XIII.] MACHINES FOR SOWING FERTILISERS 373 



in the manure, its delivery can be stopped and started 

 sharply, the rate of sowing can be accurately gauged, 

 and by filling part of the manure box with ashes only it 

 can be made to sow a narrow strip at the edge, should 

 the width of the plot not form a round number of widths 

 of the machine ; thus it forms a very suitable tool for 

 experimental work. On a very similar principle is a 

 machine made by Messrs J. Wallace & Sons, of Glasgow, 

 shown in diagrammatic section in Fig. 7. Here the 

 bottom of the hopper box A, containing the manure, is 

 formed by a revolving drum B, which carries out the 

 manure through the aperture regulated by the adjust- 

 able slide-plate N on to the tray C, from which it is 

 thrown so as to fall on the ground by the revolving 

 spindle with radial arms, as in the previous machine. 

 The rate of sowing is regulated by the size of the 

 aperture controlled by N. 



Several other makers construct machines akin in 

 principle to the two described, in that a revolving 

 spindle with arms corresponding to the cups of a seed 

 drill takes up the manure and delivers it ; they only 

 differ in the way in which the manure is presented to 

 delivery arms. 



Entirely different are the machines constructed by 

 several makers on the principle illustrated in the section 

 Fig. 8, derived from a tool manufactured by B. Reid 

 & Co,, of Aberdeen. Here the manure is again con- 

 tained in a long hopper, across the bottom of which a 

 number of endless chains move, actuated by a series of 

 pitch chain wheels geared to the wheels of the machine. 

 The chains come out of the box through a narrow slit 

 and drag with them some of the manure, which then 

 falls to the ground ; the rate of sowing being regulated 

 by the gear wheels which actuate the spindle carrying 

 all the pitch chain wheels. A more slowly moving 



