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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



wheels of larger diameter. These wheels have their 

 bearings at the extremities of two levers, jointed near 

 their centre to the beam of the implement. The free 

 ends of the lever are continued upwards, and passed 

 through the slots of two curved or segmental guides, 

 provided with holes and a catch-pin, by which the 

 levers are kept in any desired position. Chains are 

 connected to the upper extremities of the levers, and 

 carried over and fixed to the peripheries of two eccentric 

 wheels, keyed on to a shaft working in bearings sup- 

 ported on the outer extremities of two curved brackets 

 projecting from the ends of the beam. The stilts or 

 handles of the implement are placed between these 

 brackets ; and a cross handle, attached to the shaft bear- 

 ing the eccentric wheels, is thus placed easily within the 

 reach of the attendant. By turning this cross-handle 

 ip one direction, the chains are wound round the peri- 

 pheries of the eccentric wheels, and the upper extremi- 

 ties of the two levers supporting the wheels pulled to- 

 wards the attendant. The action lowers the ends of the 

 levers to which the wheels are attached, or rather, tends 

 to press the wheels against the ground ; and the leverage 

 thus obtained raises the implement out of contact with 

 the ground. Behind the body of the implement, which 

 acts in the soil, two wings are placed, which expand out- 

 wards, and spread the soil and manure over the land. 



(2.) To their well-known liquid manure drill Messrs. 

 Reeves, of Bratton, have adapted this season the 

 " drop drill" invented by Mr. Chambers, the gentle- 

 man to whom the agricultural world is indebted for the 

 " broadcast manure distributor." The simple mechanism 

 of Mr. Chambers is confined entirely to the coulter part 

 of the drill, so that it is capable of being applied to any 

 form of water drill. There is little diversity of opinion 

 as to the desirableness of a "good drop drill for root 

 crops." The difficulty hitherto attendant upon all at- 

 tempts to perfect a machine of this class has been caused 

 by the employment of dry, dusty manures, by which the 

 chances were lessened of the seed germinating, in dry 

 seasons. By the use of liquid manure, deposited (along 

 with the seed) at intervals, and not in a continuous 

 stream, Mr. Chambers obviates the difficulties attendant 

 upon the system as hitherto tried ; and the following ad- 

 vantages are obtained: 1, A saving of two-thirds the 

 quantities of water now applied, thereby making the 

 drill applicable on light-land farms, where water is 

 scarce ; 2, A saving of half the quantity of seed ; 3, A 

 saving of manure, from its being deposited only where 

 required ; 4, Where land is clean, a saving of one hand- 

 hoeing ; 5, The certainty of having the best plant in the 

 right place, and thereby obtaining a decided increase of 

 produce. The mechanism by which these advantages 

 are obtainable is remarkable for its simplicity of action, 

 and the absence of all complicated parts liable to de- 

 rangement. The following brief description may suffice 

 to explain its peculiarities of arrangement : a" hollow 

 rotary chamber, provided with four arms or spouts, 

 revolves on an axis supported on bearings fixed to a 

 frame, attached to the drill, in place of the ordinary 

 swing lever and coulter. The spouts project from the 

 periphery of the hollow chamber ; and through these the 

 liquid manure and the seed are passed, to be deposited in 

 the ground as each spout or outlet comes in contact 

 with it. The liquid manure and seed are delivered to 

 the interior of the chamber by means of a spout, which 

 is also carried by the frame. The successive deposits of 

 seed are made in a furrow, formed by a coulter, which 

 precedes the wheel, and is adjusted in the usual 

 manner. The hollow chamber receives its motion 

 through the medium of a wheel running on the land, and 

 which is keyed on the same shaft which supports the hol- 

 low chamber. The distance between the outlets of the 

 spouts of the hollow chamber being invariably uniform, ( 



the intervals between the deposits of seed will be uni- 

 form also. To obviate this defect, however, and give 

 an adjustability to the mechanism, so as to enable the 

 distance between the seed deposits to be regulated 

 as desired, the wheel which gives motion to the chamber 

 is made in segments, each of which is attached to one of 

 the spokes, or arms, provided with slots and bolts, and 

 nuts, by which they can be adjusted nearer to or further 

 from the centre, thus reducing or enlarging the peri- 

 phery of the wheel. So effective is this simple mechan- 

 ism which we have now described, that the wheel can 

 be made to rotate even at a very high velocity, without 

 in any way impairing the integrity of ihe alternate or 

 intervallic dropping, each deposit having its proper 

 modicum of seed and liquid manure, and being per- 

 fectly independent of the preceding and succeeding ones. 



(3.) Messrs. Reeves also exhibit, in addition to the 

 liquid-manure and drop drill just described, a simple 

 hand- drop drill, which seems likely to be useful for market 

 gardens and small occupations. The main feature of 

 the apparatus may here be described. To the framing, 

 which runs on two wheels, and is worked by a cross- 

 handle, the seed-chamber is fixed; this being formed of 

 a vertical cylinder, some three or four inches in diame- 

 ter and six or eight in height. The lower part of this is 

 capable of being placed very near to the ground while the • 

 machine is in operation, and this facilitates the " bunch- 

 ing'' and depositing of the seed. In this seed-chamber a 

 circular plate, or partition, of cast-iron is placed hori- 

 zontally, provided with a ring or a series of apertures of 

 determinate size. In close contact with this plate 

 another, similarly perforated, is made to revolve by sim- 

 ple mechanism. While the solid parts of the upper and 

 revolving plate, on which the seed placed in the chamber 

 rests, are opposite the perforated parts of the partition 

 or plate below it, there is no passage downwards for the 

 seed ; but as soon as the perforations of the two plates 

 coincide with each other, a passage is made for the seed, 

 which drops down through the lower part of the cham- 

 ber, and is deposited in the ground at intervals corre- 

 sponding to the number of holes in the plates and the 

 rapidity with which the revolving plate is made to rotate. 

 Various plates are used, according to the kind of seed 

 which it is desired to deposit. A coulter is placed in 

 advance of the seed-chamber, to form a furrow, in which 

 the seed is deposited. 



(4,) In addition to the machines already noticed, 

 Messrs. Reeves exhibited a specimen of Mr. Palmer's 

 rotary corn separator or screen, for which, we believe, 

 the first prize was awarded at the York Show in August 

 last. As this machine presents several features of con- 

 siderable novelty, we propose to give a brief description 

 of it. In general appearance it resembles the well- 

 known barley hummeller of Messrs. Garrett, the main 

 feature being a rotary cylindrical screen or sieve, the 

 shaft of which is placed at an angle, and is turned by 

 means of a winch or handle, or through the medium of 

 a pulley, if steam-power is used. The meshes of the 

 cylindrical screen are made of four difi"erent gauges, the 

 coarsest of which is at the delivery, and the finest at 

 the feeding end. Below these divisions of gauge, shoots 

 or spouts are placed, to conduct the products of the 

 various screenings to suitable receptacles. Thus the first 

 spout receives from the finest gauge of the screen the 

 small dust and seeds, the second spout from the next 

 finest gauge the very thin corn, the third spout receives 

 the tail corn, while the last receives the best. Poppy 

 heads, and other bulky substances which will not i)ass 

 through the largest meshes, are received into a fifth 

 shoot. But the main feature of the machine consists in 

 the "adaptation of a series of segmental partitions or 

 plates to the interior of the cylindrical screen ; these fit- 

 ting close to the inner periphery, and arranged at dia- 



