Reading has been very busy preparing for the forthcoming Royal Agricultural Show, for which two large fields have been specially prepared with turf, shedding, and fencing, the work of some months. Fine weather permitting, it promises to be one of the largest shows on record, particularly as cattle were excluded from the Brighton Show. A line of railway has been constructed from the South-Eastern Railway, near by, to the showground, in order to facilitate the unloading of massive machinery. The disasters of the Kilburn show are not likely to be repeated at Reading, for the site chosen is high and dry, on a bed of gravel, in addition to which good roads have been constructed. The complete show opens this day, but inspection of the machinery has been permitted since last Saturday. The Prince of Wales is understood to have decided to attend the show on the Wednesday. Sums of money have been given for decorations, and Reading will be en fete during the week. It is to be hoped that the occasion may be favoured with sunshine, although one of the chief attractions of the show will be that of the haymakers, who undertake to make good hay without sunshine. A contest with these machines for a prize of one hundred guineas, given by Messrs. Sutton and Sons, will take place at the Manor Farm; and to see grass thus converted into hay will doubtless be a great attraction. A new feature, too, is the machine for converting milk into butter, without setting the milk to obtain the cream. We are led to expect a cow being milked at one end of the machine and the cream extracted and converted into pats of butter before our eyes. It is fortunate for these inventors that they did not live in the dark ages, or assuredly their lives would have been of little value.
Source: The Illustrated London News, July 8, 1882, p.45
The Royal Agricultural Society's Show-Yards, Reading