THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



129 



NOTES ON NOVELTIES AT THE IMPLEMENT DEPARTMENT 

 OF THE SMITHFIELD SHOW. 



As the merry Christmas month brings with it its 

 winter carnival week for agriculturists, and opens in the 

 Show-yards at Balier-street its ranges of pens filled 

 with plethoric cattle for astonished and somewhat be- 

 wildered Cockneys to gaze at ; so brings it the usual 

 crush and crowd of its implement galleries, through 

 which we have to wend our way, with what patience 

 may be granted us, to pick up and jot down the pecu- 

 liarities of such novelties as may be likely to interest 

 our readers. This annual task of ours — or rather, say 

 we, this pleasant gossip — is certainly not lightened by 

 the material difficulties which have to be encountered in 

 the miserably confined space in which the implements 

 and machines to be examined are thrust. We have said 

 examined : such is the word which we suppose, in ac- 

 cordance with the dignity of the subject, we ought to 

 use ; but the notion is indeed a pleasant fiction, that 

 either time or space is allowed for examination. So far 

 from either of these being obtained in the full plenitude 

 required, the truth is, that to such a pitch has the 

 matter of accommodation arrived, that " space" for the 

 purpose of exhibition means ro longer '• ground" or 

 " floor," but '^air" space, as well ; for, not content with 

 cramping up with exceeding ingenuity the smallest pos- 

 sible amount of floor space with the largest pos- 

 sible amount of machines, these, like Mahomet's 

 coffin, are suspended in mid-air ; so that, while of some 

 you obtain a bird's-eye view and look down upon, of 

 others you have what we suppose we should call a 

 " worm view," and look up at them. But not only 

 above and below, but " in and out and round about" — 

 to quote for the nonce from Coleridge's " Ancient 

 Mariner" — machines and implements are confusedly 

 crowded. The result is, that it requires no small exer- 

 cise of ingenuity to dig out, so to speak, anything new 

 from the heap of stuff surrounding it, and no small 

 amount of patience to ascertain from its inventor some 

 points connected with it ; for, such is the surging sea 

 of " humans" dashing up against you, that attempts 

 at conversation are, to say the least, interjectionary, 

 and consequently confusing. We very frequently and 

 yery feelingly experienced that we were " members of the 

 press;" and we are in justice bound to say, that its 

 '■ freedom" was uncommonly well displayed. 



To proceed, however, with the purposes of our paper, 

 we propose to glance at the leading novelties of the 

 Implement Galleries, commencing with the machines 

 and implements connected with the culture of the soil. 

 In this department steam cultural mechanism takes 

 precedence of all others. 



The chief novelty exhibited was Mr. Grafton's modi- 

 fication of Halkett's Guideway Steam Agricultural 

 Apparatus. We gave in this journal a very full and 

 detailed account of Halkett's system, the main feature 

 of which, as our readers may perhaps remember, was 

 the employment of a series of permanent rails laid 



parallel to each other on the land to be cultivated ; a 

 long frame-work being moved along the rails by steam- 

 power, contained in the frame ; the implements of cul- 

 ture being connected with the frame-work. These 

 permanent rails involved a large sum in their first 

 putting down, as well as a certain outlay to keep them 

 in repair. Mr. Grafton — by his mechanism, a model of 

 which was exhibited at the show — proposes to get rid of 

 the expense of permanent rails, by dispensing with them 

 altogether, and at the same time to ensure all the advan- 

 tages of Halkett's system, these undoubtedly and chiefly 

 being the precision of its movements and the facility 

 with which a variety of operations could be carried on 

 at the same time. 



The framework employed by Mr. Grafton resembles 

 in its construction and arrangement that carried out by 

 Mr. Halkett : it is of iron, and consists of a series of 

 girders supported by and framed to the side trussed 

 girders. These side girders carry a series of small dia- 

 meter wheels, twenty-two in number — eleven on each 

 side. The enclosure within the side girders affords space 

 for the engine and boiler, water, and fuel receptacle. 



The peripheries of the supporting wheels are 

 broad, and are supplied with air-tubes or India-rubber 

 cushions. These, encased in a strong vulcanized India- 

 rubber case, give by the weight of the superincumbent 

 mass of framework and machinery a flat surface of 

 equal pressure on the shoes of the "endless rail" over 

 which they pass. This endless rail is formed of a con- 

 tinued belt of very strong fabric, composed of India- 

 rubber and flax threads, to which is connected a series 

 of wooden " shoes" shod with iron. These are fastened 

 to the endless belt by staples across the centres of the 

 shoes and at right angles to the belt. This arrangement 

 permits the belt to pass round the drums — two of which 

 are placed at each end of the framework in advance of 

 the series of driving and supporting wheels. 



The material o€ which the endless belt and the peri- 

 pheries of the driving wheels are made may be thought 

 not very durable. The inventor, however, states that 

 its durability is very great, and mentions an instance 

 where the tires of a brougham formed of India-rubber 

 tubing ran 2,000 miles at an average rate of eight miles 

 an hour. Whereas, in the case of the steam cultivating 

 apparatus, the wheels will make only twenty revolutions 

 per minute, and travel moreover on a smooth, at least 

 soft, surface, so that the wear-and-tear may be reduced 

 to a minimum. 



The ploughs or other cultivating implements are sus- 



E 



