398 



SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part II. 



emery, which, being always kefit in contact with the great cutter at the back part, or opposite side to that 

 where the cutting was nerformed, kept it constantly ground to a sharp edge. 



2603. Salmon of Woburn made the next attempt, and his invention, it is said, promised better than 

 those we have mentioned. It was constructed upon a totally different principle, as it cut the corn by means 

 of shears; and it was provided with a very complete apparatus for laying it down in parcels as it was cut. 



2604. The latest machine {fig. 3J9.), and by much the most ingenious and promising of which we have 



received any account, is that constructed by Smith, of the Deanston Cotton Works, Perthshire. Smith's 

 perseverance, his successive improvements, and ingenious yet simple contrivances for remedying defects, 

 afford strong grounds to hope that he will ultimately succeed in rendering his machine a most valuable 

 acquisition to agriculturists. He made the first trial of his machine upon a small scale, during the harvest 

 of 1811. It was then wrought by two men. In 1812 he constructed one upon a larger scale, to be wrought 

 by a horse ; but though he cut down several acres of oats and barley with considerable ease, it was found 

 that, when met by an acclivity, the horse could not move the machine with proper effect. In 1813, he 

 made a more successful attempt, with an improved machine, worked by one man and two horses ; and 

 (1814) it was still farther improved by an additional apparatus, tending to regulate the application of the 

 cutter, when working on an uneven surface. This ingenious machine has been again tried, in September 

 1815, and with much success. A Scotch acre (1| acre English) of beans was cut down with ease in an 

 hour and a quarter. The trials made with it on wheat, though not extensive, were satisfactory ; and in 

 reaping oats, the corn was laid down in the most regular manner. The cutter of this machine is circular, 

 and operates horizontally ; it is appended to a drum connected with the fore-part of the machine, its blade 

 projecting some inches beyond the periphery of the lower end of the drum ; and the machine is so con- 

 structed as to communicate, in moving forward, a rapid rotatory motion to this drum and cutter, by 

 which the stalks are cut, and, falling upon the drum, are carried round and thrown off in regular rows. 

 This most ingenious piece of machinery will cut about an English acre per hour, during which time the 

 cutter requires to be four times sharpened with a common scythe stone. The expense of this machine is 

 estimated at from thirty to thirty-five pounds. If properly managed, it may last for many years j only 

 requiring a new cutter every two or three years, a repair which cannot cost much. 



2605. A machine for reaping the heads or seed j)Qds of clover (Jig. 340.), where the 

 second growth of that crop is left to stand for seed, 340 

 has been used in some parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 It consists of a comb, the teeth of which are lance- 

 shaped, very sharp and set close. This comb is affixed 

 horizontally to the fore -part of the bottom of an open 

 box or barrow, which is drawn by one horse and 

 guided by a man, who empties the barrow in regular 

 lines across the field by means of an implement (a), which serves also to clean the teeth. 



2606. A machine for moiving clover hay has frequently been attempted, but not yet 

 perfected. One by Plucknet, of the Blackfriars Road, London, succeeded tolerably, 

 but never came into use : it consisted of circular knives put into rapid motion, and the 

 cut stalks guided to one side by a revolving cradle, like that attached to corn and scythes 

 (2405.). It never came into use. 



Sect. VII. Machines of Deportation. 



2607. The carriage or conveyance machines of agriculture are chie^y carts and wag- 

 gons, and their several varieties. 



SuBSECT. 1. Carts. 



2608. Carts, like other implements, vary in their forms and modes of construction, 

 according to the nature and situation of the roads, and many other local circumstances ; 

 but, for the purposes of farming, those of the single-horse kind are in general the most 

 advantageous and useful. The advantages of single-horse carts. Lord R. Seymour 

 pbserves {Ann. Ag. xxvii.),are universally admitted, wherever they have been attentively 

 compared with carriages of any other description. A horse, when he acts singly, will 

 do half as much more work as when he acts in conjunction with another ; that is to say, 

 that two horses will, separately, do as much work as three conjunctively : this arises, in 



