I79I- 



ON MECHANICAL IMPROVJSMENrS. 



Intelligence refUeBing Arts^ i-V. 



Drill Machine. 



Amonq the mechanical improvements adopted in Britain 

 within this flaort while, a;:riiculture has come in for its Ihare. 

 About forty years ago, tlie ingenious Jethro TuU endea- 

 voured to introduce the drill and hoife hoing hulLandry, as 

 a prodigious improvement in agriculture, that would be pro- 

 dudive of the happiell: eifeils to this country. Like every 

 inventor of a new fyllem, he went too far ; but like every 

 invention by a mm of found underllanding, it was at hot-" 

 torn well founded in certain reipecls. Since his time, many 

 perfons, led aftray by the brilliancy cf his ideas, liave tried 

 to reduce his fyifem into practice, but on the wide fcale he 

 propofed, always v/ithout effett. In coniiequence of thefe 

 trials, however, it has been clearly proved, that the drill 

 hufbandry, in certam circumftances, can be praftiled with 

 great proat to the undertaker. But one circumRance al- 

 ways oppofed its progrefs •, the difiiculty of finding a drill 

 machine of fuch fimple conftrudion, as to be capable of ei- 

 feding the puipofe wanted with accuracy and economy. 

 r.Tany machines have been invented for this purpofe ; but none 

 cf thefe fcems to bid ib fair for fucceeding, if we are to judge 

 from the authenticated report of actual farmers who have em- 



■oyed them, as that of tlie Reverend IVIr. Cooke of Norfolk, 

 v.hich has been employed on a larger icale. and continued to 

 give fatisfaction for a long,er period of time, than any one of 

 them. By attefted accounts from Mr. Boote of A'.herlton, he 

 has for three years fucceffively fowed by means of this ma- 

 chine five hundred acres of ground on an average, each 

 year with various forts of grain ; and from that pruftice he 

 thinks he has derived very high emoluments. The inventor 

 J. IS obtained a patent for the fole making and difpofing of 

 ■ Ml* machine 5 but as none of them have as yet reached this 

 ' ountry, an exact delcription of it cannot be here given : 



ihc only two circumftances refpefting it, that feem to be 

 certainly known here, are, that the feed is diftributed by 

 weans of fmall laddies of a proper fi/.e for the different 



