The Royal Show, or the annual show of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, was a key event in the agricultural calendar, especially for English agriculturists and implement and machine makers. Scottish makers did attend, though their attendance varied according to the location of the show and whether they had new manufactures to show to the public.
The number of Scottish exhibitors was generally small. They usually included some of the key ones. They brought with them their major manufactures to introduce them to an English and wider audience. These included ones that they were renowned for as well as improved ones. They also included ones that they considered filled a niche within the market for implements and machines.
The Scotsman included a lengthy account of the Scottish exhibitors to the Royal Show at Nottingham in 1928. It is worth quoting at length as it says a lot about what was innovative and important about Scottish agricultural implement and machines and who were some of the most important makers. It states:
“The Royal Show
Features at Nottingham
Labour-saving devices
The Royal Agricultural Society of England are meeting for their annual show at Nottingham under happier auspices than they did at the same place thirteen years ago, when the shadow of the Great War cast a gloom over everyone, but the later war period was marked by a time of exceptional prosperity for agriculture. The swing of the pendulum has been as significant in the opposite direction. The agricultural interests have been passing through difficult and trying times in these latter years, but confidence is gaining in its revival. As a productive national industry the Royal Show at Nottingham indicates the vitality there is in agriculture. It is no effete industry. It supports hundreds of large engineering and other firms catering for its requirements, and indirectly find employment for thousands of men in the industrial districts. One had only to walk through the implement section of the showyard to-day for abundant evidence of this.
Scottish exhibits
As evidence of the place which Scottish implement manufacturers occupy in providing machinery that will effect the utmost economy in agricultural labour, it is interesting to note that, while only four Scottish firms were represented at the first show at Nottingham forty years ago, there are to-day over three times as many stands by Scottish makers illustrating the latest improvements in farm husbandry. Mr George Henderson, Forth Street, Edinburgh, exhibits two manure distributors, including the Waverly pattern, which has a patent enclosed and self-lubricating mechanism, as well as a new thistle cutter, a wide range of fencing material, and a variety of troughs and corn bins. The Glasgow firm, John Wallace & Son (Ltd), have a big display of Scottish implements. The make a feature of their well-known potato diggers with adjustable graips, and they have a large variety of implements and machinery for the farm. From Aberdeen, Barclay, Ross & Hutchison (Ltd) have forward two of their noted threshing machines, as well as manure distributors and cultivators. Messrs Marshall & Philip, Aberdeen, show lime washing machines. The Ayrshire firm of Alexander Jack & Son (Ltd), Maybole, never fail to be represented at a Royal Show, and they exhibit a number of their specialities, including a new potato digger which has provision for altering the set or angle of the digging forks.
In the Dairy Congress section a Galloway firm, J. & R. Wallace, Castle-Douglas, exhibit one of the new Wallace milking machines, which have gained a high reputation among dairy farmers in the south-west of Scotland, and the automatic water bowl. The Glasgow firm, G. & J. Weir (Ltd), Cathcart, have on view various dairy equipment manufactured from pure nickel. The hard smooth surface of pure nickel permits of rapid cleaning and thorough sterilisation with the minimum of labour. Messrs John S. Millar & Son, who specialise in windmills, have also on view cream separators and churns.”
