2582. The roller and water box (fig. 329.) is sometimes used for watering spring crops, or clovers with liquid manure, previously rolling them. It has the advantage of a more perfect machine, in the holes being easily cleaned when choaked up with the thickened water. Such a machine can seldom require the roller attached.

2583. The furrow-roller (fig. 330.), is contrived for the purpose of rolling the furrows in steep hilly situations, and other places where the common sort cannot be employed.

2584. The Norfolk drill-roller, and the ridge and furrow concave or scalloped roller attached to certain turnip-drills, have already been depicted (2553. and 2556.).

330

2585. The pressing plough is a term erroneously applied to a machine of the roller kind, which has been already described (2515.).

2586. The only essential roller for general purposes, is the parted cast-iron roller, with a scraper, and box over.

SECT. V. Of Machines for laying Land even, and other occasional or anomalous Tillage Machines.

2587. Various machines for agricultural purposes are occasionally brought into notice by amateur cultivators, and some even by the professional farmer. It is, indeed, the privilege and the characteristic of wealth and intelligence, to procure to be made whatever particular circumstances may require, in every department of the mechanical agents of culture. We shall only notice a few, and that chiefly for the purpose of shewing the resources of the present age.

2588. Of machines for laying land level two may be noticed: in the first and best (fig. 331.), the horses are harnessed to a pole (a), which is joined to an axle having a pair of low wheels (b, c). Into this axletree are mortised two long side. pieces (d), terminating in handles (e, e). Somewhat inclined to these long or upper side pieces, shorter lower ones are joined by cross pieces, and connected by strong side-boards. The machine has

no bottom; its back part (f), is strongly attached to an axle (fig. 332 g), and to the bottom of this the scraper

332

part (h) is firmly screwed. The front ends of the slide irons (fig. 331 m), turning up, pass easily through mortises in the upper side-pieces (d), where, by means of pins, the inclination of the slide irons, and of the back board, can be adjusted within narrow limits, according to the nature of the soil to be levelled, and the mass of earth previously loosened by ploughing. This earth the back board is intended to collect and force before it, until the machine arrives at the place where it is intended to be deposited. Here, by lifting up the hinder part of the machine by its handles (e, e), the contents are left on the ground, and the machine proceeds to a fresh hillock. (Supp. Encyc. Brit. i. 25.)

2589. The Flemish levelling machine (fig. 333.) may be considered as a shovel, on a large scale, to be drawn by a pair of horses; it collects earth at the pleasure of the holder, who contrives to make the horses turn over the shovel and empty the contents by merely letting go the handle (a), and recovering it by means of a cord (6), when emptied, as already described (501.).

a

388

2590. The levelling harrow (2573.) is adequate for all ordinary purposes.

SECT. VI. Of Machines for reaping and gathering the Crop. 2591. The horse machines of harvest and haytime are chiefly the threshing machine, the hay tedder, and horse rakes.

SUBSECT. 1. Of Horse Rakes and Haymaking Machines.

2592. Raking machines are not in very general use; but where corn is mown, they are successfully employed in drawing together the scattered stalks, and are also of great use in hay-making. The saving in both cases consists in the substitution of animal for manual

labor.

334

2593. The common or Norfolk horse-rake (fig. 334.) is employed for barley and oat crops, and also for hay. One man, and a horse driven by means of a line or rein, are capable of clearing from twenty to thirty acres, in a moderate day's work; the grain being deposited in regular rows or lines across the field, by simply lifting up the tool and dropping it from the teeth, without the horse being stopped.

335

2594. The horse stubble rake (fig. 335.) is a large heavy kind of horse rake, having strong iron teeth, fourteen or fifteen inches in length, placed at five or six inches from each other, and a beam four inches square, and eight or ten feet in length. In drawing it two horses are sometimes made use of, by which it is capable of clearing a considerable quantity of stubble in a short time. In general, however, it is much better economy to cut the stubble as a part of the

straw.

