94 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



IMPROVEMENTS IX AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



Corn-Cutter and Shocker. J. H. Reble, of Dayton, Ohio, has recently 

 brought into operation a novel agricultural implement, in the shape of a 

 corn-cutter and shocker. The machine is about eight feet wide, and drawn 

 by two horses. It cuts the standing maize by means of vibrating knives 

 like those of a mower, and throws it over backward on to a scoop-shaped 

 platform, where the butts ai'e properly arranged by an assistant, who stands 

 behind the driver, and has a suitable long-handled hook for the purpose. 

 The tops of the stalks lie in a pair of arms, and when enough have accumu- 

 lated say one hundred to one hundred and fifty hills to make a shock, 

 they are compressed by means of a rope and windlass; a binding-string is 

 tied around them, and the shock is first raised upward and carried back- 

 ward by a lever which raises a section of the platform, and then tilted up so 

 as to be discharged on the ground right side up. The machine then drives 

 on and repeats the same operation. It requires two horses to draw the 

 shocker, and three men to work it. 



An improved Hook for a Whijfle-tree, from which the trace never can get 

 loose, however slack it may be, when in use, while it is also as handy to hitch 

 and unhitch as one of the ordinary kind, is a new and successful contriv- 

 ance. This hook is attached to the whiffle-free by an iron strap, plays loosely 

 up and down, and turns quite round behind the whittle-tree, where alone 

 the trace can be hitched and unhitched. As soon as it slips from that 

 position, the hook fits close to the iron at every other point, whether pulled 

 tight or left slack. Naturally, when the trace is slack, the hook falls and 

 hangs by its own gravity below the whiffle-tree, but it is almost, if not quite, 

 impossible that it should turn round upon the rear side so as to unhook. 



An Improvement in the construction of a Corn-knife, or Tree-pruning Knife, 

 consists in an iron attachment to the end of the handle, which is made to 

 reach up along the under side of the arm nearly to the elbow, where it is 

 loosely buckled. This gives all the strength and leverage of the forearm to 

 relieve the strain upon the wrist. 



A new Churn, says the New York Tribune, has appeared, which, we believe, 

 will give greater satisfaction than any of its almost innumerable predeces- 

 sors. Heretofore we have found no substitute for the old hard-working but 

 effective dasher churn; but one has, we think, at last been invented. This 

 new churn will make more and better butter from a given quantity of 

 cream than any other we have ever seen, and in a reasonable time, usually 

 less than half an hour. Nor has it any machinery to adjust or keep in 

 order, and nothing but a plain, smooth barrel, inside and out, to keep clean. 

 A child can fill it, churn it, empty it, wash it, with less strength than it takes 

 to lift a bucket of water. It has no dasher, but is simply a plain barrel, of 

 any required size, hung upon iron pivots in a frame, and made to revolve 

 end over end by a crank, the cream dashing back and forth. One end of 

 the barrel is made movable and convenient to take off, and is fastened on 

 by a thumb-screw, air tight. After the cream is put in and the cover fas- 

 tened down, a small air-pump is attached, and the barrel charged with air, 

 and then revolved. "Without attempting a reason, we will say that this 

 aerifying has a remarkable and beneficial effect upon the cream, and appar- 

 ently improves the quantity and quality of the butter. 



Improved Horse Shoe. A patent has recently been granted to AY. Coleman, 



