the horse. The marker n n is another appendage to the machine, which, although not so necessary as the balance-chain, is yet generally applied to this drill-machine, especially when sowing across the ridges. It consists of the bar m m, and the marking-rod m n. The use of the marker is to trace a line on the surface of the ground parallel to the direction in which the machine travels, and at a distance from the middle point of the surface covered by the machine, equal to the entire breadth, so covered; hence, on returning to sow the next breadth, the horse should walk exactly upon the line drawn by the marker. In sowing with the machine here described, the distance from line to line will be 4 feet 6 inches; the distance between the rows being 9 inches. The wheels are usually set 54 inches apart, measuring at the point where they rest on the ground; or their distance in any machine may be found by multiplying the number of coulters by the number of inches given to the interval between the rows or coulters; thus six coulters at 9 inches of interval, give 6 × 954 inches. From the construction of the machine it is found, that when the balance-chain is under tension, the coulters are drawn to the ground, and the handles also drawn downward; but on releasing the chain, which is done at the land-ends and turnings, the conductor must support the handles, to keep the coulter from the ground, and in this state, if the handles are let go when the machine is standing, the coulter will pass forward, and the handles will fall to the ground. To prevent this last inconvenience, a crutch is usually appended to the marker-bar, which, on stopping, is allowed to drop to a perpendicular position, resting on the ground, and thus keeps the machine upon a level. This appendage, not being of much importance, is left out of the figure. The price of this machine varies from £6 to £10.

2340. New Lever-drill sowing-machine. This drill sowing-machine was introduced to public notice, a few years ago, by Mr James Slight of Edinburgh. Mr Slight having been impressed with the superiority of the improved English leverdrills, but seeing at the same time the difficulty, or impossibility, of introducing such an expensive machine into Scottish practice, was induced to make the attempt of ingrafting what appeared the better

VOL. I.

parts of the English machine upon the more simple machinery of the Scottish one

the one just described-thus producing a machine little, if anything, inferior to the original, at one-third of the price. The results appear to justify the expectations, for the new lever-drill has now been tested in the hands of a number of practical judges, and found to give entire satisfaction, either sowing grain alone, or depositing granulated manures along with the seed in any required proportion. The figure here given of the machine represents it without the manure-chest, which, when adopted, is placed immediately before the seed-chest, making very little change in the appearance, and adding little to the apparatus, except the chest itself.

The

2341. Fig. 206 represents this machine in perspective. In the construction of this drill, the bed-frame a a consists of two side rails with three principal cross rails, besides a minor rail, forming the bearing or platform of the seed-funnels. The entire width of the bed-frame for a 6-row drill is 4 feet 7 inches over all, and the length over the rails is 4 feet 3 inches. The seed-chest b is constructed and mounted in every respect similar to that of the broadcast machine, fig. 204, excepting again the projecting apron, which in the drill-machine is not required, and in the mode of communicating motion to the seed-wheels. The carriage-wheels are c c. The fore-wheel is mounted on sheers, and e is one of the two pillars of the swivel-plate, to which the splinter-bar f is attached. The shafts are gg. remaining parts of the fore-carriage are precisely the same as in fig. 204 for the broadcast sowing-machine. The sowing geer in the lever-drill consists of a wheel fixed upon the inward end of the nave of the carriage-wheel, on the nigh side; of a second wheel k, placed intermediate between it and the third wheel 7, which last is mounted on a continuation of the seed-wheel shaft. The intermediate wheel k is supported upon a stud in the end of a bent lever, the handle of which is seen below the roller p; by means of which the wheel k is withdrawn from the wheel 7, to stop the motion of the seed-wheels. The discharging apparatus of the seed-chest is precisely the same as in fig. 204, with the slide h, lever i, and adjusting screw. From the orifice in the slide, the seed falls into

2 M

telescope funnels k, m m, the uppermost being fixed to the bed-frame, and the lowermost to the lever n n. To the quad

forked at the end, and diminish gradually to the extremity n, which is turned up to prevent the weight from being dropt off. The weight is a block of cast-iron of from 3 to 7 lbs. weight, of which there may be several sizes, to be applied according to the state of the land, its purpose being to press the coulter into the ground. The point of the coulter, sinking 1 inch deeper than the sheath, gives the seed a more pulverised bed than can be produced with a coulter that is level below. A wooden roller p, furnished with a ratchet, is supported in a light iron standard at each end, upon the side-bar of the bed-frame. A light chain q from each lever is attached to the roller, and a cross r being fixed upon the right hand side, the roller can thus be turned round by means of the cross-arms, the chains wound up to any desired extent, and the coulters lifted from the ground. This operation is found convenient at the turnings, or at any time when the machine is not sowing, and the roller, chains, and levers, are held in the desired position by the pall s falling into the ratchet wheel. The coulters are represented nearly out of the ground, and when let down to the working level, they penetrate to the depth of 2 or 3 inches. The distance between the wheels, where they rest on the ground, is equal to 54 inches, as in the common drill; one of the wheels, therefore, will always fall into the track of the former round, which may serve as a marker to the conductor of the machine;

but, though not shown in the figure, a marking bar, similar to that of the common drill, is usually fitted to it as a movable appendage.

2342. From the construction of this machine, with its fore-wheel and with its lever-coulters independently movable, its motions are more steady and its management more easy, while the freedom of vertical motion in the coulters gives it the advantage of sowing on any kind of surface, on ridges however round, at equal depths for every coulter, and either across or along the ridges with equal facility. The price of these machines ranges from £10 to £18.