2595. The couch-grass rake differs little from the last, and is employed in fallowing very foul lands, to collect the couch-grass or other root weeds. It may be observed, however, that where a good system of

cultivation is followed, no root weeds will ever obtain such an ascendancy in the soil, as to render an implement of this kind requisite.

2596. Weir's improved hay or corn rake (fig. 336.) is adjusted by wheels, and is readily

put in and out of gear, by means of the handles (a, a) and bent iron stays (b,b). It is drawn by one horse in shafts (c), and is a very effective implement.

2597. The hay tedding machine (fig. 337.), invented about 1800, by Salmon of Woburn, has been found a very useful implement, especially in making natural or meadow bay, which requires to be so much more frequently turned, and thinner spread out, than hay from clover and rye grass. It consists of an axle and pair of wheels, the axle forming the shaft of an open cylindrical frame, formed by arms proceeding from it, and from the extremities of which bars are fixed, set with iron prongs, pointing outwards, and about six inches long and curved. There is a crank by which this cylinder of prongs is

raised from the ground, when the machine is going to, and returning from, the field; or when it is not wanted to operate. It is drawn by one horse, and, on the whole, answers as a tedding machine perfectly. In the neighborhood of London, where meadow hay is so extensively made, it is found to produce a great saving of labor, and is now coming into very general use.

2598. The hay swoop or sweep (fig. 338.) is an implement for drawing or sweeping accumulations of hay to the cart or rick, or to any larger accumulations. Sometimes a rope is merely put round the heap, especially if it has been a few days in the cock, or piled up; but the most general hay-swoop consists of two curved pieces of wood, six or eight feet long, joined by upright pieces, so as to form something like the back of a chair. To the four corners of this, ropes are attached, which meet in the hook of a one horse whipple tree (a).

SUBSECT. 2. Reaping Machines.

2599. Though reaping machines, as we have seen (133.), are as old as the time of the Romans, one of an effective description is yet a desideratum in agriculture. The high price of manual labor, however, will probably in time call forth such a reaping machine as may be employed in all ordinary situations, and this is, perhaps, all that can be desired or expected. Corn laid down, or twisted and matted by wind and rain, or growing among trees, or on very irregular surfaces, or steep sides of hills, will probably ever require to be reaped by hand. But independently of the high price of labor, despatch, as an able author observes (Supp. Encyc. Brit. i. 118), is a matter of great importance in such a climate as that of Britain. In reaping corn at the precise period of its maturity, the advantages of despatch are incalculable, especially in those districts where the difficulty of procuring hands, even at enormous wages, aggravates the danger from the instability of the season. It cannot, therefore, fail to be interesting; and we hope it may be also useful, to record some of the more remarkable attempts that have been made towards an invention so eminently calculated to forward this most important operation.

2000. The first attempt at a reaping machine, so far as we have learned, was made by Boyce, who obtained a patent for a reaping machine fifteen or twenty years ago. This machine was placed in a two-wheeled carriage, somewhat resembling a common cart, but the wheels were fixed upon the axle, so that it revolved along with them. A cog-wheel, within the carriage, turned a smaller one at the upper end of an inclined axis, and at the lower end of this was a larger wheel, which gave a rapid motion to a pinion fixed upon a vertical axis, in the fore part of the carriage, and rather on one side, so that it went before one of the wheels of the carriage. The vertical spindle descended to within a few inches of the surface of the ground, and had there a number of scythes fixed upon it horizontally. This machine, when wheeled along, would, by the rapid revolution of its scythes, cut down a portion of the corn growing upon the ground over which it passed, but having no provision for gathering up the corn in parcels and laying it in proper heaps, it was wholly unsuited to the purpose.

2001. An improvement on this attempt was made by Plucknet, an agricultural implement maker, of London, some years afterwards. The principal alteration he made, was in substituting for the scythes a circular steel plate, made very sharp at the edge, and notched at the upper side like a sickle. This plate acted in the same manner as a very fine toothed saw, and was found to cut the corn much better than the scythes of the original machine.

