FOE AMERICAN VINES. 29 



Working. The gin is installed on the shortest side of the 

 l3lock, and opposite the first furrow to be opened. It is 

 -carried by two rails fixed in the ground by means of pegs. 

 The weight of the machine is sufficient to keep it in place. 

 The cable is made fast to the plough, and acts directly with- 

 out passing over a fixed pulley. This pulley would only be 

 necessary in the case of a block of irregular shape, where 

 the gin could not be easily brought opposite the furrows. 

 The horses in their circular track haul the plough, which, 

 when it reaches the machine, is tilted on its side, placed on 

 a small truck, and carried back by a horse to begin another 

 furrow. While the plough is being taken back the gin is 

 moved forward a distance equal to the width of a furrow. 

 When the machine reaches the end of the rails, a second pair 

 of rails is placed in line ; when the machine is on these, the 

 first pair is taken up and placed in line in their turn. Four 

 rolled joist girders are therefore sufficient for travelling the 

 gin along the headland. The machine travels by degrees 

 from one end of the block to tlie other, leaving only two 

 headlands unploughed. The headland on the gin side is 

 about 40 feet wide, on the opposite side 1 1 feet. 



The dispensing with the fixed pulley, and displacement of 

 the gin on rails, are the characteristic and principal advan- 

 tages of Grub's gin. This advantage is considerable, as 

 the installation of the machine is much simplified ; for the 

 doing away with the pulley avoids the difficulty of anchoring, 

 which is an almost insurmountable difficulty in certain soils. 

 Grae's machine for these reasons has had many imitators, 

 and movable gins are nowadays mostly used. The con- 

 trivance allowing three different speeds to be obtained is not 

 very useful. Increasing the motive power by ten is quite 

 sufficient, as in this case two horses exert an effort equal to 

 twenty yoked directly to the plough. By increasing this 

 power at the expense of the speed the latter is too much 

 reduced, and the daily work done by the plough becomes 

 insignificant ; by diminishing it on the contrary the use of a 

 winding drum is not justified, for its aim is simply to allow 

 deep ploughing, impossible to be performed with ordinary 

 teams. The cog-wheels of the Beaulieu gin could therefore 

 be dispensed with, the socket head keyed directly on the 

 shaft of the drum would greatly simplify the machine. 



Its price without cable or plough is 64 ; without the cog- 

 wheels it only costs 40. 



