWER AND NOT EXCEEDING TEN-HORSE POWER, TO BE WORKED BY AN INDEPENDENT BOILER.

1. The steam-engine must not be more than 10-horse nominal power, and the diameter of the cylinder must not exceed 11 (that is, eleven and a half) inches.

2. The Exhibitor will not be required to bring a boiler, as steam will be furnished by boilers supplied by the Society; but he will be required to fix the Engine in such a position in the Trial Yard as may be pointed out to him by the Director or Consulting Engineer, and to find the materials for doing so at his own expense.

3. The Engine exhibited must be supplied with a governor, and have a starting cock to regulate the supply of steam, and be fitted with a thread equal to the 2-inch gas-pipe.

N.B.-In adjudicating on the merits of the Fixed Engines, reference will be had to the price, simplicity of construction, probable durability of the whole and in detail, and the means provided for easy access to the working parts, and to economy of fuel.

SECTION III.-MILLS.

Grinding Mills will be fairly set to work, and their production compared with a sample which the Judges shall cause to be produced by one mill, which sample shall, in their estimation, be adapted for the farmer's purposes of feeding. The mill under trial shall be "set" until it produces like meal; and the time, power, and quantity of work be noted.

Metal Mills for grinding will not be expected to produce "softened" meal, although any mill in combination, with rollers or otherwise, which would do so, will receive consideration from the Judges.

SECTION V.-CHAFF-CUTTERS.

Chaff-Cutters will be required to cut chaff three-eighths of one inch in length, in the trial. The Exhibitor must provide means for cutting various lengths, to show the usefulness of his production. The Judges will be

instructed to pay attention to the length of chaff cut; and if the deviation from the given length of three-eighths of an inch is, in their judgment, too much departed from, they may refrain taking any notice of the machine in question and in estimating the weight of chaff cut, allowance must be made and taken according to length of chaff cut.

SPEED AND PRESSURE.

All implements turned by a winch or hand-crank shall not be worked at any trial beyond the following speed: namely, 42 revolutions per minute for 12-inch crank, 37 revolutions for 14-inch crank, 32 revolutions for 16-inch crank; and, in addition to the winch-handle which must be supplied with the machine for the purpose of trial, a pulley not less than four inches wide, of the same radius as the winch, must be fitted to each machine. The machine in its trial will be driven by the pulley of the testing machine, which pulley is 31 inches diameter, and will make 32 revolutions per minute.

Chaff-Cutting and other small machines, worked usually by horses or by steam power, will be worked, when under trial, by a pulley not less than 5 (that is, five and a half) inches wide, moving with a velocity of about 900 feet per minute.

Exhibitors are requested to pay particular attention to the instructions given for the speed and working of their machines, as the Judges may refuse to try any machines not fitted in accordance with these instructions.

The working pressure of steam is not to exceed 50 lbs. per square inch.

SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS.

1. The Judges will be instructed to employ in the trial of the SteamEngines as a test of power, an apparatus known as a Force-Register, such apparatus consisting of a friction-break, to supply and regulate the friction required to balance the power of the engine under trial.

2. At a distance of about thirty-four feet, or such other distance as the Society's Engineer may determine, a platform will be laid down, upon which the boiler of the Society may move in a direction perfectly parallel with the friction-break.

3. Each fixed Engine must be placed in such a position by the Exhibitor as to require a Driving-Strap of such a length as the Society's Engineer may determine.

4. Each Exhibitor must provide his own Driving-Strap, which shall be of the required length.

5. Each fixed Engine, of more than four-horse power, will have attached to it a Steam-Pipe, the end of which must be at a given distance from the centre line of the Boiler Platform, and be provided with a union of such dimensions as the Engineer to the Society may determine, each being cut with the same screw and it must be at a given height from the Boiler Platform.

6. A short piece of flexible Pipe, capable of sustaining the temperature and pressure of fifty pounds of steam to the inch, for the purpose of forming a simple and ready communication between the Boiler and the Engines of more than four-horse power, will be provided by the Society.

7. To insure all these points being fully adhered to, a lithograph plan and section, showing the exact position of the Shaft, diameter of the Pulley, and a Friction-break, and also of the Boiler, with the end and height of the Steam-pipe figured with the exact dimensions, will be supplied to Exhibitors on application to the Secretary.

8. After the Exhibitors shall have complied with the conditions required of them by the Society to entitle them to exhibit, the order of trial will be fixed by Ballot, taken by order of the Stewards, and the ordinal number assigned for the trial of each Engine or Machine will be given to each Exhibitor. The Exhibitors will then place their respective Engines or Machines in the order thus assigned, beginning at one end with the Engine or Machine drawn by ballot No. 1. To enable this to be done effectually, each Exhibitor will be required to specify, on entering his Engine or Machine for competition (that is, not later than the First of June), the width or space which it will occupy for trial.

9. All the Engines and Machines intended to be tried must be fixed by a given time-namely, by five p.m. on Saturday, the 9th of July, and strictly in the position and under the conditions required; if not, the Judges will have the power of declining the trial, and of having the Engines or Machines removed from the yard.

10. The trials of the Steam-Engines will be made with Llangennech coal.

11. Any Engine or Machine, whether entered for competition or not, which, from defect in construction or any other cause, is in the opinion of the Judges and Consulting Engineer, unsafe, shall not be allowed to work on the Society's premises: and further, the word unsafe shall be attached to the Engine during the remainder of the Exhibition.

