Month: May 2021

In 1921 the Highland Show was held at Stirling. It has a significant display of implements and machines. The Scotsman called this an “imposing display”. It was perhaps even more important than in earlier years because of the importance of mechanization brought out as a result of the First World War and the shortage of agricultural labour. But agriculture was also facing tough times. Economies of man power and mechanization were seen to be important for the success and future success of Scottish agriculture. 

The Scotsman usually provided a succinct account of the Highland Show. This year was no different. It set out its account with a reflection on where the Scottish farmer was with mechanization and noted some of the key stands and developments. The years saw some important developments that were to change agriculture significantly: the Paterson rick lifter to make the process of making rucks more labour-efficient on the hay field, and the increasing use of tractors, through for example the Ivel, and the International . Ruck lifters and some of the older tractors can still be seen at rallies in the last few years. 

This is what the Scotsman wrote of the Highland Show on 26 July 1921: 

“The important position which the implement department has now for many years attained in all the principal showyards of the country is the outcome of the ingenuity, engine, and resourcefulness of the inventive and enterprising agricultural engineer, who has come to the aid of the farmer in every branch of husbandry. In securing the crops of the field the combined reaper and binder has to a large extent supplanted the ordinary mower and reaper; the work of gathering the hay crop in good condition has been greatly expedited by the introduction of mechanical haymakers; tillage operations and the preparation of the land for seed are carried on with the aid of cultivating machinery in every branch of that work; and labour-saving appliances have in an infinite variety of forms been brought to bear in every department of agriculture. The modern farmer has thus at his hand all the necessary equipment for carrying on high-class farming on the most appropriate principles. And the end is not yet, for the agricultural implement industry is now one of great magnitude, and every year sees some fresh development in its projects with a view to still further alleviating the position of the farmer. It is fitting therefore that while the encouragement of stock-breeding should receive the greatest prominence at the hands of the Highaldn and Agricultural Society, due regard should also be paid to the value of the work that is being done by the agricultural engineer in the economy of the farm. That he is still striving after new improvements and fresh methods in order to reach an even higher stage of perfection is shown by the large and comprehensive display of implements of every description that is to be seen in the Highland and Agricultural Society’s showyard at Stirling this week. Although there may not be much of a strikingly novel character to be found in the numerous lots of stands, there is an assortment of articles adapted not only to the ordinary work of the farm, but to the special purpose for which machinery has of late years been designed. Tractors are conspicuous.

“New implements”
The implement yard occupies 7200 feet, 1000 feet more than at Aberdeen last year, and all this space has been fully taken up by the machinery and implement manufacturers, the entries in this section being the largest in the history of the Society. Only 22 implements were shown at the first Highland Show in 1833, and they were still under 100 in 1864, but they reached four figures in 1873. In 1881 they numbered 2000, and that has been about the acreage extent of the department ever since. This week’s number is 2201, being 136 more than at Aberdeen last year. Great activity was shown on all stands to-day, and the various exhibits were being brought forward in good time. The implements stands were, despite the rain, being pushed on so as to be in readiness for the opening to-morrow.
Fourteen exhibitors have entered sixteen “new implements” for competition for the Society’s silver medal. The Society does not bind itself to try in the field every new implement, but an exhibitor who expresses a wish to do so can, with the sanction of the steward of implements, at his own expense take his new implement out of the showyard during the show week, and put it to work, and if within a reasonable distance, the judges will, if they deem it necessary, inspect it at work and decide if it is worthy of a silver medal. The judges of new implements are Messrs A B Leitch, Inchstellie, Alves, Forres; John Speir, Newton, Glasgow; and G. Bertram Shiels, Dolphingstone, Tranent; and they begin their work to-morrow. 
Newly designed mowing machine 

Messrs Armstrongs & Main (Limited), Edinbrugh, have entered a newly designed grass mowing machine, the “Viking”, containing details of construction not previously embodied in the manufacture of similar labour-saving machines. The new principle in this machine is that of spiral gearing which has been subjected to severe tests during the past four years. The new gearing, which has hitherto been used in the construction of motor cars, is now introduced into harvesting machines for the first time, and in consequence greater power, reduction in draught, sweetness in running and greater durability are produced.

