Page 9 Advertisements Column 2

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 9

Buckeye, and without claiming more than' every farmer present will concede, ifc cufe> from the word "go " a full swath, tied and 1 delivered every bundle, and this -without the slightest assistance from anybody, the driver keeping his seat, and seeming to enjoy the cheers from the spectators on the hill. The last to make the attempt was the Brantford, and what an attempt it was 1 With two men on its sbeddef, and only tying about; a foot of the crop, the ei»siest of the pinches, after a good deal of slipping' And choking that seemed well nigh chronic, W&9 negotiated ; but at the second hill, where all but the Buckeye struck trouble, the weight on the Brantford grain wheel proved insufficient, and she came to grief, capsizing gloriously, and lying quite helpless with its shedder in mid air. A great deal of interest centred in these two machines, because the Brantford has been put on the market to knock out the Lowdown Buckeye on the hillsides, and this Was their first meeting in a suitable crop. At the far end of the paddock where the crop was heaviest and the sidling steepest the Brantford, Howard, Reid and Gray, and M'Oormick came round empty, away from the crop altogether ; whilst the Lowdown in full swing, right up to its work, steadily pegged away, cutting, binding, and delivering heavy green sheaves 6ft Gin from head to foot, a sample of which was on view at Dunne's Hotel, Competing agents who say that the Lowdown cannot handle tall heavy crop should inspect these sheaves, and ask themselves why the farmers, at least a hundred strong, cheered; why all the judges individually gave the Lowdown the highest number of points in their power, and why the elevators, who claim to be able to do what the Lowdown Buckeye can do, were beaten by 32 points in 80. The points deducted for the reasons stated above, for time and tying on the flat, prevented the Buckeye from compiling the biggest aggregate, but the total inability of tbe elevator machines to harvest the crop at pll on the hill sides, and the assistance rendered them in defiance of the rules of the association led the Buckeye agent to enter a protest, which has since been forwarded in writing, and will be considered by the committee of the association. So soon as the judges' awards were declared the Buckeye representative quietly asked the secretary of the A. and P. Association to again lead the regulations governing the trial, which was done, so that everyone could see why the protest was entered, and that no alteration had been made after the trial started to suit the shortcomings of any machine. The committee of the association, so soon as the inability of the Elevator machines became apparent, slwuld have enforced tlwir own rules, and. disqualified each one in tu^n and not obliged a competitor to take a course which in any jockey club or athletic association would have been anticipated by the stewards. Fancy binders driving empty round a sidling because the plane was too great and the crop too heavy, and in spite of this securing places ! No one will deny this, because 100 people saw it ; and therefore if agents for machines will over-estimate their hillside capabilities and send in machines for work they are quite unable to perform, only vigorous enforcement of the committee's rules, or fair and impartial newspaper criticism will prevent scores of people at a distance who look to the press for a correct account of each performance from being thoroughly misled. The Clutha Leader, for instance, in its report carefully omits all mention of the capsizing of the Brantford or the choking and sliding of any of the other machines. It grows eloquent in its apologies for the difficulties of the crop, steepness of the sidling, &c, and even considers it " unfortunate that the Buckeye protested." Unfortunate, no doubt 1 but for whom ? Is it not more unfortune still that a usually well-informed and impartial newspaper should suppress all adverse comment on the performances — or, to be correct, non-perfoimances — oi the Howard, Reid and Gray, Brantford, and M'Cormick machines, and reserve the torrent of its oriticism for the only machine which coped or in places even attempted to cope with the crop I Why in the name cf common sense did the Leader in summarising the conditions under which the trial was held religiously omit to mention the condition making disqualification! imperative — not permissve only, in case of assistance becoming necessary on the hillside? The publication of the regulation was required to give colour to the protest entered by the writer; hence, in all probability, its omission. Many letters have reached us approving our action, and paying it's quite time that someone undertook to see that binder trials were carried ©nt on fair and equitable lines. Why should not the same code of honour which would lead the stewards of a jockey club to disqualify a horse and rider who infringed the rules of their racing actuate the committee of an A. and P. association ? What show, for example, would a steeplechaser have who made all the running on. the flat if he required a charge of dynamite, a screw jack, or a. squad of men to lift him over his ienots '! I'm not denser than other men, but yet I find a difticulty in differentiating bo i tween sending a team of men to keep a binder down on the hillside by sitting on it, or to fork a horse over a bank by a vigorousuoiit behind. One farmer writes:- "The feeling in tli is district is that your protest will be sustained, as not one of them could do anything with that crop. You were unfortunate in throwing co many loose sheaves on the field, but I never saw better work than the Buckeye made on the hill, refusing nothing and tying every bundle." In further corroboration, to-day one of the agents for one of the placed machines who waß present and heard the conditions read, told me that so far as he could see they were all disqua'ified under the conditions of the trial for hillside work. The writer was careful to see that every condition was properly complied with so far as the Lowdown was concerned, although it was a bitter pill to watch so many sheaves coming away loose when the turn" of a bolt and an exchange of twine was all that was necessary to stop it. Still regulations must be adhered to. Let us see wh«i her the Committee of the Clutha A. and T. Association will prove equal to the occasion 1