II* 



AGRICULTURAL IMl'I.KMKVl v 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEM 



the means of theoretic*! instruction are very complete. Lecture* are 

 delivered by twelve professors on the following subjects': JUth.-m.it ie* 

 and physios, oheniutry and botany, technology, tillage Mid other 

 drpartiuenu of rural economy, forestry, and Uie veterinary art The 

 lecture* are mi arranged that they can K- either attended in two half- 

 yean or three or four. In (he fonner ciue uuich preliminary iut.-i ma 

 lion mu*t have been acquired. There in attach. .1 i the institution a 

 .niAll botanical garden ; a musoum of soologicul, botanical, ami mine- 

 ralogioal objects ; skeleton* of domestic animals; i-.-ll. c tious of seeds 

 and wood*; and a library of works on rural economy. The estahli*li- 

 nieiit also comprises a uianufuctory of beot-ront sugar, a brewery, a 

 distillery { iitato spirit, and there is on apartment devoted to tin 

 rearing of silkworms. A |rt of the farm is reserved for experiment*. 

 The second class of students do tin- manual labour, but they arc nearly 

 maintained at the expense of the institution, ami, when they can be 

 spared from field-labour, they have the opportunity of attending the 

 lecture* at the college. 



In Bavaria the king has given up the domain attached to the royal 

 palace of Schleissheiiu for the purposes of a model farm ; but a great 

 mistake hag been made in selecting land much In-low the average 

 standard of fertility, which, as well an land of extraordinary productive- 

 ness, should be avoided. It U on a much inferior scale to the 

 establishment at Hohenhcim. There are agricultural institution* sup- 

 ported by the state at Vienna, Prague, Pesth, and various other place.- 

 in the southeast of Europe. We add to these remarks the following 

 enumeration of European Agricultural Educational Institutions, 

 extracted from a report l>y Dr. Hitchcock to the legislature of 

 Massachusetts: 



Although the column containing a reference to such agricultural 

 institutions tat form parts of colleges is blank opjiosite England, it 

 should be mentioned that since the date of Dr. Hitchcock's report . the 

 Trustees of the Queen's College at Birmingham have established an 

 agricultural lectureship, and np|inU-d Mr. Henry J. Tanner, of the 

 Cirenoester Agricultural College, their first Professor of Agriculture. 



(On public IiMtitHl'mtiifiir the Ailraacemmt iif Ai/ririilliiral ttrirart, by 

 lr. ItuiU-iiy ; Jnurnali nf Ktii/nl Airr'ir. S<K. nf ni/l<ind ; Dr. Lindley's 

 Oardntr't C'Aron. ami A;/ric. llmellr, Ac. Ac. j Thorn's Almanac and 

 Of rial Dirtftory for Ireland). 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. Few of the productive arU 

 have made more signal progress within the lout few years than those 

 which relate to the cultivation of the soil. This progress is mainly 

 due to four causes. First, the Repeal of the Com Laws. The aban- 

 donment of protective duties on home produce has compelled the 

 fanner to depend on his own resources. He is now placed in a 



to feel the effect* of any superiority or advantages possessed by 

 farmers ; and he is urged by every motive of self-interest to maintain 

 his ground. Those circumstance* whirh depend upon political or fiscal 

 regulation*, and those which are due to climate or natural causes, he 

 must bend to, if he cannot make them bend to him ; hut, in all the 

 practical details of his art, he Is more alive to what is going on around 

 him than at any former period in the history of British fanning. 

 Second, the progress of agricultural chemistry. The Hicmie.d 

 researches of Liebig and others have led to marked improvement*, 

 especially in the implement- for distributing and otherwise treating 

 manures. Third, the Royal Agricultural Society. The exertion* of 

 this admirable society in conducting exi*-riinental researches, offering 

 prizes IIT useful novelties, holding annual shows or exhibition.-, 

 drawing up report* on the agriculture of imrticular places at |irti- 

 cular times, the popularisation of the results obtained by scientific 

 men, and the publication of papers relating to all branches of agri- 



cultural art have had a great effect in V^ing to improvements in 



tin- implement* of farming. Fourth, the Cie.it Kiliil.il 

 That wonderful assemblage, by comprising implements from foreign 

 countries (many of which hod not been seen here befoi 

 leading to the institution of many valuable series of . \|., nn 

 grouiw of implement*, gave a very notable \i. ,e makers of 



.igiieultm.il implement*, and, through them, to the farmer*. The 

 annual countiy exhibition* of the Royal Agri. ^ well 



as tin- metropolitan show of the Smithtield Cattle Club, have dciuoii- 

 -n.itcd how great has been the advance made in this art between 

 the years 18S1 and 1858. The Royal Agricultural Society's ' Trials ' of 

 implements have now assumed an important systematic arrangement. 