Sir W G Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., exhibit a 3hp oil engine which has been specially designed for agricultural and general purposes. The engine is of a compact nature, taking up little space. All the working parts are enclosed, with the exception of the fly-wheel, pulley, and the ends of the crank shaft. The necessary for external lubrication has been eliminated.

Sheep drain cleaning machine
For many years hill farmers have been looking out for a serviceable sheep drain cleaning machine. The Craigrossie Engineering Co., Auchterarder, have come forward with a machine invented by Mr Jas Parker Smith, Eastmill, Auchterarder, which is made to clean sheep drains measuring up to 22 inches wide on the surface by 14 inches deep, with a drain bottom of 9 inches wide.

The soil is cut by disc coulters on either side, and the bottom is cut by a steel shave, and the whole soil cut comes to a stationary steel conveyor 7 feet long, which is set with a gradual rise to a height of about 3 feet at the rear, when the soil falls on to an inclined steel plate set at right angles to the conveyor, and which deposits the soil 3 feet from the side of the drain. The machine is built on three wheels. One front swivel wheel runs in the drain, and is raised and lowered by a lever, as desired; and two rear wheels, 28 inches in diameter, with a live axle which drives a top chain conveyor. The whole machine machine is carried on two parallel bars, 20 inches wide, and to which the front and rear wheels are attached.

Turnip thinner
Mr James H. Steele, 61 Harrison Road, Edinburgh, has entered a new patent turnip thinner made by Corbett, Williams & Son (Ltd), Flintshire. This is an implement for thinning roots at 10 in, 12 in, or 14 in pitch, on drills varying from 22 in to 28 in apart. The working depth is regulated by hand levers on each side of the machine, which raise or lower the thinning apparatus, which consists of a revolving helical knife in conjunction with two flat superimposed segments. These segments are moved along the shafts longitudinally, and adjusted radially to suit the width of that portion of the drill which it is proposed to remove. The pitch or lead of the revolving helicoid, being quicker than the travel of the machine, has a tendency when it enters the earth to throw it in a backward direction, whereas the flat segment, traveling at the same rate as the machine, when revolving, has a tendency to throw the earth forward, with the result that the apparatus starts its cutting action at each end of the space to be removed, and finishes its cut midway between. 

Farm engine
Messrs Wallace (Glasgow) Ltd, Dennistoun, Glasgow, exhibit a 2 ½-3 bhp stationary single sleeve valve engine. It is air cooled and a model of neatness. The principal feature is simplicity, having 70 per cent fewer parts than the usual type of small farm engine. It has two-speed drives, a high speed of 1000 revolutions per minute, and a slow speed of 500 revolutions per minute. The fuel is paraffin. Although the engine is listed 2 ½-3 bhp dynanometer tests have recorded 4.25 bhp, so that there is a considerable margin of power.
Hay ricker
Messrs Robertson & McLaren, Craigmill, Stirling, have entered the “Victory” hay ricker, invented by Mr Geo, Paterson, farmer, Wester Frew, Kippen. It is an implement for collecting and ricking hay, and though its present price may be prohibitive for the ordinary farmers, it has many points in its favour, chief of which is labour saving. Driven by two horses, the implement goes between the swathe, and the hay is carried by an elevator from the ground to a steel cage, inside of which is a man who tramps the hay. When the cage is full the man comes out, and the cage is inverted, allowing the rick to fall to the ground. The implement is said to have been in use by farmers in the Stirling district, who have found it a serviceable aid to haymaking. 

Expanding horse how
Mr A M Russell, Edinburgh, exhibits an expanding horse hoe, invented by Mr Ernest William Brown, and made by George Brown & Son, Leighton Buzzard. This hoe is made with an improved expansion, so that all tines are made parallel, no matter what position they are expanded to. Another improvement is the construction of the steel tines, which demands of 19 different feet being fitted interchangeably by one bolt. 

The motion yard 
Year by year, as science becomes more and more the handmaid of agriculture, the Motion Yard at the Highland Show grows in interest. Again there is an imposing display of all sorts of appliances to aid the farmer. To the town visitor unacquainted with farming such an array of machinery must come as something of a revelation, telling him that the tilling of the soil is not the primitive, simple operation he had deemed to be. Gas and oil have been called into supply motive power for the modern complex machinery. Nor is the wind’s aid discarded, but the present windmills are vastly superior to the old-fashioned sort with the far-spreading arms. The vast array of motors in many forms are a special feature of the exhibition. Turning to the left after passing through the main entrance at Victoria Place, the visitor to the Show comes at once upon the Motion Yard, which is easily found, betraying its locality, as it does, by the noise and clangour of wheels and pistons. The agriculturists on the outlook fore mechanical aids in his industry and the casual visitor will alike find much in this section to interest and instruct.

