Book IV. 



LEVELLING MACHINES. 



395 



2582. The roller and water box (Jig. 329.) is sometimes used for watering spring 

 crops, or clovers with liquid manure, previously rolling them. It has the advantage of a 

 more perfect machine, in the holes being easily cleaned when choaked up with the thick- 

 ened water. Such a machine can seldom require the roller attached. 



2583. The furrow-roller (fig. 330.), is con- 

 trived for the purpose of rolling the furrows in 

 steep hilly situations, and other places where the 

 common sort cannot be employed. 



2584. T/ie Norfolk drill-Toller, and the ridge 

 and furrow concave or scalloped roller attached to 

 certain turnip-drills, have already been depicted 

 (2553. and 2556.). 



2585. The pressing plough is a term erroneously applied to a machine of the roller 

 kind, which has been already described (2515.). 



2586. The only essential roller for general purposes, is the parted cast-iron roller, with 

 a scraper, and box over. 



Sect. V. Of Machinesfor laying Land even, Hind otlier occasional or anomalous Tillage 



Machines. 



2587. Various machines for agricultural purposes are occasionally brought into notice 

 by amateur cultivators, and some even by the professional farmer. It is, indeed, the 

 privilege and the characteristic of wealth and intelligence, to procure to be made what- 

 ever particular circumstances may require, in every department of the mechanical agents 

 of culture. We shall only notice a few, and that chiefly for the purpose of shewing the 

 resources of the present age. 



2588. Of machines for layiiig land level two may be noticed : in the first and best 

 {fg. 331.;, the horses are harnessed 

 to a pole (a), which is joined to an axle 



having a pair of low wheels {by c). Into "^s:>- J ^'0't^>>^ " o 



this axletree are mortised two long side.- 

 pieces (</), terminating in handles {e, e]. 

 Somewhat inclined to these long or up- 

 per side pieces, shorter lower ones are 

 joined by cross pieces, and connected by 



strong side-boards. The machine has ^ h 



no bottom ; its back part (/), is strongly attached to an axle {fg. 332 g), and to the 

 bottom of this the scraper part {h) is firmly screwed. The front ends of the slide 



irons (jig. 331 m), turning up, pass easily through mortises 

 in the upper side-pieces (d), where, by means of pins, 

 the inclination of the slide irons, and of the back board, 

 can be adjusted within narrow limits, according to the 

 nature of the soil to be levelled, and the mass of earth 

 previously loosened by ploughing. This earth the 

 back board is intended to collect and force before it, 

 until the machine arrives at the place where it is in- 

 tended to be deposited. Here, by lifting up the hinder 

 part of the machine by its handles (e, e), the contents 

 are left on the ground, and the machine proceeds to a 

 fresh hillock. {Suj^p. Encyc. Brit. i. 25.) 



2589. The Flemish levelling machine {fig, 333.) may 

 be considered as a shovel, on a large scale, to be drawn by 

 *a pair of horses ; it collects earth at the pleasure of the 

 holder, who contrives to make the horses turn over the 



shovel and empty the contents by merely letting go the handle (a), and recovering it by 



means of a cord (6), when emptied, as already described (501.}. 



2590. The levelling karroio (2573.) is adequate for all ordinary purposes. 



