INDUSTRIES 



out for machines of this class, but the drill most 

 in use in Suffolk at the close of the eighteenth 

 century, when, as Arthur Young points out, it 

 was working a small revolution in agriculture, 

 was that of James Cooke of Heaton Norris in 

 Lancashire, and it was this machine that formed 

 the basis of the improvements made by Henry 

 Baldwin (or Balding) of Mendham in 1790. 

 Mr. James Smyth of Peasenhall, and his brother 

 Mr. Jonathan Smyth of Swefling, subsequently 

 devoted great attention to the drill. They 

 devised a swing steerage to enable the driver 

 to keep straight and parallel lines, also con- 

 trivances for adjusting the coulters to varying 

 distances from each other, and for the simulta- 

 neous delivery of manure and seed. These 

 developments had all been realized before 1843, 1 

 and in 1888 a text-book of farming speaks of 

 the 'Non-Pareil' corn drill of Messrs. James 

 Smyth & Sons as exhibiting many recent im- 

 provements, and of their broadcast corn and seed 

 sowing-machines as being largely exported to the 

 colonies, America, and Russia. 2 



During the same period Messrs. Garrett of 

 Leiston were also busy with the drill, of which 

 after extensive experiments and numerous im- 

 provements, they became the leading manufac- 

 turers and exported them to all parts of the 

 world. The famous Suffolk corn-drill was only 

 one species of this class of agricultural implement. 

 Machines were devised for sowing all manner of 

 seeds, grass, clover, turnip, beet, peas, and beans, 

 whether in rows or broadcast, for manures with 

 or without the seed, and even for scattering sand 

 and salt on the streets. 3 Another farm imple- 

 ment to the development of which Jethro Tull 

 had given the initiative, and which was carried 

 by Messrs. Garrett to a high degree of efficiency, 

 was the horse-hoe. The improvements patented 

 by them in this machine enabled the width of 

 the hoes to be increased or diminished to suit 

 all lands or methods of planting, and made it 

 adaptable to broad, stetch or ridge-ploughing, 

 and to corn of all sorts, as well as roots. The 

 Leiston horse-hoe won a great many prizes at 

 agricultural shows, and was awarded a medal at 

 the Great Exhibition of 1851. 4 



In the earlier part of the nineteenth century 

 drills and horse-hoes were the leading products 

 of the Leiston Works, but harvesting machinery 

 was already manufactured there, and after the 

 middle of the century this branch of the industry 

 far outstripped the other in importance. This 

 was due to two main causes, the growing de- 

 mand of the colonies and of America in whose 



1 J. Allen Ransome, The Imp!, of Agric. ( 1 884), 1 04. 



' Prof J. Scott, A Text Book of Farm Engineering 

 (1888), ' Field Implements and Machines,' 82. 



3 J. A. Ransome, op. cit 115 ; J. C. Morton in 

 Agric. Gaz. 26 March, 1888. 



' Ransome, op. cit. 1 1 ; G. H. Andrews, Rudi- 

 mentary Treatise on Agricultural Engineering, iii, 75. 



agriculture rapid harvesting was more essential 

 than careful sowing, and the increasing use of 

 steam-power, which was found more readily 

 applicable to harvesting than to ploughing or 

 sowing machinery. As early as 1 806 Messrs. 

 Garrett built a threshing-machine (under the 

 patent of Mr. J. Balls of Wetheringsett) to re- 

 place by horse-power the action of the flail. 

 The experiment proved very successful, and the 

 subsequent demand for these machines was one 

 of the main causes of the expansion of the 

 Leiston Works. 5 A special variety of threshing- 

 machine was introduced by Messrs. Garrett called 

 the bolting machine, which saved the straw by 

 tying it in bundles. In 1 84 1 we hear of trials 

 being made at Cambridge under the auspices of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of two four-horse 

 portable threshing machines, one of which had 

 been made at Leiston and the other at the 

 Orwell Works of Messrs. Ransome. 6 



It is now time to resume our account of the 

 Orwell Works, the subsequent extension of 

 which has been amongst the most remarkable 

 features of the industrial history of Suffolk. The 

 first Robert Ransome, who spent an old age of 

 retirement in copperplate engraving and the con- 

 struction of a telescope, and died in 1830, left 

 two sons, of whom the elder, James, had become 

 a partner in 1795, and the younger, Robert, in 

 1 8 1 9. The brothers were among the earliest 

 members of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, founded in 1838. Mr. James Allen 

 Ransome, the son of the elder brother, who 

 entered the business in 1829, worthily con- 

 tinued the family tradition by publishing an 

 admirable book on The Implements of Agriculture 

 in 1843, fr° m which a great many of the facts 

 in the foregoing account have been derived. 

 About the time when this book was written, 

 the idea was beginning to be entertained of 

 applying steam-power to agricultural machinery. 

 Messrs. Ransome were amongst the earliest 

 pioneers in this new development, which rapidly 

 brought about an almost entire transformation 

 of their business. 



As early as 1842 they received the first prize 

 offered by the Royal Agricultural Society for the 

 application of portable and locomotive steam 

 engines to agricultural purposes, viz. threshing, 

 and since that date they have not only continu- 

 ously improved the steam threshing-machine, but 

 also constructed numerous other machines for use 

 along with it, such as elevators and stackers for 

 lifting and stacking straw, sheaf-corn, hay, &C. A 

 special improvement to the steam thresher claimed 

 by Messrs. Ransome is a patent apparatus for 

 chopping and bruising threshed straw for use as 

 fodder, which has rendered possible the adoption 

 of the threshing-machines in hot countries where 

 primitive methods of threshing with oxen or 



i Agric. Gaz. 26 March, 1888, p. 285. 

 *J. A Ransome, op. cit. 154, 171. 



283 