Scottish Motor Traction Co’s exhibit
Farm tractors and engines are included in the attractive display by the Scottish Motor Traction Co. (Ltd), Edinburgh. The agricultural tractors shown are the well-known “Titan” and “International Junior”, one of the former variety being of 20hp, and two of the latter of 28.9hp. The worth of these machines has been adequately demonstrated in recent years, and their adaptability and value are manifest to the farming community. These tractors are manufactured by the international Harvester Company of Great Britain (Ltd), whose paraffin engines and other agricultural implements are also on view at this stand. Two interesting exhibits are the “International” 3-furrow self-lifting tractor plough, with rolling disc coulters and adjustable mould boards, and an “International” ensilage cutter, with a capacity of 12 to 15 tons per hour. In view of the growing interest in ensilage in Scotland, this machine will be noted with interested. The stationary oil engines shown are complete with skids and tools. The Company hold numerous agencies for private motor cars of first-class design and manufacture, and also supply commercial motor vehicles of the latest and most approved design.

“Glasgow” tractor
Messrs Wallace (Glasgow) Ltd, display a representative collection of farm implements and machinery. The two outstanding features of their exhibit are the “Glasgow” tractor and the “Glasgow” single sleeve valve farm engine. Alike from an engineering and a farmer’s point of view the former has already thoroughly commended itself. The “Glasgow” tractor, having a three-wheel drive, transmits its power to the drawback in such measure that the manufacturers claim its greatest success is exactly where others fail-viz, under heavy conditions and on hilly land. A novel method of showing the drawbar merits of the “Glasgow” tractor is on view in the form of a large clock-like face showing the drawbar pull necessary for a two-furrow and likewise for a three-furrow plough, and further , round the dial the hand points to the drawbar pull of the “Glasgow”, showing a big reserve over what is necessary for a three-furrow plough. The single sleeve valve farm engines, which are on view for the first time at the Highland Show, are referred to under the heading of new implements. Arrangements are well forward in the factory for a large output. Messrs Wallace’s collection of their well-known specialities also includes two electric lighting sets, mowers and reapers, a potato digger, and a planter and manure sower.
Edinburgh firm’s display

With “Everything for the Farm”, as a motto, Mr James H. Steele, Edinburgh, has an excellent display of useful implements. A British Wallis tractor, fitted with special wheel studs for road haulage and other improvements, occupies a prominent place, and among new machines that also catch the eye ate the Corbett-Williams new patent root thinner, Gratton’s patent dry powder sprayer for potatoes, and Charlock & Coultas’s new manure sower for either wet or dry manures; McKenzie’s power root cutter and Edlington’s power potato sorter, Ruston & Hornsby’s new paraffin engine, binders, mowers, corn drills, trussers, Albion harvesting and barn machinery, Richmond & Chandler chaff cutters, cake mills, Petter engines, Don distributors, &c; Ransome’s tractor and horse ploughs, rakes, and potato diggers, new pattern horse fork for open or shed work, and other useful farm tools. Among the smaller goods, the “Perfect” sheaf band cutter is a useful article, the points of which every farmer who has a threshing mill will be interested to observe. 

Milling machines
The Scottish Agricultural Engine and Machine Company have an interesting display of the latest types of machines suitable for farmers and millers. Simple in design, they are also effective in use. There are ten milling machines on view, five crushers, and a double stroke oil engine is also among the specialities exhibited. It is claimed for some of the milling machines that they grind all kinds of grain for table use, as well as for cattle feeding; shell oats, grind oatmeal, and refine pot barley from rough barley. 

