128 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



hay. Again, when the rake meets any obstacle, the slide is 

 dragged forward, and frees the teeth, 



Mr. SamuelsoD, of Banbury, exhibited for the first time, at 

 ti.e Royal Society's Show, the " Automatic Reaper," the in- 

 vention of Messrs. Seymour and Morgan, of America. In 

 this machine the corn, a? it is cut, is delivered at the side, in 

 bundles or sheaves, ready for binding. This side-delivery is 

 effected by an iagei'ious arrangement of mechanism, which 

 gives motion to a " rake," which sweeps the cut corn off the 

 platform. This platform i^ quadrantal in outline, the knives 

 of the machine working in line with one of the radii of the 

 quadract, the other radius being ia a line with the hue of mo- 

 tion of the machine. The end of the rake describes at each 

 movement a quarter of a circle, having alternate ruotiou In 

 opposite directions. But, in addition to this alternate move- 

 ment, the rake has another motion given to it— namely, a 

 motion of semi-rotation on its axis. This is necessitated for 

 the following reason : Oa the rake sweeping the cut corn from 

 the front of the platform to the side, the teeth of the rake are 

 vertical, to take and retoiu hold of the corn ; but if they were 

 to remaiu so on the finish of its journey, the result would he 

 that, on its return-journey from the side to the front of the 

 platforaa, tlie com would just be dragged back again. To 

 prevent this being done, and to release the teeth of the rake 

 from the corn as soon as the lalter is delivered at the side of 

 the platform, the lake has a quarter- revolution on its axis, 

 which changes the position of the teeth from the vertical to 

 the horizontal, thus completely releasing the teeth from the 

 corn, which drops off the platform to the ground. Simulta- 

 neously with the change of position of teeth, the rake is lifted 

 vertically upwards a short distance, so as to be above the 

 level of face of platform. The rake then begins ita return- 

 journey over the platform, the teeth remaining still horizontal, 

 so that they pass over without catching hold of any cut corn 

 lyiag on the platform. On reaching the point above the 

 knives, the rake drops down ; and, simultaneously with this 



dropping, the position of the teeth ia changed from the hori- 

 zontal to the vertical. The rake at the same instant begins 

 its journey over the platform, sweeping all the cut corn to the 

 side. Space prevents us from giving a full detail of the highly 

 ingenious mechanism by which these automatic movements 

 are obtained : suffice t to say that the alternate movement of 

 tie rake over the platform is obtained by connecting a pinion 

 with the shaft of rake. This pinion gears with a curved rack, 

 the curve of which is the same as the curve of platform, on 

 the upper and under side of which teeth are placed. When 

 the pinion gears with the teeth on the upper side of rack, the 

 rake moves in an opposite direction from that in which it 

 moves when the pinion gears with the teeth on the under side 

 of the rack. The rise and fall of the rake, to which we have 

 before alluded, is produced by the rise of tlie pinion from the 

 lower to the upper side of the rack, and vice versa. It is from 

 this rise and fall that the motion of part-rotation of the rake 

 on its axis is obtained. To the pinion which traverses alter- 

 nately the under and upper side of rack, as above stated, a 

 short vertical rack is connected. This geais with a small 

 pinion fixed on the end of the shaft of the rake. When the 

 pinion falls or rises, the vertical rake also falls or rises, actu- 

 ating at the same time the pinion upon the end of the rake, 

 giving to it a part rotation on ita axis. 



Although not forming a part of the regular prize list, 

 " grass-mowing machines" were tried for a special prize. This 

 was awarded to the machine (Allen's patent) exhibited by 

 Messrs. Burgess and Key, of London. Nothing could exceed 

 the precision and regularity with which this machine did its 

 work, cutting as clean, sharp, and uniform as could be de- 

 sired. 



The other competing machines were those of Wood and of 

 Mr. Harwood. The work done by the last did not stand 

 comparison with that of Allen's — the cutting was irregular 

 and patchy, and too high to be an economic mower. 



R. S. B. 



SUFFOLK AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 



MHETING AT FRAMLINGHAM. 



The Framlingham Show of the SufFolk Society would 

 have been altogether the most satisfactory and success- 

 ful of any yet held iu the county — if it had not been 

 held at Framlinghara. As it was, the intrinsic merits 

 of the meeting were of the very highest order. But the 

 Association has now clearly outgrown the limited capa- 

 bilities of so small a place, backed as these were by a 

 run-in on a single line of rails, under that excjuisite 

 system of management for which the " Eastern Coun- 

 ties" is so deservedly famous. The selection of a fit- 

 ting site will be a grave point for all future considera- 

 tion ; and we almost question whether it would not be 

 better to go from Ipswich to Bury, and from Bury to 

 Ipswich, rather than to hazard the inconveniences of 

 less suitable localities. Even beyond this, although 

 the ruins of the old Castle towered majestically on the 

 scene, the show-ground itself was scarcely adapted for 

 the purpose it was put to. The sharp side of a hill is 

 hardly the place on which to group a number of well- 

 coiiditioncd horses. Let them be either in repose or in 

 action, they can seldom exhibit themselves to advan- 

 tage under such circumstances. And the Suffolk Show 

 is, above all things, a show of horses. People just 

 glance round at the few red Suffolk beasts, the still 

 scarcer Shorthorns, and the odd pens of sheep and pigs. 

 Their full energies, however, they reserve for the 

 horses — for the cart-horses more especially. Three 

 gentlemen got easily through the duty of discriminating 

 between the several swine, sheep, and cattle; while it 

 took no less than eight— divided, and subdivided again 

 —to determine, from out of so many good stallions, 



mares, colts, fillies, and foals, which were really the 

 best. 



And even then this was no light labour. For ex- 

 ample, there were no less than twenty aged chesuut 

 Suffolk stallions entered ; many so much of the same 

 shape and colour, that a stranger to the breed would 

 hardly identify one from the other. Then, 

 amongst these were many celebrated horses, that made 

 the task of deciding yet more delicate and difficult. 

 Mr. Badham sent the handsome Chester Emperor, a 

 winner at the Royal Agricultural Society, and in 

 Essex and Suffolk, over and over again. Mr. Bar- 

 thropp entered the nearly as famous Hero, and 

 Mr. Crisp the useful Marquis, who beat a good 

 field at Norwich the other day. 'Then Mr. Barnes had 

 Champion, a first prize colt at Bury St. Edmund's the 

 year before last; Mr. Frost the highly commended 

 Sir Colin of Walden, a week or two back ; while Mr. 

 Stearn, Mr. Wilson, and others did much to the credit 

 of the class. And from all these Messrs. Carter and 

 Scott selected Crctingham Hero as the most worthy. 

 He certainly never looked better; weighty, but still ac- 

 tive; high in flesh, but firm in muscle, with a short 

 leg, a good forehand, and yet finer quarter. The Hero 

 had only one great drawback, and that was his temper. 

 At least the stev.'ards were somewhat alarmed at his re- 

 putation in this wise, and ordered him into solitary con- 

 finement in a field adjoining the show ground. But 

 the horse never exhibited any decided signs of vice, 

 although he has a wicked eye, that Mr. Rarey's lesson 

 does not appear to have done much to subdue. The 