 At the suggestion of the late Mr. I'usey. all agricultural implements 

 have been placed in three gi "ling a* tl. 



preparation of the ground for *owing. the treatment of tie- uop from 

 sowing to gathering, or the subsequent processes of the barn, Ac. 

 Trials of implements in the three classes take place in turn. At the 

 Cheliuxford meeting in 1856, for instance, the trial was of implements 

 in the first class ; at the Salisbury Meeting in 1857, it related ( the 

 .second class; and at the Chester meeting in 1858 to the third. 'I In 

 plan has Wn since extended, and a quadrennial division is to I.,- 

 adopted for the future. 



The present article is devoted to a general not ice of the mechanical 

 implement* of agriculture, and of the kind of sen-ice which each is 

 fitted to render with M to MI. h .-perial iticloe as may 



he found under other headings in the Cyclopedia. The detail* may 

 be conveniently arranged under certain beading* Instrument* of 

 Tillage; Implements of Cultivation; Harvesting lmpl.-ni.ui-: I'n pa- 

 rations for Market; Implements for Stock-feeding; Land-draining ; 

 and the application of Steam Power to Agriculture. To some extent it 

 will lie necessary to describe processes and their objects ; but for th- 

 most part the implements only will be treated of. 



IXS.THUMEXTS OF TILLAGE. 



Ploughs. The better the soil, the less cultivation it requires to 

 produce tolerable crops ; hence, where the land is very rich, we find in 

 general a slovenly culture ; where the ground U less productive, more 

 labour and skill are applied to compensate for the want of natural 

 fertility. The simplest cultivation is that of the spade, the hoe. and 

 the rake, and on a small scale it is the best; but *]nle husUindry 

 cannot be carried to a great extent without employing more hands than 

 can be spared from other occupations. The plough, drawn by o 

 horses, is the chief instrument of tillage, and has been so in all ages 

 and nations of which we have any records. A plough fl'> 

 should as much as possible imitate the work done with a spade. It 

 should cut a slice from the land by ite coulter vertically, and by tin- 

 share horixoutally lift it up, and turn it quite over by mean.- .-t 'the 

 mould-board ; the art of the ploughman consist* in doing tin.- p. < 

 and with such a depth and width as suit the soil and the intended 

 purpose. In rich mellow soils a ploughed field should differ little from 

 a garden dug with the spade. In tenacious soils, the slice will be 

 continued without breaking, especially if bound by the fibres and roots 

 of plants ; the whole surface will be turned over, and the roots exposed 

 to the air : it is of great consequence that all the slices be of the same 

 width and thickness, and the sides perfectly straight and parallel. The 

 plane of the coulter must be perfectly vertical, and that of th. 

 hori/ontal, in order that the bottom of the furrow may be level, 

 without hollows or baulk*, which are irregularities produced by tin- 

 rising or Kinking of the plough, or inclining it to either *ide. The 

 ancients were very particular in this res]>ect, and r 

 sounding the earth with a sharp stake, to ascertain whether the 

 ploughman had done his duty. There are various modes of ploughing 

 ian.l. either <|iiite Hat. or in land* or Rtitehea, as they ,irc oalled in 

 England, and, in Scotland, rift/*, that is, ill imrtions of greater or ]< -- 

 width, with a double furrow Iwtween them somewhat like beds in 

 a garden. Sometimes two ridges are set up against each other, which 

 is called ridging or liiiutiiiu ; the land then is entirely laid in high 

 ridges and deep furrows, by which it is more exposed to the in' 1 

 of the atmosphere and kept drier ; this is generally done In-fore winter, 

 especially in stiff wet soils. Sometimes two or more ridges are made 

 on each side, forming narrow stitches. When the ground is to be 

 ploughed without being laid in lands or stitches, and all the ridge* 

 inclined one way, the mouldboard of the plough is shifted nt each turn 

 from one side to theother. The plough which admit* of this in called 

 a turn wrttt JN/W///, and is In genera] use in Kent, and in iiKiny parts of 

 the continent, where the subsoil in dry and the land i t. In 



most other situations the ground is laid in 1-nnlr, and the mould-board 

 of the plough is fixed on the right side. When grass hind or stubble i . 

 ploughed, care must be taken to bury the grass and weeds completely, 

 and the slice cut off by the plough must be turned over entirely, which 

 is best done by making the width of th. i . n . w greater than the depth. 

 When the grass and weeds are rotten, and the ground is ploughed to 

 pulverise it, a narrow deep furrow is best; the earth ploughed up is 

 laid against the side of the preceding ridge, which forms a small 

 furrow between tin- tops of the ridges, well adapted for the seed to 

 lodge in and to be readily covered with the harrows. 



Nothing has more divided agriculturists than the question, wh.tlur 

 the land should be ploughed deep or shallow ; but a slight attention to 