Some Scottish stands 
A glance at some of the other stands in this interesting section of the yard finds Scottish firms well represented. Threshing machines are included in the exhibits forward from David Page & Son, Milnathort, and Wm Baird & Co., Lasswade; and Henderson Bros, Stirling, and Auchterarder have a display of Fordson tractors and various types of Ford cars and trucks. The Ladyacre EngIneering Co., Lanark, are showing their threshing mill amongst other useful exhibits, and R. & T. Wyllie, Heugh, North Berwick, include a traction engine made by John Fowler & Co. (Ltd), Leeds. Stationary oil engines are exhibited by Alexander Shanks & Son (Ltd), Arbroath, and A. Laurie & Sons, Camelon, Falkirk, are showing end and side tipping waggons and trailers. Accessories for road making and quarrying are included in an interesting display by Fleming & Co., Robertson Street, Glasgow. A variety of engineering specialities are shown by J. R. Forrester, Paisley, including Molesley petrol engines, cream separators, and sheep shearing machines; and the Bon Accord Engineering Co (Ltd), Aberdeen, have forward a selction of the mills and implements in which they specialize. Lime washing and spraying machines are shown by Marshall & Philp, Aberdeen, and the “Samson” windmill is included in the display by John S. Millar & Son, Annan. James Crichton, Strichen, and Ford & Paterson, Broughty Ferry, have threshing machines in their stands, while the well-known “Handy” ricklifter showing all the latest improvements, is forward from William Dickie & Sons, East Kilbride. Oil engines from 3 1/2bhp to 23 bhp are shown by Allan Bros, Aberdeen. P. & R. Fleming & Co., Glasgow, have again a comprehensive display of agricultural machinery and implements, including the Case tractor in motion. P. & W. Maclellan (Ltd), Glasgow, are showing “Super Clutha” and “Clutha” steel windmills.”

The photographs were taken at the Borders vintage rally, May 2015.

Ireland was an important market for some of the Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers in the early twentieth century. One of the ways that they could make their manufactures more widely known was exhibiting at the Royal Dublin Society shows held in the spring and the winter in Dublin. These were important events for the display of livestock and implement makers.

While the show was an important one for Irish agricultural implement makers, there could be a strong display from Scottish makers. This is shown in the spring show of 1912. The Scotsman’s own correspondent provided a record of the Scottish farming implements on display:

“A feature of great importance to the agricultural community is the display of agricultural implements and other requirements of men concerned in tillage or breeding. Even to the ordinary visitors, the fine display of implements and machinery in motion was a great attraction. Scottish exhibitors are largely in evidence, seventeen firms being represented. Messrs William Smith & Co., New Broughton, Edinburgh, exhibit “the Standard” cattle and cart farm weigh-bridge and other weighing machines.

Messrs Alex. Ballach & Sons, agricultural engineers, Leith, show their new champion turnip sower, with discs in place of coulters, and their patent disc drill scarifier, with hoeing attachment. Messrs Alex Shanks & Son (Limited), Dens Ironworks, Arbroath, exhibit horse mowers and lawn mowers; Messrs George Sellar & Son, agricultural engineers, Huntly, plough harrows and potato diggers; Messrs Barclay, Ross & Tough, Aberdeen, thrashing machines fitted with single blast and treble riddles, and portable wheels and shafts, and a set of elevators; Thomas Hunter & Sons, Maybole, a large selection of plough harrows, horse hoes, roller drills, and rick lifters; Me Charles Weir, Strathaven, patrol motor driven threshing mill, land rollers, and double-action streamlet churn; Messrs John McBain & Son, Chirnside, Berwickshire, windmill and pumping engine; Messrs John Wallace & Sons (Limited), Glasgow, mowers and reapers, manure distributors, and turnip and mangel sowers; Messrs Alexander Jack & Sons (Limited), Maybole, the Empire potato digger, with new grip action, digging forks, turnip sower, and combined drill, grubber, and harrow; Mr Robert G. Garvie. Aberdeen, portable threshing machine and hay and straw baling machine; Mr Andrew Pollock, Mauchline, rick lifters, potato diggers, and cheese press; Messrs Watson, Laidlaw & Co., Kingston, Glasgow, cream separators; Messrs Alexander Cross & Sons (Limited), Glasgow, samples of fertilisers and feeding stuffs; Messrs T. Murdoch & Sons, Crosshouse, Kilmarnock, carts; Fleming & Co., Glasgow, rock drills; and Messrs Alley & MacLellan (Limited), Glasgow, Standard Sentinel steam motor wagon. 

It is interesting to note how many of these makers are from Glasgow and the south-west of Scotland, especially Ayrshire, which was in easier reach of Ireland than other parts of Scotland. Outwith these areas they include some of the key makers from north-east Scotland who were favoured by the Irish market: Sellar of Huntley and Garvie of Aberdeen; there are still some threshing mills around the Irish rally scene. 

