213 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



IMPLEMENTS FOR HOEING. 



There were five horse-hoes that took prizes, and of 

 these we shall speak first, taking them in the order in 

 which they stand upon the prize list. But before we 

 enter upon a review we must say that we were disap- 

 pointed not to find in this class a wider recognition of 

 the fact that, to work efficiently, each hoe must work 

 upon an independent lever. We think, if we mistake 

 not, that, except Garrett's, we had no specimen of this 

 sort for hoeing wheat and spring-cropping : nearly all 

 the makers have fixed their hoes to a bar, and have 

 allowed them no freedom of play by which they could 

 accommodate themselves to the unevenness of land; 

 without this freedom they never can become popular 

 implements, simply because they are not effective ones. 

 When we were at Boston fair, last May, we saw a horse- 

 hoe, invented and manufactured by a Spalding man, 

 named Games or Garner, which, so far as usefulness 

 and cheapness ai'e concerned, stood far before anything 

 at Salisbury. There we had the independent lever for 

 each hoe, and pressure on any particular hoe that re- 

 quired it ; and moreover the implement was not priced 

 at ^'20 or £15, but, so far as we remember, its cost 

 ranged from £6 to £10, according to the width of the 

 purchaser's drill. Now Garrett's is a good hoe, but it 

 costs £19; the work in both cases being the same, the 

 former may be said to have the advantage. However 

 it did not fall to the judges' part to decide between 

 them, and so Messrs. Garrett carried off their 35th 

 prize ! They showed a horse-hoe on the same princi- 

 ple, with a seed-distributor attached to it, so that the 

 clover and grass seeds may be sown and hoed-iu in one 

 operation, costing in all about 6d. to Is. per acre. The 

 " thinner" shown by this firm is not new : there are 

 other thinners we like better. The vertical motion 

 would not be so good as the horizontal motion for the 

 cuttei", unless it were supported by a lever at the com- 

 mand of the driver. Huckville's is on this principle. 



William Smith takes a prize of £2 for an improved 

 horse-hoe. The improvement consists in a self-adjusting 

 motion. From the shafting to the axle are two per- 

 pendicular bars fitted with hooks : these hooks carry 

 the framework in which the hoes are fixed, and allow 

 freedom of motion; still the hoes have not free indi- 

 vidual motion, but are all screwed to two bars. The 

 price £'8 10s. 



Hugh Carson takes the third prize {£l 10s.) for a 

 turnip or root horse-hoe. This is very simple. Sup- 

 pose the trussed beam of a Ransome's plough were 

 mortised at intervals of 3 or 4 inches, so as to admit 

 the shaft of a hoe, first running horizontal and then 

 turning at right angles downwards to the blade. The 

 length of the horizontal shaft allows of the hoes being 

 adjusted to any width. It is rather strange that such 

 a simple plan was never before thought of. 



Priest and Woolnough take a prize of £2 for a ra- 

 ther expensive horse-hoe, which appears to have a 

 good deal of play, and is pretty well adapted to hill 

 sides, but certainly not to inequalities that may occur 

 within the width of land they embrace. — Price £19 10s. 



Bentall receives a prize of £l 10s. for his Universal 

 Cultivator adapted as a horse-hoe for turnips. For 

 the purpose it answers admirably, and we advise all 

 who have the implement to fit it with the hoes he has 

 brought out. 



Henry Cogan's horse-hoe is highly commended. 



J. and F. Howard's receives a similar distinction. The 

 price is low, and there is an improvement in having a 

 blunt instead of a sharp edge to the shaft of the hoe, 

 where it rises from the blade. This prevents choking. 



Walker's horse-hoe is highly commended, and can 

 be adjusted while moving, by a parallel motion—a sort 

 of hill-side motion. 



Holmes and Sons carry off a high commendation with 

 an improved shape of hoe, for turnips : certainly very 

 good, but would have been better had the shaft been 

 blunt instead of having so keen an edge. 



Busby's highly-commended horse hoe carries, behind 

 the three tines, what by this time should be an exploded 

 revolving harrow. If it could be made to revolve the 

 other way, that is, in a contrary way to the progress of 

 the hoe, and so tear out and throw over itself the weeds 

 cut by the knives, it might do good ; whereas it now 

 only does harm by pressing the weeds into the soil. The 

 price is £2 10s. 



Ransomes and Sims exhibited a very good horse hoe, 

 which received likewise a high commendation, and is 

 very easily adjusted. Price £3 6s. 



Samuelson's Huckvale's turnip thinner is this year 

 greatly improved. The circular revolving thinner, which 

 was placed diagonally in a square frame, occupies the 

 same position in a second runner frame, which is a 

 lever, and so can be lifted out of work, or regulated at 

 pleasure, by the steersman, to suit any inequality in the 

 turnip plant, while the implement is progressing. It 

 receives most deservedly a high commendation, and 

 casts both Garrett's and Eaton's into the shade. Price 

 £7 10s. 



With respect to Eaton's, we must make a few 

 remarks. We consider it better than Garrett's. It will 

 thin and horse-hoe in one operation, or horse-hoe alone. 

 The single row implement costs £5, and that for taking 

 two rows £6 6s. The "thinner" revolves horizontally, 

 and can be elevated or depressed by the steersman ; but 

 as a thinner it did not do its work quite so accurately as 

 Samuelson's at the trial. Allowing a little for this defi- 

 ciency, and remembering its application as a common 

 horse hoe, together with its cheapness, we give it our 

 approval as the best specimen of this class of imple- 

 ments. 



Before we leave the hoes we must notice A. and T. 

 Fry's implement, to recommend the mode in which the 

 knives are made to expand or contract at the will of the 

 workman, without stopping the horse. By simply 

 turning one of the balls round backwards or forwards, 

 any desired change in the width of land to be cut is 

 made. The price is £4 2$. 6d. It is commended. 



Green's horse hoe for wheat and spring cropping also 

 has a commendation ; the price is reasonable, £12 12s., 

 hut it is open to the same objection we have preferred 

 against all the wheat hoes, except Garretts', and we 

 disapprove those that are not mentioned, upon precisely 

 the same ground. 



We had almost forgotten to notice " Sigma's" hand 

 hoe, invented by Powell, of Hurst-green, Sussex. 

 Fancy a common hay-fork with a broad steel bar con- 

 necting its prongs, and placed at such inclination that 

 as you hold the fork in the manner of a hoe its under- 

 surface rests fiat upon the ground. This bar or band 

 is two-edged. Keeping the under surface sliding on the 

 ground you push and pull, but never lift it out of its 

 work, and this constitutes the " draw-shave" motion 

 of the much-talked-of " Sigma's" hoe. We understand 

 a man can do an acre per day with one of these tools ; 

 but we must leave our readers to judge of their utility. 

 They cost but 6s. each, and so the experiment will not 

 be a very expensive one. 



HAY MACHINES. 



This was an interesting trial of a very useful class of 

 implements ; and we have great pleasure in urging upon 

 every extensive grass farmer the adoption of this acces- 

 sory in farm practice. It is true, it can only be brought 

 into useful cultivation once in the year ; but let any one 

 see the effect produced in the trial-field. The grass to 

 be cut was old, coarse, very rough and heavy, mostly 

 down. It was cut by the reapers— chiefly by Dray and 



