Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/192

170] will bear the coulters off the ground. And, when passing through rough roads, if the coulter-beam C, C, and the axis of the wheels, be lashed together by a rope or chain, it will prevent the coulter from receiving any injury, by reaching the ground suddenly.

The cylinder H, H, is furnished with cups or ladles of four different sizes, for various kinds of grain or seeds, which are distinguished by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4.—No. 1, (the smallest size painted white) is calculated for rape, lucerne, cole-seed, clover, &c. and will sow 2lbs. per acre. It will also sow turnip, after the rate of one pound per acre; every other cup being closed with a small quantity of soft clay. No. 2, (painted red) for wheat, and will sow one bushel per acre.—No. 3, (painted green) for barley; and will sow from 1 to $1 1⁄2$ bushel per acre.—No. 4, (painted yellow) for peas, beans, oats, vetches, &c. and will sow two bushels per acre. Although the above quantities of grain or seed are specified, they may be increased or diminished by raising or lowering the slides (G, G, Fig. 1) at pleasure.

The funnels are applied to their respective places by numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; and, for drilling at nine inches, they ought to correspond with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, of the seed-box; six coulters being fixed in the beam, at the distance of nine inches from each other. For drilling 12 inches apart, five coulters should be fixed in the beam, $11 1⁄4$ inches distant from each other, when the order of the funnels will stand 1, 4, 5, 2, 3, 6, and no seed will be put in the box opposite the funnel No. 5, when placed as above: the unemployed funnel may be stopped with paper, to receive any seed dropping into it accidentally. In a similar manner, Mr. 's machine may be so regulated as to deposit grain or seed in drills at 18 or 22 inches apart, or at any other distance.

If the coulters should not make the incisions or drills deeper than two inches in light sands or loams, or less than two in strong clays or wet soils, they may be forced into the ground by the hand, or by weights, or a beam of wood 4 feet long, and three or four inches thick, being suspended by chains or cords at the hooks T, T, in the handles of the machine, for that purpose.

In attempting to render the drills strait, if the horse should deviate from his proper course, the coulter-beam and coulters may be easily removed in any direction, in order to remedy that irregularity. In different parts of the kingdom, the lands or ridges are of various sizes: where the machine is too wide for them, one or more funnels may be stopped with loose paper, and the seed received into such funnel, returned into the upper seed-box. In drilling narrow high-ridged lands, the outside coulters may be lowered, and the middle ones raised, so that the points of the coulters may form a curve similar to that formed by the ridge. When shut, the top of the seed-box should always be kept horizontally level: thus, the distribution of the seed will be uniform. The higher the front edge of the box is raised upon the bar R, the more copiously will the seed descend into the lower boxes; and consequently a greater quantity be distributed.

No wheat should be deposited more than $1 1⁄2$ or 2 inches deep in strong