41)1 



TilE i^AllMlill'S MAGAZINE. 



Each harrow is composed of two couceulric rings of 

 wrought-iron : these rings, being placed horizontally 

 cany the tines or teeth. 



Messrs. Owen and Co., of Tottenham Court-road, 

 exhibited in this section of implements an American 

 "potato-digging plough and cultivator," possessing 

 many of the features which characterize American field- 

 implements. The share is broad, short, and made equal- 

 angled in front, terminating in a point. It is carried 

 by a curved stem connected with the beam, the front of 

 which is supported by two small wheels. Behind the 

 share and stem, bars project some distance. They are 

 placed angularly, pointing upwards ; and their office is 

 to disintegrate the soil, which is passed up to them by 

 the action of the share, separating the earth from the 

 potatoes, leaving these lying uppermost as the plough 

 progresses. The implement looks as if its arrangement 

 was founded upon that modification of the plough 

 which in Scotland is used for splitting up the ridges, 

 and which has a " brauder" behind, for separating the 

 potatoes. 



We now come to describe the "machines of realization" 

 as they may be termed, those which have connexion with 

 the preparation of the food for stock or of the grain for 

 market. 



In connexion with the food-preparing mechanism, 

 Messrs. Richmond and Chandler exhibited specimens 

 of their chaff-cutting engines, with their recently pa- 

 tented improvements ; these exemplifying in the nice 

 adjustment of parts and their admirable workmanship , the 

 high perfection to which the construction of agricultural 

 mechanism has been brought by the exercise of construc- 

 tive skill and mechanical ingenuity. The patented im- 

 provements in these machines consist, first, in the adoption 

 of means by which the upper feed rollers are supported in 

 adjustable bearings, so that each roller is enabled to rise 

 and fall independently of the other; second, in making the 

 teeth of the first pair of the rollers tapered and radiating 

 from the centre ; third, in making the mouthpiece of the 

 machine of cast steel, so that it remains uninjured by the re- 

 peated action of theknivesagainstit; fourth, an improved 

 mode of fitting the knives. The bottom feed rollers are 

 supported in fixed bearings, while each upper roller has 

 an independent bearing : links are suspended from the 

 axles of these upper rollers, and are jointed to a beam 

 from which is suspended a weight. The improved ra- 

 dial and tapered form of teeth of the first pair of feed 

 rollers causes them to take a better hold of the material 

 as it passes through between them, conveying it with re- 

 gularity to the second pair of rollers, the teeth of which in- 

 terspace with those of the others, and strip them of the 

 straw. The knives are adjusted to the face of the 

 mouthpiece by setting them at an angle to the face of 

 the fly wheel. A number of projections or studs are 

 stamped on each blade, the outer faces of these projec- 

 tions being diagonal to the blade, and in line with face 

 of flywheel. Screwed bushes, furnished ^with hexagonal 

 heads, fit against these projections, and are screwed into 

 the arms of the flywheel. The knives are firmly se- 

 cured by bolts which pass though the'bushes and pro- 

 jections. To adjust the cutting edges to the steel mouth- 



piece, the nuts of the bolts are slackened, and the bushes 

 turned in the direction required, so as to bring the 

 cutting edge of the knives nearer to or further from the 

 steel mouthpiece ; when the adjustment is made, the 

 nuts are tightened, and the whole held in place. We 

 give illustrations of this machine — front and side eleva- 

 tions- 



Messrs. Edward Palmer and Son, of London-road, 

 Thetford, Norfolk, exhibited a straw-cutting engine, in 

 which were noticeable several features of novelty. The 

 principal of these is the substitution of straight-edged 

 for the usually curved-edged cutting knives. They are 

 not attached to the flywheel arms, but to the flywheel 

 shaft. They are placed not exactly parallel to this, but 

 with one end slightly in advance of the other : 

 this insures the knives giving a " drawing 

 cut," like a razor. The knives thus set, form a 

 cylinder with several cutting edges running across the 

 inner-end of the feeding-trough : this terminating in a 

 fixed bar set at an angle with the revolving cutters. 

 This bar forms a stationary cutter, the material to be 

 cut passing between this and the revolving cutters. By 