2602. A machine, invented by Gladstones, of Castle Douglas, in the stewartry of Kircudbright, operated upon nearly the same principles with Plucknet's; but Gladstone's made its work much better by introducing a circular table, with strong wooden teeth notched below all around, which was fixed immediately over the cutter and parallel to it. The use of these teeth was to collect the corn and retain it till it was operated on by the circular cutter. The corn, when cut, was received upon this table, and, when a sufficient quantity was collected, taken away by a rake or sweeper, and laid upon the ground beneath the machine, in separate parcels. To this machine was added a small circular wheel of wood, covered with

emery, which, being always kept in contact with the great cutter at the back part, or opposite side to that where the cutting was performed, kept it constantly ground to a sharp edge.

2603. Salmon of Woburn made the next attempt, and his invention, it is said, promised better than those we have mentioned. It was constructed upon a totally different principle, as it cut the corn by means of shears; and it was provided with a very complete apparatus for laying it down in parcels as it was cut. 2604. The latest machine (fig. 339.), and by much the most ingenious and promising of which we have

received any account, is that constructed by Smith, of the Deanston Cotton Works, Perthshire. Smith's perseverance, his successive improvements, and ingenious yet simple contrivances for remedying defects, afford strong grounds to hope that he will ultimately succeed in rendering his machine a most valuable acquisition to agriculturists. He made the first trial of his machine upon a small scale, during the harvest of 1811. It was then wrought by two men. In 1812 he constructed one upon a larger scale, to be wrought by a horse; but though he cut down several acres of oats and barley with considerable ease, it was found that, when met by an acclivity, the horse could not move the machine with proper effect. In 1813, he made a more successful attempt, with an improved machine, worked by one man and two horses; and (1814) it was still farther improved by an additional apparatus, tending to regulate the application of the cutter, when working on an uneven surface. This ingenious machine has been again tried, in September 1815, and with much success. A Scotch acre (1 acre English) of beans was cut down with ease in an hour and a quarter. The trials made with it on wheat, though not extensive, were satisfactory; and in reaping oats, the corn was laid down in the most regular manner. The cutter of this machine is circular, and operates horizontally; it is appended to a drum connected with the fore-part of the machine, its blade projecting some inches beyond the periphery of the lower end of the drum; and the machine is so constructed as to communicate, in moving forward, a rapid rotatory motion to this drum and cutter, by which the stalks are cut, and, falling upon the drum, are carried round and thrown off in regular rows. This most ingenious piece of machinery will cut about an English acre per hour, during which time the cutter requires to be four times sharpened with a common scythe stone. The expense of this machine is estimated at from thirty to thirty-five pounds. If properly managed, it may last for many years; only requiring a new cutter every two or three years, a repair which cannot cost much.

340

2605. A machine for reaping the heads or seed pods of clover (fig. 340.), where the second growth of that crop is left to stand for seed, has been used in some parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. It consists of a comb, the teeth of which are lanceshaped, very sharp and set close. This comb is affixed horizontally to the fore-part of the bottom of an open box or barrow, which is drawn by one horse and guided by a man, who empties the barrow in regular

lines across the field by means of an implement (a), which serves also to clean the teeth. 2606. A machine for mowing clover hay has frequently been attempted, but not yet perfected. One by Plucknet, of the Blackfriars Road, London, succeeded tolerably, but never came into use: it consisted of circular knives put into rapid motion, and the cut stalks guided to one side by a revolving cradle, like that attached to corn and scythes (2405.). It never came into use.

2607. The carriage or conveyance machines of agriculture are chiefly carts and waggons, and their several varieties.

SUBSECT. 1. Carts.

