THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



311 



The well-known Chambers' patent broadcast manure 

 distributor received a prize of £8. In neighbourhoods 

 where top-dressings are resorted to, this is a most valu- 

 able implement, from the equality with which it distri- 

 butes the most difficult manures. 



Messrs. Holmes and Sons exhibited and took a prize 

 of £1 for a corn and seed drill for large occupations. 

 It has an improved steerage, superior to the fore- 

 carriage system, being steered from behind by a screw, 

 there is a good hill-side movement : by a vertical rack 

 fitted to each end of the axle, the seed box is raised or 

 depressed at pleasure; price £21 2s. This firm ex- 

 hibited an improved manure distributor, which took a 

 prize of ^^5, The delivery is very clever; price £\4t. 

 They also exhibited what is termed a new implement 

 for the broad-cast sowing of oats and barley : it covers 

 9 ft:.; price ^'9 10s. It seems scarcely worth while to 

 have a machine simply for this obsolete practice. \\& 

 notice, too, a general purpose drill ; price £2)\ 10s., 

 commended : and a manure and seed drill with concave 

 rollers and liquid manure delivery ; price £"25, highly 

 commended. This carries an iron barrel tank in front 

 of the seed box ; a series of endless webs fitted with 

 cups revolve in this tank, and the water thus drawn is 

 ejected into pipes that communicate with the cups 

 which receive the dry manure from the box, in company 

 with which it passes to the earth. 



Messrs. J. and F. Howard produced a drill presser, for 

 which they justly obtain a silver medal. This drill 

 is intended for light land. It follows three ploughs. 

 The pressing of the land, the depositing and covering 

 of the seed, are effected in one operation. It is very 

 necessary to obtain a firm bottom for seed, especially 

 wheat, and particularly on clover-ley, for the ravages of 

 the wire-worm are materially checked thereby. 



Messrs. Reeves exhibited a new implement, a 

 patent dry manure distributor, which obtained them 

 a prize of ^5. It can be used to sow broad-cast 

 either manure or corn, and costs only £10. 

 There was also a two or three-row drill, for liquid 

 and seed, on ridge or flat work. Attached to the 

 coulter is an iron box, containing a valve, opened and 

 shut by means of slugs on a press-wheel, running bo- 

 fore it. A constant supply of liquid is obtained through 

 pipes from the tank above, to this box, and dropped at 

 intervals. The invention is of great advantage on light 

 lands, as the groove for the manure and seed, made by 

 the press-wheels, is of such a solid nature as to retain 

 the fluid passed into it. The seed and liquid may either 

 be run in one continuous stream, or in bunches. The 

 price is £Z2. We also found here an economical 

 drill, for dry manure and seeds, for which Messrs. 

 Reeves received a silver medal. The price is £\2. 

 This cheap and useful implement is fitted with the 

 distributor that took a prize. Its purpose is to drill 

 fjur rows, 18 inches apart, of guano, superphosphate, 

 &c., without mixing with ashes, from 2 to 12 bushels 

 per acre. 



Mr. Isaac James obtained a £2 prize for a liquid 

 manure distributor, price £2i. The inconvenience in 

 using liquid manure has been the difficulty in getting it 

 to run. Mr. James has introduced strainers, to pre- 

 vent the pipe getting choked ; but we doubt whether 

 such an implement will ever become extensively used — 

 the expense is so great; and tiie end to be obtained by 

 this is better realized by the combined liquid manure 

 and seed drills. It carries 270 gallons, and scatters its 

 contents over 14 feet of ground. 



Coultas, of Grantham, exhibited some good useful 

 drills, which appeared cheap. They had, many of them, 

 nearly all the best features of Hornsby's, but were not 

 so well got up. There was nothing like fashion about 

 them, but pleaty of service. The iron and tin-work 



looked like lasting. The general purpose drill was priced 

 at £42. The turnip and mangel-wurzel drill, with 

 manure box, £26 10s. To us they ranked amongst 

 some of the cheapest things in the yard, being fitted, as 

 we before said, with almost all the latest improvements. 



Fisher, of Thrapston, exhibited some good cheap 

 drills. The coulters are raised by the simple lever 

 that raises the teeth of the horse-rake. The price is 

 £15. 



Messrs. Wallis and Haslam. — The great advantage 

 of the di'ills of this firm is their cheapness : A 15-row 

 corn-drill for £30, one 13 rows £26 10s. ; a 7-row 

 turnip manure-drill £28, one 3 rows £17 10s. The 

 workmanship is plain but efTective, and the im- 

 provements modern. 



Samuclson exhibited a hand seed-distributor on a 

 simple and novel construction. There is a long box 

 upon a barrow ; beneath the openings are triangular 

 pieces of wood, upon which the seed falls and dis- 

 perses. The delivery of the seed is regulated by its 

 falling through the holes on two reciprocating bai's, 

 and, however the opening is narrowed or enlarged by 

 the action of these bars, the seed is always sure to fall 

 upon the centre of the angular distributors beneath. 



Powell's dibble, invented by "Sigma," next at- 

 tracted our attention. We found it commended by 

 the judges. It is worked by both hands and one foot. 

 It is made for four or five rows, for wheat, or mangel, 

 or beans, and the price varies from £3 3s. to £3 6s. 

 The holes are made by pressing the machine down 

 with the foot; the seed is dropped by pulling a part 

 of the frame -work up, and by lowering it again the 

 seed is pressed solidly down and the cup filled for a 

 second discharge. At the bottom of the seed-box are 

 permanently projecting dibbles; above these dibbles 

 and beneath the seed is a steel bar perforated with 

 holes to correspond with the dibbles. When the 

 dibble is pressed down, the holes are exposed to the 

 seed and filled by it; when the frame-work is drawn 

 up, the bar is slid along, carrying two corns with it, till 

 it comes between a stop-brush fixed above each dibble, 

 to cut off general communication, and the tubular 

 dibble beneath, into which it discharges. Of wheat, 

 tliis implement, employing one man, wiil do \\ acres: 

 The cost of that will be 3s. per acre. Now a man with 

 two dibbles of the old kind can do but half an acre, 

 cacompanied by a woman and three children, which 

 would involve an expense of 8s. per acre ; and the 

 cheaper mode has the advantage of being both more 

 economical and more regular in the deposit of seed 

 than is the case with the most expensive plan. 



Hunt Brothers had some little hand-drills for 

 turnips, that may suit small occupiers. 



The general purpose drill of Messrs. Tasker and 

 Fowle, price £54, is noticed principally because of its 

 improved steerage. In place of the old rack and pin, 

 there is now a quadrant worked by a worm and winch, 

 which gives the steerer great and more immediate 

 control. The delivery of manure is regulated by 

 slide-boards, worked by a rack from the centre. The 

 drill, however, is too dear. Their distributor is simply 

 a wire-sieve running the whole length of the seed or 

 manure box, which i-eceives and distributes whatever 

 is to be sown. 



Gower's drills were good, but too expensive. 



Sewers' turnip-dusting machine is fitted with screw 

 stirers in the manure box. 



Smyth and Sons exhibited fifteen of their drills. 

 Curiously enough, they got neither prize nor commen- 

 dation, although the workmanship was excellent and 

 the machinery very simple. Their general-purpose 

 drill is only £40, and all the others are propoition- 

 ately lower than the drills of other firms. 



