433 OF DRILL-PLOUGHS. Part IV* 



full defcription of M. de Chateau-vieux's drill-plough ; though we 

 fear it would be too complex to be underftood or made by common 

 workmen, and, we doubt, too nice in many of its parts for the rough 

 hands of common plowmen. We hope, however, that the in- 

 genious and curious among our countrymen will not, on account 

 of this our omiflion, be any ways induced not to confult the 

 original in M. Duhamel's work, or not to endeavour to execute 

 what has been fo well contrived by one of the greatefl geniufes in 

 agriculture that this age can boaft of. 



M. Duhamel's drill is fixed to the fore carriage of a common 

 plough. The make of that fore carriage is fo well known, that 

 it needs no particular defcription. 



The hind part of this drill confifts of a plank 5, S,fg. I . Plate V. 

 at leaft three inches thick,which is called the table. Underneath this 

 table, and to the bottom part of it, are ftrongly fixed, as at TTT, three 

 fliares. The beam, or pole, /,/, is faftened to the fore part of the 

 table: and the handles L,L, are let into mortifes in the back part 

 of the table, in which they are fixed, a, a, a, are three cavities cut 

 in the table, to receive the feed from the cylinder, and convey 

 it through an opening in the center of each of them, into the hollow 

 c, at the back of the fhare^?^. 2. The form of thefe cavities is 

 more clearly expreffed by a, c, b,fg. 3. h\.b, b, b, b, are fixed four 

 ftfong fliandards, to hold the drill-box fteady. 



The fliares,/^. 2, are made of wood and terminate at the bottom 

 of their fore part rt in a circular form, covered with iron. In their 

 hind part ^^ is a groove through which the feed drops to the bottom 

 of the furrow. The feed is conveyed from the cavities a, c, b, fig. 3, 

 to this groove b, fig. 4, by means of a thin plate of iron, rounded 

 and fixed to the" (hare, as at d. Thefe fhares are about an inch and 

 a half iliick, and their height from « to ^ at leafl a foot. 



As thefe fhares terminate in a curve at bottom, if they meet with 

 any roots, dung not thoroughly rotted, or any other fubfiance which 

 they cannot eafdy divide, they force it down to the bottom of the 

 furrow, and by that means are never liable to be choaked: and to 

 prevent this flill more effedtually, the middle fhare is placed fome- 

 what more backward than the two others. It is like wife made 

 fhbrter in proportion to the greater height of the middle of the beds. 

 The fhares are generally feven inches afiinder. 



M.Duhamel took the firft hint of the feed box he now ufes, from 

 an iuvention of Mr. Grenville, then one of the pages of the kirkg of 



Fraoce's 



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