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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



superior to the Scotch drum and revolving shakers, 

 that the Scotch dressing apparatus was fully_ as 

 efficient as the English ones, while at the same time 

 it was less complicated, and the working of the 

 different parts more easily seen, and when anything 

 mi"-ht happen to go wrong, much more easily putto 

 rights ; and having a tolerably good niTichine with 

 tli°ee s'ets of fanners, hammeller, and elevators, he 

 resolved to endeavour to combine these with the 

 English drum and shaker, for which purpose he ap- 

 plied to ^lessrs. InIoIUsou and M'Vitie, of Earlstou, 

 to make the necessary alterations, which they have 

 done by removing the old drum and shakers, and re- 

 placing them by a high-speed open drum with patent 

 beatersj and Clayton and Shuttlewortli's patent 

 horizontal shakers. The result has been most satis- 

 factory, and from the trials he has made with the 

 different kinds of grain, he can with confidence re- 

 commend any person who is not inclined to put up 

 a new machine to make a similar alteration. How- 

 ever, he thought it required more power to drive his 

 thrashing machine than it did formerly, and he had 

 observed that unless the drum be kept up to its 

 proper speed, about l,lO0 revolutions per minute, 

 it did not thrash clean. 



Sir J. M'Neill : I think it would be satisfactory 

 if 'Mi: Hope or Mr. Scott could state whether the 

 machine will do its work with horses. This is a 

 matter of some moment in the more remote parts of 

 the country. Does Mr. Scott think that the horse- 

 power machines could be connected in the manner 

 suggested by him ? 



Mr. Scott stated that he did not think it would 

 be advisable to attempt to work those high-speed drums 

 by horse-power, but thought either water or steam 

 was more suitable as the motive power. 



Mr. EiNxiE, Swanston, said that a farmer in his 

 neighbourhood had twice an English machine, and 

 from what he had heard, the machine did not 

 answer. 



Mr. Hope said he had received a letter from Sir 

 John S. Eorbes, calling attention to a machine pa- 

 tented by Mr. Isaac Harkless, suitable for a small 

 farmer, whereby one horse could do the work. 



Mr. Hall Maxwell : There is one point of great 

 importance to which I may refer. It would be of 

 great moment if any gentleman in the meeting could 

 throw out suggestions in reference to the conditions 

 that should attach to the trial of the machines in the 

 show-yard at Aberdeen, such as were intimated by 

 Mr. Hope. If such suggestions could be made, they 

 might prove useful for the guidance of the gentle- 

 men whose duties it will be to try the machines. I 

 see Mr. Waller, machine maker, present — perhaps 

 he could give his opinion. 



Mr. Waller said the points that Mr. Hope alluded 

 to in his paper had been freely canvassed in con- 

 nection with the English Agricultural Society, aud 

 some difficulty had been felt there. The conditions 

 had been left very much to the judges. He thought 

 it very unfair to the maker that his machine should 

 be subjected to a trial even by the most honourable 

 men living, for this reason, that suppose two pieces 

 of the very same quality of paper were taken— one 

 blue and the other white— probably no two people 

 would agree as to their respective value. It was 

 merely a question of opinion, and it was much the 



same with agricultural machines. Again, in some 

 cases the judges were all agriculturists, while makers 

 were excluded. Now, the agriculturist told the 

 maker what he required, and they tried to succeed 

 to the best of their ability. In some recent eases 

 tliey had certainly failed, and perhaps had done so 

 with thrashing machines. Clean thrashing depended, 

 he believed, more on the feeder than on the maker 

 of the machine, and he thought that with a plain 

 beater they could thrash as clean as with one of the 

 improved beaters now in use, ])rovided the drum were 

 made suitable, and the beater in a proper state. The 

 drum, as at present in use, was neither more nor less 

 than the Scoth drum invented a hundred years ago, 

 running at double the speed. The new power, in- 

 stead of applying the old-fashioned drum, substituted 

 an instrument specially adapted to man. Every 

 animal had its greatest power in the direction of the 

 spine, and the flail therefore was best suited to man. 

 The horse worked, as it pulled, in the direction of 

 its spine. The spine of the machine was rotary, 

 and had a revolving power, and therefore the Scotch 

 machine had a revolving drum and a revolving 

 shaker. In the English machines they had gone 

 back again to the horizontal movement with crank 

 shakers. Now, with these shakers, there was a 

 great waste of power, and of course an increased ex- 

 pense. He believed that a shaker crank, with 

 ordinary wo/k, could not work sixty days without 

 repair. If the Scotch machines were put in com- 

 petition with the English make, he did not think that 

 the English would have a good chance, and the 

 arrangements with regard to the awarding of the 

 prizes would therefore require to be very seriously 

 considered. He thought it would be better if the 

 judges were not all agriculturists. In the English 

 Society the judges were both machine makers and 

 agriculturists. 



Mr. Maxwell said that the same thing was done 

 by the Highland Society. 



jMr. Waller remarked that, in his opuiiou, it 

 woidd also be necessary to come to some agreement 

 as to the number of separations of the corn in the 

 machine. He thought tJiere ought to be four. This 

 would require more power and more expense, but 

 four separations of the grain could be effected as 

 quickly as a fewer number. It was all one operation. 

 It would be fair to the competitors to have every- 

 thing stated. 



Mr. Maxwell hoped that Mr. Waller would send 

 his views in writing to the committee, who would 

 consider the subject. 



Mr. Maclagan expressed the pleasure he felt in 

 listening to the interesting history of the thrashing 

 machine given by Mr. Hope, his graphic description 

 of the machine itself, and his statement of the 

 inconvenience, annoyance, and loss to which farmers 

 are subjected from ill-constructed machines. Having 

 seen an admirably working machine erected in his 

 neighbourhood by Clayton and Shuttleworth, and 

 also the results of an experiment made between it 

 and an ordinary Scotch one, he determined to test 

 the efficiency of his own mill by comparing it also 

 with an English one. He, therefore, engaged the 

 machine made by Hornsby and Son, which gained 

 this Society's premium in Glasgow. The experiment 

 was made last autumn with a stack of wheat, of 