2608. Carts, like other implements, vary in their forms and modes of construction, according to the nature and situation of the roads, and many other local circumstances; but, for the purposes of farming, those of the single-horse kind are in general the most advantageous and useful. The advantages of single-horse carts, Lord R. Seymour observes (Ann. Ag. xxvii.), are universally admitted, wherever they have been attentively compared with carriages of any other description. A horse, when he acts singly, will do half as much more work as when he acts in conjunction with another; that is to say, that two horses will, separately, do as much work as three conjunctively: this arises, in

the first place, from the single horse being so near the load he draws; and, in the next place, from the point or line of draught being so much below his breast, it being usual to make the wheels of single-horse carts low. A horse harnessed singly, has nothing but his load to contend wita; whereas, when he draws in conjunction with another, he is generally embarrassed by some difference of rate, the horse behind or before him moving quicker or slower than himself; he is likewise frequently inconvenienced by the greater or lesser height of his neighbor: these considerations give a decided advantage to the single-horse cart. The very great ease with which a low cart is filled may be added; as a man may load it, with the help of a long-handled shovel or fork, by means of his hands only; whereas, in order to fill a higher cart, not only the man's back, but his arms and whole person must be exerted. To the use of single horses in draught there can be no objection, unless it be the supposed necessity of additional drivers created by it: the fact however is, that it has no such effect; for horses once in the habit of going singly, will follow each other as uniformly and as steadily as they do when harnessed together; and accordingly we see, on the most frequented roads in Ireland, men conducting three, four, or five, single-horse carts each, without any inconvenience to the passengers: such, likewise, is the case where lime and coal are generally carried upon pack-horses. In some of the northern counties of Britain also, one man manages two or three, and sometimes more, one-horse carts.

2609. Carts drawn by one or two horses, says a writer, whose authority is unquestionable (Supp. Encyc. Brit.), are the only farm carriages of some of the best cultivated counties, and no other are ever used in Scotland. Their load depends upon the strength of the horses, and nature of the roads; but in every case, it is asserted that a given number of horses will draw a great deal more, according to some one-third more, in single-horse carts than in waggons. Two-horse carts are still the most common among farmers in Scotland; but those drawn by one horse, two of which are always driven by one man, are unquestionably preferable for most purposes. The carriers of the west of Scotland usually load from a ton, to a ton and a half, on a single-horse cart, and no where does it carry less than 12 cwt. if the roads are tolerable.

2610. Wheels, such as are broad, with conical or convex rims, are common in England; in Scotland the wheels are generally narrow, though broader ones are beginning to be introduced. Those used for the common, or two-horse carts, are usually about 4 feet high, and mounted on iron axles. The advantages of broad cylindrical wheels have been illustrated with much force and ingenuity in several late publications. (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. ii. and vol. vii. part i.)

2611. The Scotch one-horse cart in general use in husbandry is what is called a close coup cart, and is either used with

out or with a frame (fig. 341.) for corn, straw or hay. On drawing out an iron pin, the fore part of the body rises up from the shafts, while the other end sinks and allows the load, whether of dung, earth, or stores in the close cart or of hay, or sheaves of corn on the cart and frame, to fall to the ground.

341

2612. The Scotch two-horse cart differs little from the one-horse cart, excepting in being larger. To prove the inferiority of double to single horse carts, Gray observes, "that whatever greater part of the load is placed before the centre of gravity, which is always in the axle, must rest constantly on the horse that is in the shafts. In going down hill, this burden must be considerably increased, especially if the load be high above the centre of the axle, or the descent steep; and the additional burden upon the shafthorse is always in proportion to these two causes united. But there is another disadvantage; for unless the line of the draught of the foremost horse be exactly in the line, from the hook of his collar to the centre of the axle, (which is hardly possible), he will perpetually be pulling down the hindmost horse, or, in other words, will be giving him more weight to carry. For, as the traces of the foremost horse are generally fixed upon the shafts, this throws his line of draught at a considerable angle above the centre of the axle; from which it is evident, that although the road be ever so level, yet in every double or two-horse cart, the foremost horse must either not draw at all, or must bring additional weight upon the horse in the shafts, which weight will always be in proportion to the force with which the trace-horse draws, and the largeness of the angle, which the line of his draught makes with the line from the hook of his collar to the centre of the axle. Besides, unless the driver be more careful than ordinary, and keep the trace horse to his duty, the other one has not only this great weight to carry, but also the whole load to draw. The angle is increased considerably, when the trace horse is of a lower size,