Report on the Trials of Implements at Bedford. 629 



MiRceUaneous Articles and Special Prize for Guard to the Drum of a 

 Threshing-machine: — 



Henry Cantrell, Baylis Court, Slough. 

 J. Ford, Portland Lawn, Leamington. 

 John Hemsley, Shelton, Newark. 



Section I. — Drills. 



The trials of corn-drills must be looked upon as one of the 

 main features of the Bedford implement trials, and it is to be 

 hoped that the unsuccessful exhibitors will at the next trial of 

 drills endeavour to turn out implements which will stand the 

 test of equal delivery in every respective coulter. This was 

 the point upon which the Judges principally insisted, and it 

 made the task of singling- out the best drills in classes with 

 such numerous entries much easier than would at first sight 

 appear. The only drills which could fairly stand this test were 

 those in which the seed was raised from the seed-box by cups ; 

 even in some of these the delivery was so unequal that the 

 difference between two coulters Avould have amounted to about 

 2^ pecks per acre. Regular delivery is one of the principal 

 points in a drill, and too little attention seems to have been 

 bestowed upon it by exhibitors, who seemed all to be taken by 

 surprise when they saw the method adopted for testing this 

 point. Small bags were hung on the upper seed-tin of each 

 coulter, and after the run their contents were carefully weighed 

 by the assistant-engineer. The inequality of delivery in some 

 drills was surprising, the greatest difference between two coulters 

 being in one case at the rate of 40 lbs., or about one bushel, of 

 oats per acre. 



The Judges were of unanimous opinion that, however well 

 any drills might be constructed, they were useless, unless the 

 coulters could penetrate the soil to a proper depth ; in this 

 respect none were so effective as the Wo burn Drill, No. 5001, 

 entered by William Coleman ; a description of it will be found 

 in Class 4. They also recommended that the coulters should 

 be arranged on doulile stay-bars ; and that the lid of every drill 

 seed-box be so constructed as to keep out the wet. For hill-side 

 delivery the seed-box should be partitioned, so as to prevent 

 the flow of the seed to one end of the box or the other, while 

 "going along an incline. 



In all the prize-drills, excepting Nos. 1587, 2849, and 3821, 

 will be found a mechanical error, which will be best understood 

 by referring to Fig. 1 (p. 630). The seed-box is hung on pivots 

 at points iivdicated at c, below the centre of the seed-barrel 

 spindle, B. Now, if in going up hill the box were turned on 



