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scraped off. This is the old method. A newly invented 

 scraper is superseding the old one. It is an upright in- 

 strument of elastic wood or steel, inserted in a bench of a 

 convenient height for the operator. 



The form is as follows : 



a is a piece of wood or steel, immovable ; 

 J and c are pieces which are elastic, movable 

 to the right and left at the top, but fastened to 

 the central piece below. The degree of elas- 

 ticity may be regulated by wedges in the 

 planks d and /wedges in the hole through 

 which the pieces pass. 



A quantity of brush is taken in the hand, 

 and brought down upon the top of this instru- 

 ment. As it is forced down, and drawn toward 

 the body, it separates the elastic sticks from 

 the central piece, but their elasticity presses sufficiently 

 on the brush, so that the seed is scraped off. 



The advantage of this scraper is, that both hands may 

 be applied to the brush, instead of only one hand, as in 

 the other kind, and the elastic power of nature is substitu- 

 ted for the pressure of one of the hands. The instrument 

 also seems to double the scraping surface. The instru- 

 ment was invented at Hartford. We have been told it has 

 not been patented- 



The following plan may, therefore, be useful. The 

 operator stands at. the end A. 



The lower plank may rest 

 on the barn floor, or have A 

 short legs. The upper ob- 

 lique has a hole, through 

 which the scraper passes, 

 and down which the seed may fall. Each side of the in- 

 strument, a wedge may be inserted, to regulate its elasti- 

 city, or by some other contrivance this object may be 



