THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



395 



from factory-chimneys on thftir banks, once besprent 

 with buttercups and with daisies, now brick -red with 

 the crowded homes of a thousand workers. So, now 

 that agriculturists have invoked a new power to do their 

 bidding — and the spirits, unlike those of Glendower, 

 have come when they are called upon — in like manner 

 will changes of as striking a character, though of course 

 much modified in detail, be effected in the operations of 

 agriculture, as have been effected by the same power in 

 those of manufactures. The giant power of steam will 

 disdain to be yoked to the puny processes, and to be 

 cramped in operation by the petty arrangements of olden 

 times ; she will demand processes in which she will give 

 her full and gigantic aid, and arrangements in which she 

 can display to the utmost verge her expansive powers. 

 Steam, as it has revolutionized the manufactures, must, 

 if allowed to develope her full powers, revolutionize the 

 agriculture of Great Britain. As Steam, joined to the 

 thundering car and the gliding iron, has almost anni- 

 hilated space, and rendered distances which years ago 

 comprehended days now compassed by hours ; as she 

 has almost, by the paddle-plash of her powerful steamers, 

 rendered harmless the winds which lash into fury the 

 waves of old ocean ; so must it, in the good time 

 coming, vastly increase the capabilities of the soil, 

 change places now gloomy with sad sterility to spots 

 delightful to the eye and cheerful to the heart of man ; 

 make dreary deserts of the blackened moss, dark now 

 and "brown as is the ribbed sea sand," green then with 

 the glad trophies of the husbandman; and tracts, where 

 now wave the water-rush, be covered then — wavingly 

 wooing the summer breezes — with wide expanses golden 

 with the glories of the summer corn. 



Such, and no other, do we deem the future of agri- 

 culture, aided by steam, likely to be; and it behoves 

 those interested to consider well how best they can 

 aid its progress. The engineer has done nobly his part. 

 With his mechanical genius, and the patient perseverance 

 which is ever its concomitant, he has effected much ; it 

 remains for the landowner and the farmer to so further 

 aid him by doing their part, that he may do more. It 

 is only by a conjunction of effort — the farmer in his 

 fields, and the engineer at his mechanism — that rapid 

 progress is to be secured. Each performing his re- 

 spective duties, and performing them carefully and well, 

 we may soon see the good time so often sung about as 

 coming, come at last ; and, with the blessings of Provi- 

 dence on their efforts, witness the prophecies of old 

 receive their consummation, when the sterile places 

 shall be made glad, the desert be made to blossom like 

 the rose, and even the very hill-tops fruitful with the 

 harvest, which makes happy the homes of men, lighten* 

 the labour of the field, and gladdens the gaieties of the 

 hearth. 



In reviewing the novelties in agricultural mechanism 

 presented at the Chester Show, our attention is next 

 directed to those connected with the " culture of the 

 soil," to which we have not yet made reference. Al- 

 though the plough, and cognate implements, as grub- 

 bers, &c., form important classes in this department, 

 we pass them for the present, not only from the circum- 



stance that comparatively little novelty was presented 

 in connection with these implements, but inasmuch as 

 we propose at some future period — before, or at least 

 immediately after, the trials of this class at the Royal 

 Society's Meeting at Warwick next year — to go some- 

 what fully into the subject of the plough, the philosophy 

 of its operation, and the peculiarities of its construction, 

 as exemplified in the " makes " of the most celebrated 

 manufacturers. We may remark, however, in passing, 

 that the pariruj vlough of Mr. Woolfe, of Gloucester — 

 to which a silver medal was deservedly awarded — is 

 worthy of the attention of our practical agriculturists, 

 not only on account of the ingenuity of its arrangements, 

 but from the precision and accuracy with which it seems 

 likely to do its work. 



Narrowing, then, in this way, the field of view of im- 

 plements cultural, we have at once presented to our 

 notice those classes of machines which have for their 

 object the distribution of seed or manure, and the 

 cleaning of the growing crops, as horse hoes, &c. In 

 the first of these classes we have to draw the attention 

 of the reader to the dry manure distributor of Messrs. 

 Reeves, of Bratton,\Vestbury, Wilts. This is capable 

 of distributing soot, guano, or artificial manures with 

 regularity, and in quantity varying from 4 to 100 bushels 

 per acre. The manure box, which in length is equal to 

 the breadth of ground covered with the manure, has 

 a curved or semi -circular instead of a rectangular 

 bottom. In the side of the box— afs the back of the 

 machine— and at the curved part of it, a series of aper- 

 tures are made, through which the manure passes on its 

 way for distribution over the surface. A slide fits the 

 curved part of the box, and by means of a rack at one 

 end of it, into which a pinion gears, actuated by a lever 

 within easy reach of the attendant, it is made to cover 

 up entirely, or open to any desired extent, the apertures 

 through which the manure passes. To keep the ma- 

 nure in the box pulverized, and in a condition in which 

 it can pass easily out through the apertures with- 

 out clogging, a shaft is made to revolve in the curved 

 part ; this shaft being provided with blades projecting 

 from the opposite ends of each diameter : these do not 

 project at right angles to the central axis of the shaft, 

 but are inclined, two in one and two in the opposite 

 direction. The revolution of the shaft causes the in- 

 clined blades so to act on the manure, that a lateral 

 to-and-fro motion is given to it while lying in the box ; so 

 that it is, as it were, rubbed out at the apertures, and 

 passes therefrom in a granulated condition. When the 

 machine is used in conjunction with the corn drill, 

 funnels are attached to the apertures in the manure box, 

 which lead the manure to the lines made by the coulters. 

 A graduated plate is provided, over which the handle 

 working the regulating slide passes : according to the 

 position of the handle on the plate is the quantity of 

 manure delivered. 



To Messrs. Priest and Woolnough, of Kingston-on- 

 Thames, a silver medal was awarded for their "blast 

 drill for destroying the fly on turnips," the invention 

 of Mr. Jephson Rowley, of Rowthorn, near Chesterfield ; 

 the purpose for which it is designed being effected by 



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