The makers are also exhibiting implements and machines that are suited to Ireland, with its emphasis on animal husbandry, milk and cheese production as well as the growing and processing of crops for animal food and potato growing and harvesting. 

What Scottish agricultural implements and machines have you seen in Ireland?

The 1860s and 1870s were two important decades for the mechanisation of Scottish and British farming. New implements and machines were being rapidly developed and used on farms. There were revolutions in the way crops, especially the most labour intensive ones, such as grain and potatoes were being sown, grown, harvested and stored. Important innovations included the development of the reaper, the steam plough, the potato spinner. 

A number of agricultural commentators wrote about the rise of agricultural implement and machine making at this time. The Scottish Farmer newspaper (not the one we know by that name today) provided a lengthy account on these changes while commenting on the implements and machines at the Ayr Show in May 1863. It is worth quoting at length for the insights it brings. It makes an interesting comment about beliefs on the introduction of implements and machines. There are comments about the increase in the number of implements and machines sold as well as reaping machines made by local makers in Ayrshire. 

“In no department of British industry has there been such marked progress of late years as in that of agricultural implement-making, and in none has there been brought to bear more energy, perseverance, skill, and ingenuity on the part of those engaged. Manufacturers of agricultural machines have had a hard up-hill battle to fight. They have had to war against prejudices strengthened by the precedents of thousands of years-prejudices consecrated like heirlooms, which it would be shame and dishonour in the sons not to transmit to posterity intact, as they had received them at the hands of their fathers. Surely it was too much in these mechanics to ask that the sickle, which had come down to the present generation almost unchanged from the days in which it was used to lay low the golden crops of Boaz, should be cast aside for the clipping or sawing apparatus of a Presbyterian clergyman, or that the picturesque and time-hallowed wooden plough, drawn by its slow oxen, or lazy sleek-sided horses, should be superseded by the savage grubber, fierce digger, or many furrowed plough, impelled by the quick impatient steam engine? In the good old days the cattle browsed the natural grasses of the thousand hills over which they roamed; why should they now be confined in courts, or chained up in stalls, to feed upon artificial meats? Even after green crop husbandry, which was certainly an unwarrantable departure from our fathers’ customs, came into practice, the beasts munched their whole turnips, and chewed their uncut straw with gusto-should we not, therefore, be wanting in respect to the memory of those who have gone before to employ pulpers and chaff-cutters to tear the turnip to pieces, and chop the straw into almost imperceptible particles, especially when the beasts themselves can accomplish this with the natural grinders?

And, again, why should farmers employ the draining plough to ensure dryness where wetness is the normal condition; and is good likely to result from a violation of nature? Our fathers knew better, and let the marshes alone to produce their rank growth of valueless vegetation, and their noiseome malaria. From the first the husbandman scattered the grains over the earth with his own capacious hands, and the crops yielded, we are told, their thirty, forty, fifty, and hundred fold; we shall adopt no new-fangled and complicated arrangement of tin-cups to deposit the seed at regular intervals in the soil. And is it not a tempting of Providence to make use of wind raised by mechanical contrivance for the separation of the grain from the chaff, instead of taking advantage of such blasts from heaven as can be secured by the opening of two opposite doors and the flapping of a couple of sheep skin wechts? Fanners are the devil’s own invention, an outrage on Christianity, as well as an offence against ancestral practice. 

Against such and such many other prejudices, “uttered or unexpressed” on the part of farmers-as well as against the greater mechanical difficulties involved in the construction of locomotive (which most agricultural machines are) as compared with stationary machines-the agricultural implement makers had to contend, and it is in the highest degree creditable to them that they have almost entirely overcome them. And the victory may be said to have been gained within the last dozen years-since the Exhibition of 1851. That international display gave an impetus to what has been called mechanical agriculture, but more properly the mechanics of agriculture, which has never been lost, but which in the interval has been greatly increased. At every show of the national agricultural societies since held, the implements have been assuming a more important position in the yard, until in Battersea, in 1862, they numbered no less than 5064 articles, all more or less connected with the science and practice of agriculture, and designed to effect saving as well as greater efficiency in the labour of the farm. 