2343. To render the expensive English drill-machines more generally useful, it is not an uncommon practice in England for the owner of one to travel the country with it at seed-time, and undertake to sow the fields of any farm, where the farmer may choose to employ him. The charge is usually 2s. 6d. per imperial acre, the farmer supplying the requisite number of horses to work the drill, and undertaking to deliver it at the farm on which it is to be next employed.

2344. The land, whether sown by hand or with either sort of machine, must be harrowed; but the time of using the harrow differs on the sort of machine used forsowing the grain. When the grain is sown by hand

2347. There is one point in the improvement of this harrow that appears of even more importance than the rhomboidal shape-it is the joints or hinges d d. In the one harrow, the tail of the double joints of the hinge is prolonged into a bolt de, de passing through all the bulls, and secured with screw-nuts at e e. The single joints are in like manner prolonged into the bolts fg, fg thus serving to add greatly to the strength as well as to the efficiency of the harrows. The loose joints df, df have been found to answer their purpose much better than the wellfitted joints originally given to them, by their allowing a great freedom of action, and the double joints d d are therefore now usually made as in the figure. The eye of the single joint ƒ has great freedom to play upon the joint-bolt.

2348. From the figure of the rhomboidal harrow, when duly constructed, it can only perform its maximum of effect when drawn forward with its slots at right angles to the direction of its motion, and this is effected by the master swing-tree h. This tree, for harrows of the dimensions here described, requires to be 4 feet

8 inches in length between the points of attachment, and it is connected to the harrows by means of the S hooks and shackles at c c. The balance of draught of the harrows is adjusted by shifting the shackles into the different holes of the bars c c, until the harrows are found to lie at right angles to the draught when in motion; and this, be it observed, is not attained by having an equal number of tines on each side of the centre of the swing-tree h, for there is found to be a greater resistance to the forward motion of the implement on the left than there is upon the right side, arising, it is supposed, from the tines presenting a broader surface to resistance on that side than on the other. The other parts of the yoke, i kl, are the common plough swing-trees, fig. 6. Wooden harrows cost £2, 15s. per pair.

constructed, and its dimensions are the same as already given for those of wood. The arrangement of the parts are somewhat different, and, from the nature of the materials, the dimensions of the parts differ also more materially. Thus, the bulls a a aa are swelled out where the mortises for the slots are formed, and also for the tines, their ends projecting only 2 inches beyond the slot. The slots are bbb, and there being only three of them, the middle one is so placed as to be free of the middle row of tines; while the end slots are elongated towards the meeting sides of the pair, and are there formed into the hinge-joints d d, as formerly described for the wooden harrows. The bars c c are inserted in the projecting ends of the first and second bulls, and the master swing-tree h is attached to them by twisted S hooks. The swing-trees i k l are the same as described for the wooden harrows. The construction of the iron harrow is so similar to the others, that it is unnecessary to enter into further details regarding it; but it may be remarked, that, from the almost imperishable nature of the materials, as compared with wood, there seems every reason to expect the iron implement will entirely supersede the wooden; and though the price of the iron harrows is considerably above that of wood, the additional first cost is more than repaid by the greater durability of the iron. There is good reason also to believe, that, by a construction more adapted than the present to the nature of the material, the price may yet be considerably reduced.

2350. The form of the tines is that which has its cross section forming an exact square, and inserted in the bull with its diagonal pointing in the direction of the progressive motion. This form and position of the tine, however well adapted to the soil, cannot, with propriety for safety to the implement, be used in the wooden harrow from the powerful tendency it has to split the wood. In the iron implement this difficulty does not exist; and as this form of tine is in every respect best adapted to the intended purpose, it should never be omitted in the iron harrow. Whatever be the cross section of the tine, in that part which passes through the bull, the projecting part is tapered towards the point, not uniformly but a little barrelled,

and terminates in an obtuse point. In all wooden harrows the tines are simply driven firmly into the wood after it has been bored. In most iron harrows they are fixed in the same manner; but as the tines are sometimes liable to become loose, when simply inserted and driven down by the hammer, they are, when a more perfect construction is followed, fixed by being driven from below, and secured by a screwnut above.

2351. The dotted parallel lines in figs. 207 and 208 represent the lines which the tines make in the ground in the act of harrowing it; and as they are at equal distances, it follows that the harrows, as in the figures, are set in the proper manner for working. They are wrong set when these lines are not at equal distances.

2352. The harrows follow the sowers, each sower keeping 2 pair of harrows'employed when the land receives a double tine

that is, backwards and forwards on the same ground, that is, on the same ridge, which the breaking-in of the seed should always receive. I have said that, on inclined ground, for the sake of the horses, that end of the field should be first sown which gives the horses the advantage of breaking-in the ground down hill (2312.) If the sowing commences at the top of the declination, the harrows start at once for the breaking-in down the hill; but if it commences at the foot of the inclination, the harrows will have to go an extra landing to the upper side of the field and begin there. Two pairs of harrows work best together, their united breadth covering the entire ridge, and lapping over the crown where the soil is thickest. One pair takes the lead, by going on the near side of the ridge, while the other pair follows on the off side, but the leader usually takes that side of the ridge which is nearest the open field. Each pair of harrows should be provided with double reins, one rein from each horse; and every ploughman should be made to walk and drive their horses with the reins from behind the harrows. If a strict injunction is not laid upon them in this respect, the two men will be found walking together, the leading one behind the harrows, the other at the head of his horses, with their attention more engrossed in talk than the