128 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the apex. In the trial, .however, owing to the complicated nature of the 

 plough itself, it was found impossible to keep all the tools at work at once, 

 or to regulate the depth according to the form of the ridge. In addition to 

 the system upon which Mr. Boydell proposes to cultivate the soil, there is the 

 system of steam ploughing, by means of a stationary engine and windlass ; 

 the wire ropes used in drawing the ordinary plough across the land being led 

 through pulleys anchored in the ground, and which are shifted along the 

 margin of the land as the work proceeds. Of this plan there are two rival 

 schemes, viz. that of Mr. Fowler, and that of Mr. Smith. Mr. Fowler has a 

 set of four common ploughs hi a frame, and turns over as many furrows, 

 evenly, well laid, and at a fan* depth the quality of the work being all that 

 can be desired. By another arrangement Mr. Fowler makes two furrows at 

 once, and by trench ploughs, two furrows deep. Mr. Smith does not employ 

 the common plough, but it performs what is called " baulkploughing," combined 

 with subsoil ploughing and grubbing all these operations being performed 

 by one passage of the implement. 



The reaping machines were tried upon a piece of half-ripe rye, partially 

 laid, but to no great extent. There was CrosskilTs Bell's reaper, the same as 

 exhibited last year, as also the same with an improved delivery, consisting of 

 two endless straps with wooden cogs upon them, passing from side to side, in 

 front of a sloping platform. A fly-wheel is added to this machine, which 

 increases the regularity of the working of the parts. Dray's Hussey's reaper 

 was also one of the competing ones exhibited, this machine having a tipping 

 platform. 



Chambers's water drop-drill received the approbation of the judges. This is 

 a new invention ; and a great improvement upon the ordinary liquid manure 

 drill, as all the liquor is deposited with the seed where wanted, and so is not 

 wasted by being poured out in a continuous line. 



The show of agricultural implements, at the late Paris exhibition, is described 

 by English visitors as presenting in many of the machines of French and con- 

 tinental construction much scientific ingenuity, but productive of little practi- 

 cal utility, and one of the visitors writes that he saw no foreign field imple- 

 ment which he should consider an advantageous addition to the husbandry of 

 England. Among machines of a different class, he describes one in the fol- 

 lowing terms, which he recommends as a simple and useful instrument, viz. 

 a straw-loom exhibited by M. Guyot, of the Chateau de Sillery, which sells 

 at a cost of only 80 francs. So simple a machine may deserve the attention 

 of gardeners hi this country : 



" It forms mats with two threads of wire, Xo. 4, woven with straw, or 

 reeds, or rushes, which will last four years. The machine is worked by a man 

 like a common hand loom, and the thin web as it is formed passes through 

 below the machine, and winds itself up behind the workman like a carpet. 

 This straw web is used for the protection of young vines trained along the 

 ground, and costs rather less than Id. a yard. The inventor used 60,000 

 yards of it last year to protect his vires to the 15th of May against white 

 frosts ; till the 30th of June against cold rain ; and till harvest against the 

 otherwise slow maturity of a cold season. This invention might be very use- 