An indication of the immense number of implements and machines now manufactured for farm use us afforded in the table published in the introduction to the report on English Agricultural Machinery by the Jurors of the late International Exhibition, and given in the Scottish Farmer of last week. The table indeed is very defective, giving only returns of certain kinds of machinery manufactured by some half-dozen of the principal firms; but still it will serve to illustrate the already vast extent and rapidly increasing importance of the agricultural implement trade. Beginning with steam-engines, we find that six firms which in 1852 turned out only 270, in 1861 manufactured 898, an increase of more than 330 per cent. Two firms, which were not in existence in 1852, or whose attention at all events had not then been directed to plough making, in 1861, sent out 9309 of these implements. 

Cultivators are of more recent introduction, and four firms, which commenced their manufacture in 1858, made in 1199 in 1861. Corn drills made by three houses have risen from 338 in 1852 to 703 in 1861; and the same number of firms sold in the latter year 383 corn horse-hoes-a number, however, smaller than sent out in previous years. The figures as to reaping machines do not afford even a hint of the real number now in use, but they sufficiently indicate the great and growing feeling in favour of reapers. The four makers who have sent in returns, in 1858 made only 32 reapers, in 1861 they sent out 1715. Hay tedders made by two firms have increased from 50 in 1852 to 721 in 1861; and the horse-rakes of five firms have risen from 611 in 1852 to 1739 in 1861. Six firms in 1852 made 327 thrashing machines, in 1861 the number they manufactured was 1084. The chaff cutters made by three firms in 1855 numbered 1004, in 1861, 4905; and corn-bruisers, by five firms, which in 1852 were but 64, in 1861 were 2680. In the report nothing is said about turnip cutters, of which we know one firm alone, the Messrs Samuelson, of Banbury, makes annually about 4000, and grain bruisers, cake breakers, turnip pulpers, sowing machines, manure drills, corn screens &c, are made in numbers equally large. And what, perhaps, is even as noticeable as the increase, is the improvement in the manufacture of implements since the first Great International Exhibition. 

And it is not alone at national and international exhibitions that agricultural implements are displayed; they now form a most interesting and instructive feature at almost all country and district shows. At the exhibition at Ayr last week, for instance, there were no fewer that 254 entries in the implement department of the catalogue. In these entries were included twenty reaping and mowing machines, three of which were sent by the Messrs Samuelson, of Banbury, through their Scottish agent, Mr Pringle-a self-delivering four-armed reaper, calculated to lay the sheaves about twelve feet apart, a very good medium distance; the “Eclipse”, a one horse reaper, of remarkable cheapness, only sixteen guineas; and a combined reaper and mower. Of the simplicity in construction and lightness of these reapers we have before had occasion to speak (see Scottish Farmer for December 31, 1862), and during last harvest we had many opportunities to report, and always favourably, upon the work done by the patent self-acting machine, which has since undergone improvements calculated to lessen the draught and obviate the chances of the gearing getting clagged up. 

The Messrs Jack, of Maybole, had six different reapers and mowers on the field, all of excellent and substantial workmanship. Two were designed to affect mechanical delivery-one by merely introducing a reel to throw off the sheaves at intervals. This arrangement we do not believe will ever come into general use; the other plan we think a great deal of. By this latter method, which is the invention of Mr Alexander Jack, the tilting board is divided into two unequal parts, united together by hinges, the portion nearest the cutter or fore end of the machine being the narrowest. The back part of the platform has an angular hinged division made in it to aid in throwing off the sheaves. The tilting board is actuated by many jointed iron arms, which derive their motion from a friction plate in connection with the driving-years, and which, at intervals varying from nine to fourteen feet, according to the nature of the crop, lift up the board and deposit the sheaf. The front part of the platform rises with double the speed with which the hind portion is depressed, an arrangement which would seem to ensure that the sheaf will be well and squarely thrown off. To prevent a short straw crop falling between the platform and the knife, a bar of wood has been placed across underneath. The machine was not completed when we saw it; it wanted a reel to bring down the crop to the cutters, and a better method for communicating the power to the automation arms than by friction will no doubt be adopted; with that addition and improvement, we have hopes that this machine will take a place among practical self-acting reapers. Another improvement we noticed on one of the Messrs Jack’s machines was a hollow cylindrical knife bar, which would appear to secure the advantages of strength and lightness at the same time.