Forms of Certificate for entry, as well as Prize-Sheets for the Oxford
Meeting, containing the whole of the conditions and regulations,
may be obtained at the Office of the Society, No. 12, Hanover Square,
London, W.

DATES OF ENTRY.

CERTIFICATES for the entry of Implements for the Oxford Meeting must be forwarded to the Secretary of the Society, No. 12, Hanover Square, London (W.), by the 1st of May, and Certificates for the entry of Live Stock by the 1st of June. Certificates received after those respective dates will not he accepted, but returned to the persons by whom they have been sent,

The Prizes of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and all Prizes offered by the Oxford Local Committee, and the Oxfordshire Agricultural Society, are open to general competition.

CONDITIONS RELATING TO THE EDUCATIONAL EXAMINATIONS, 1870.

1. The next examination will take place at the Society's house in Hanover Square, during the week commencing Tuesday, April 26th, 1870.

2. Forms of entry duly filled up, together with a certificate of general education, must be returned to the Secretary, on or before the 31st of March, 1870.

3. No Candidate will be eligible for the Society's honours and prizes who has completed his twenty-first year previous to March 31st, 1870.

4. The examinations will be conducted by means of written papers, and by a vivû voce examination at which any member of the Society may be present.

5. Every candidate will be required to satisfy the Examiners in the Science (Chemistry) and Practice of Agriculture, and in Book-keeping; and also in one of the two following subjects: Land Surveying, and Mechanics as applied to Agriculture.

6. The successful candidates will be placed in two classes, and arranged in order of merit.

7. Candidates, in order to be placed in the first class, must satisfy the Examiners in both the above-named subjects-Land Surveying and Mechanics as applied to Agriculture.

8. Any Candidate may offer himself for examination in one or more of the following subjects, viz. :-Botany, Geology, or Anatomy. Any knowledge which he may show of these subjects will be counted to his credit in the general classification, provided that he shall have fulfilled the foregoing conditions, and provided that the knowledge of these subjects do not fall below the standard fixed as a minimum in each of these optional subjects.

9. Each successful candidate obtaining a first-class certificate shall thereby become a life-member of the Society.

10. The following prizes will be awarded to successful candidates placed in the first class for aggregate merit :-First Prize, 301.; Second Prize, 207.; Third Prize, 107.

11. The following additional Prizes will be awarded to the candidates who shall show the highest merit in each subject respectively :

12. Certificates, to be termed first and second-class certificates, will be granted to candidates placed in the first and second class; such certificates to specify the subjects in which the candidate shall have satisfied the examiners.

Members' Privileges of Chemical Analysis.

THE Council have fixed the following rates of Charge for Analyses to be made by the Consulting Chemist for the bonâ-fide use of Members of the Society; who (to avoid all unnecessary correspondence) are particularly requested, when applying to him, to mention the kind of analysis they require, and to quote its number in the subjoined schedule. The charge for analysis, together with the carriage of the specimens, must be paid to him by members at the time of their application.

No. 1.-An opinion of the genuineness of Peruvian guano, bonedust, or oil-cake (each sample)

2.-An analysis of guano; showing the proportion of moisture,
organic matter, sand, phosphate of lime, alkaline salts,
and ammonia

5s.

108.

10s.

10s.

3.—An estimate of the value (relatively to the average of
samples in the market) of sulphate and muriate of am-
monia, and of the nitrates of potash and soda
4.—An analysis of superphosphate of lime for soluble phos-
phates only
5.-An analysis of superphosphate of lime, showing the pro-
portions of moisture, organic matter, sand, soluble and
insoluble phosphates, sulphate of lime, and ammonia .. £1.
6.-An analysis (sufficient for the determination of its agricul-
tural value) of any ordinary artificial manure
7.-Limestone:-the proportion of lime, 7s. 6d. ; the propor-
tion of magnesia, 10s. ; the proportion of lime and mag-
nesia

8.-Limestone or marls, including carbonate, phosphate, and
sulphate of lime, and magnesia with sand and clay
9.-Partial analysis of a soil, including determinations of clay,
sand, organic matter, and carbonate of lime

£1.

158.

£1.

£1.

£3.

નં

10.-Complete analysis of a soil ..
11.-An analysis of oil-cake, or other substance used for feeding
purposes; showing the proportion of moisture, oil,
mineral matter, albuminous matter, and woody fibre;
as well as of starch, gum, and sugar, in the aggregate
12.-Analyses of any vegetable product ..
13.-Analyses of animal products, refuse substances used for
manure, &c.
from 10s. to 30s.
14.-Determination of the "hardness" of a sample of water
before and after boiling

15.-Analysis of water of land drainage, and of water used for

16.-Determination of nitric acid in a sample of water

£1.

N.B.-The above Scale of Charges is not applicable to the case of persons commercially engaged in the Manufacture or Sale of any Substance sent for Analysis.

The Address of the Consulting Chemist of the Society is, Dr. AUGUSTUS VOELCKER, 11, Salisbury Square, London, E.C., to which he requests that all letters and parcels (postage and carriage paid) should be directed.

By order of the Council,

H. M. JENKINS, Secretary.