Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/346

Rh 320 of the axle on which they are fixed being supported by a plain carriage-wheel. It is drawn by one horse, and follows in the wake of two or three ploughs, according to the number of its cylinders. When wheat is sown after clover lea, this implement is found exceedingly useful in closing the seams and forming a uniform seed-bed. The Norwegian, or, as it should rather be called, the Swedish harrow is strictly a clod-crushing implement. From its radiating spikes penetrating the surface over which it is drawn, it has been called a harrow; but its revolving motion entitles it rather to be classed with rollers. In its usual form it consists of three rows of cast-iron rowels arranged upon parallel axles fixed in an iron frame, which is supported on three wheels, one in front and two behind. The out line and arrangements are in fact the same as in Finlayson s grubber, only substituting parallel rows of rowels for tines. There is also the same leverage for raising and depressing the frame. But this implement has recently been con structed on a much simpler and cheaper plan, in which the wheels and lever apparatus are discarded altogether. It thus consists of a simple wrought-iron frame with four rows of rowels. A few boards are laid across the frame, forming a platform over the rowels, on which the driver stands when it is wished to increase the weight and efficiency of the im plement. On the tipper side at either end is fixed a piece of wheel-tire, on which the implement, when turned on its back, can slide along, sledge-fashion, when it is wished to move it from place to place. As thus constructed it can be made for about 5. This is the best implement yet in troduced for breaking moist clods. flection 7. Breast-Plough and Trenching-Fork. Before leaving the implements of tillage, it may be proper to notice two, which have been a good deal brought under notice of late years, viz., the breast-plough and trenching- fork. The former is extensively used in carrying out the process of paring and burning. It is the implement known in Scotland as the flaughter (or thin turf) spade. In using it the workman guards his thighs with a piece of board, fastened on apron-wise, and with this presses against the cross-head of the implement, and urges forward its cutting edge. When a thin turf has thus been severed from the surface, he turns it over by a jerk of his arms. The fork is used in giving a deep autumn digging to land in preparation for root crops. Both operations can ordinarily be more economically performed by using horse-power with suitable implements. But for clearing out corners of fields, hedge sides, and similar places, manual labour with these tools can frequently be made to supplement the plough to good purpose. Section 8. Implements for Sowing, A large portion of the grain annually sown in Great Britain is still distributed by hand from the primitive sowing-sheet. The sower stalks With measured step, and liberal throws the grain Into the faithful bosom of the ground. &quot; In Scotland a decided preference is still given to broadcast sowing, for which purpose a machine is used that covers from 15 to 18 feet, according to the Avidth of ridge adopted. It consists of a long seed-box, carried on a frame mounted on two wheels. From these motion is com municated to a spindle which revolves in the seed-box, and expels the seed by means of cogs or brushes, through openings which can be graduated to suit the required rate of seeding. It is drawn by a single horse, is attended by one man, and can get over 30 acres a day. It is peculiarly adapted for the regular distribution of clover and grass seeds. Now that reaping by machinery has become so [MACHINES AND general, there is an obvious advantage in having the fields as level and with as few open forms as possible, and hence of having a marker attached to the sowing-machine. In one made by Sheriff at West Barns, by an ingenious apparatus on the principle of the odometer, the machine itself is made to register the space which it travels over, and thus to indicate the rate per acre at which it is distributing the seed. Excellent results have been, and still are, obtained from broadcast sowing. But as tillage becomes more perfect, there arises a demand for greater accuracy in the depth at which seeds are deposited in the soil, for greater precision in the rate and regularity of their distribution, and for greater facilities for removing weeds from amongst the growing crop. These considerations led, at a comparatively early period, to the system of sowing crops in rows or drills, and hence the demand for machines to do this expeditiously and accurately. We accordingly find, in our best cultivated districts, the sowing and after-culture of the crops now conducted with a precision which reminds the spectator of the processes of some well-arranged factory. This is accomplished by means of a variety of drilling- machines, the most prominent of which we shall now notice. The Suffolk drill is the kind in most general use. It is a complicated and costly machine by which manure and seeds can be simultaneously deposited. That called the &quot;general purpose drill&quot; can sow ten rows of corn, with or without manure, at any width between the rows from 4 i to 10 inches, and at any rate per acre between two pecks and six bushels. It can be arranged also to sow clover and grass seeds, the heavier seeds of clover being thrown out by minute cups, and the lighter grass seeds brushed out from a separate compartment. It is further fitted for sowing beans and turnips the latter either two drills at a time on the ridge, or three on the flat. This drill, as most recently improved by Messrs Hornsby of Grantham and Garrett of Leiston, has an apparatus for preserving the machine in a level position when working on sloping ground. As a main object in drilling crops at all is to admit of the use of the hoe, it becomes an important point to accomplish the drilling with undeviating straightness, and exact parallelism in each successive course of the drill. This is now obtained by means of a fore-carriage, which an assistant walking alongside so controls by a lever as easily to keep the wheel in the same rut down which it had previously passed. Messrs Hornsby have also introduced India-rubber tubes for conducting the seed, in place of the tin funnels hitherto used. These drills cost about 42. The Woburn drill of the Messrs Hensman is simpler in its construction than those already noticed. &quot; In all other drills, the coulters, which distribute the manure or seed, hang from the carriage. In this drill the carriage rests upon the coulters, which are like the iron of skates ; it may be said, indeed, to run on four pairs of skates. Hence this drill s power of penetrating hard ground, and of giving a firm bed to the wheat-seed in soft ground. Each drill coulter, however, preserves its independence as when suspended. This self-adjustment is required by the in equality of tilled ground, and is thus obtained : each pair of coulters is fixed to the end of a balance beam, these again to others, and they to a central one. Thus each coulter, in well-poised rank, gives its independent share of support. It varies from the generality of drills, as it is drawn from the centre by whipple-trees instead of shafts ; and the drill-man behind can steer or direct the drill with the greatest nicety. The corn-box of the drill is entirely self-acting, and delivers the seed equally well going either up or down hill. It is also capable of horse-hoeing, by attaching hoes to the levers instead of the coulter-sharea