Mr Wallace, of Fenwick, exhibited three reapers of excellent construction, and whose draught, as tested at several trials last years, is very light. One of them has a self-acting arrangement for adjusting the knife bar to the inequalities of the ground-a very useful improvement. Some knife bars are divided in the middle for the same object, but they would not overcome the difficulty of the furrow so well as Mr Wallace’s. A very curious looking reaper was exhibited by the Messrs Wallace, of Dreghorn, mounted on wheels than those of ordinary carts, the driving gear being affixed upon the axle. The fingers were large enough to admit almost half a sheaf at a time. We can say nothing in favour of this reaper, its curiosity being its only attraction. Mr Bamlett, of Ripon, whose agent in Scotland is Mr Begbie, of Haddington, showed a combined reaper and mower-an excellent machine with a tilting platform adapted to various heights; Messrs Brigham & Bickerton showed a Buckeye-a machine which is capable of good work with little expenditure of power; Messrs Brown & Young, of Stirling, showed one of their reapers “with flexible universal jointed platform”; and Messrs Young, of Young, showed a manual delivery reaper. One of Wood’s mowers, with an adaptation to turn it into a reaper, was shown by Mr McCutcheon, of Carlisle; and one or two local makers also showed reapers. On the whole, the Scotch reapers looked very substantial, but perhaps they might be made a little lighter without impairing their strength and durability. They looked rather heavy beside the English ones. 

Excellent turnip and mangold sowing machines were shown by the Messrs Young of Ayr, and the Messrs Jack, of Maybole-the merits of which were considered so equal by the judges that they agreed to divide the prize. Both do their work capitally, perhaps as well as it is possible for such machines to work. Messrs Jack also exhibited some capital grubbers; as likewise did Mr Hunter, of Maybole, who showed a large and varied collection of ploughs, harrows, and horse-hoes with side paring coulters, which were greatly admired. The judges’ report, which we give in another column, will indicate the best of the other agricultural articles shown at this very successful county show.”

Reid & Leys was a well-known agricultural implement and machine maker in Aberdeen that was already in business in 1885. By 1889 it described itself as a seedsman and implement agent. A decade later it was a seedsman and implement manufacturer with implement works at Wellington Road; it became renowned for these well into the twentieth century. 

For much of the period when it traded, its sphere of influence was largely Aberdeenshire and the north of Scotland. It largely exhibited at the Highland Show when it was being held in the Aberdeen, and Inverness show districts. By the 1950s it started to attend the shows in the south of Scotland: Paisley, Kelso, Dundee, Dumfries and Edinburgh. 

The company’s manufactures included its ploughs. It also entered its “Don” tractor manure distributor” for the new implement award at the Highland Show in 1948. 

The Aberdeen press and journal provides an obituary of William Reid founder of the company on 1 May 1934: 

“The death occurred yesterday at his residence, 10 Hosefield Avenue, Aberdeen, of Mr William Reid, managing director of Messrs Reid & Leys, Ltd, seedsmen and implement manufacturers, 8 Hadden Street, Aberdeen. 
Mr Reid, who was in his eighty-third year, was widely known and highly esteemed by the agricultural community in the north. Recognised as one of the oldest and most expert seedsmen in Aberdeen and district, his advice was often sought by his fellow tradesmen.
Mr Reid’s business, the jubilee of which was celebrated two years go, has a trade that extends over a remarkably wide area. Not only does it have a connection throughout Britain and Ireland, but implements are used by customers as far distant as India and West Africa. Mr Reid, who built up his business entirely by his own efforts, was the maker of the famous Don and Aberdeen plough, which is used throughout the country.

Mr Reid was a native of Friockheim, Forfarshire, where he served his time in the seed trade. He went north at an early age and for some years was employed at Brechin. In 1879, Mr Reid started at Aberdeen the business which he directed up to the time of his death. He travelled for his firm until his eightieth year.
He was deeply interested in the North of Scotland College of Agriculture and was a keen follower of the seed trials conducted by it.
Outside his profession, Mr Reid’s greatest interest in religious work, in which he himself took no small part in Aberdeen. He was a member of the South UF Church and conducted services at the church’s mission in John Street. He also preached at various places, including the Gallowgate Mission and Morningside Hospital.
Mr Reid is survived by a son and a daughter. His son, Mr A. Maitland Reid, 32 Springfield Avenue, Aberdeen, will carry on the business in Hadden Street. Miss Reid is a school teacher in Aberdeen.