THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



63 



feet. This, we should think, was an under-estimate. 

 The whole apparatus takes up little room, and its ar- 

 rangements seem simple enough to be managed without 

 difficulty by any farm-servant. The inventor has fitted 

 up nearly 300 apparatuses in diflferent parts of the 

 country. 



On the stand of Mr. Buxton (Malton, Yorkshire) we 

 noticed a patent mill for breaking, splitting, and grind- 

 ing oats, peas, &c. In this there is an ingenious adapta- 

 tion of an Archimedean screw in the shaft which carries 

 the grinding part. The screw is immediately beneath 

 the hopper which supplies the grain to be crushed, and 

 carries it to the grinding surface, over which it is dis- 

 tributed at an equal rate, so that if the mill is running 

 fast or slow it cannot choke. The grinding part is 

 formed of a cone divided into three sections ; the first of 

 these conical sections is provided with a series of coarse- 

 cut segments, adjustable by means of set screws to fit 

 them for breaking, splitting, &c. The second conical 

 section is smooth in its periphery, but is provided with 

 a series of ribs forming a screw, which carries the sub- 

 stances broken or split by the first cone up to the action 



of the third and last cone, over the surface of which they 

 are distributed equally by the action of the screw cone. 

 A current of air is also projected over the surface of the 

 last cone, through the medium of the screw cone. The 

 last cone is provided with fine-cut segments, which 

 grind the substances split by the first cone into meal. 

 A 12-inch mill will grind by power from 10 to 14 

 bushels per hour. The cost of a machine of this size 

 is £'I2 12s. We understand that the manufacture of 

 this machine has been taken up by Messrs. Richmond 

 and Chandler of Salford, Manchester, whose well-known 

 mechanical abilities will doubtless result in making it a 

 machine of first-class workmanship. 



Jlany of the machines and implements which pre- 

 sented features of novelty were also exhibited at Salis- 

 bury ; and as we have already described their pecu- 

 liarities, we have now little more to do, in concluding 

 our brief notice of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's 

 Show, than to thank the Secretary, J. Hannam, Esq., 

 for so courteously throwing all facilities in our way for 

 inspecting the implements exhibited. — Journal of 

 Agriculture. 



THE EAST KENT AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Sir, — The vignette of your journal — an able engine, in- 

 scribed '• The Mark Lane Express"" — is a happy emblem of 

 the work yea have in hand. Deep-draining, long leases, 

 improved maehiner3', chemical composts, agricultural pro- 

 gress — steps in advance, upwar^ls and onwards — wliatever 

 maj' benefit the soil or its intelligent fertilizer, be he master 

 or man — these are your aim. Your locomotive runs out, 

 and brings back every passing incident of importance to 

 agriculture, without prejudice of matter, distance, or coun- 

 try from whence you fetch your readers' information. 



This i3 the more welcome at the farmer's breakfast-table, 

 inasmuch as there is but little to tempthimout just now. A 

 December morning is seldom pleasant— the " foracre" is so 

 sodden, the air so raw, the fog so solid — as the early rooks 

 cleave it with their wings — our whiskers so wet with the 

 pride of the morning. Almost the only sound to cheer a 

 farmer's heart in December is that which one would, at 

 first, take for a couple of self-hunting puppies, but which 

 proves to be " Yex," " Beam," "■ Chep," and " Scroad" of 

 the Kentish plough in musical striving and labour together, 

 as the crazy " turn-wrest" comes again to the straining of 

 the smoky team and the crack of the ploughboy's whip. 



Will a whistle from behind a Kentish plough interest 

 any of your readers at this time ? 



Let it be known, then, since country practices differ, that 

 the complete working establishment on a larm, say of five 

 hundred acres, in East Kent is five teams, with a man and 

 his mate to each of them. These ploughmen may be occa- 

 sionally married men, but the majority of them are single. 

 These are " farm-servants" in East Kent, in contradistinc- 

 tion to the ordinary " labourer" on the farm. It is calculated 

 that this class of "farm- servants" in the eastern division 

 of the county alone must amount fully to 5,000. This class 

 has been hitherto mainly without education, and sadly ig- 

 norant of the merest elements of that inward hope on which 

 their eternal destiny hinges, when ploughing and farming 

 shall be over for ever. 



There are things enough in tJiis world that move us ! For 

 example, it touches the heart to the quick when, trebly 

 cased in wool and waterproof, warm and snug, dry and well 

 fed, the cold rain beats mercilessly down, and you pass on 

 the road a mere child (one of the 80,000 employed in agri- 

 culture in England)— laying in the first seeds of a rheumatic 

 old age, if not of earlier consumption — rook-keeping ! 

 Saturated with the storm, he drags one foot after the other, 

 heavy laden with wet earth, to dislodge a sable trio, who 

 only mock his misery and childish struggles by sweeping 

 jauntily over his head, down- wind, and challenging another 

 toilsome pilgrimage to the opposite extremity of tlie hundred 



acre field. No shelter for this child— no "tempering of the 

 breeze for this shorn lamb!" His only interlude till the 

 daylight closes in is his little dinner, to be eaten wet and 

 cold ; then more rain, and more rooks, till at last his day is 

 done. This tears one's heart-strings. Surely there should 

 be provision for these lads against the weather in every in- 

 stance. 



But this has its end; moral evils have no end — tbeir in* 

 fluence is for ever. 



With a lively appreciation of this last sentiment, the 

 fact is an unwelcome one, that the class of whom we are 

 now speaking Jiuvs beeti,iorth.e most part, habitual absentees 

 from the house of God. 



Was there any cause for this, operating upon this class 

 more than upon others ? 



The inquiry suggested itself ; and there appeared, on in- 

 vestigation, a long-standing custom upon the farms of East 

 Kent, with some few exceptions, of "baiting" fiirm-horses 

 on the Sabbath, from 10 to 1'2 a.m. (the hours of divine ser- 

 vice in the morning), and from 4 p.ta. (lialf an hour before 

 the afternoon service is ordinarily concluded) to G p.m. 



Here, then, appeared at once an insuperable barrier, in 

 the shape of a custom, to the possibility of these 5,000 men 

 and boys worshipping God at all on the Sabbath, if we ex- 

 cept a limited number, who, having the " will," found the 

 way by mutual arrangement of relief in Sunday-work. 



In October, 1853, attention was first called to tlie exist- 

 ence of this custom, the injurious tendencies of which were 

 not, indeed, wantonly sanctioned by the farmer, since it had 

 crept insensibly into his establishment as a " custom re- 

 ceived from his fathers." The first furrow being turned up, 

 other things long existing — but existing also for the same 

 reason unobserved — came, one by one, to the surface of in- 

 quiry. These were met by the immediate and honest 

 acknowledgment of the farmer, and by his willing co- 

 operation in desiring their removal or alteration. 



Amongst these may be mentioned — 



1. The yearly renewal of service between master and 

 man, so subversive of any mutual interest and sympathy be 

 tween the two. 



2. The usual mode of access to the farm-servant's bed- 

 chamber, viz., by a ladder from without-doors, giving op- 

 portunity for nightly excesses and absence, thefts and other 

 irregularities. 



3. The want of domestic comfort in the farm-servant's 

 bed-chamber, want of water and washing utensils, of clean 

 bedding, &c., together with excessive crowding in some in- 

 stances, and commoulj' two men in a bed, 



4. The general absence in farm-houses of any common 



