370 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



This potato washer is one of the most labor 

 saving contrivances we have seen in operation. 

 True, it seems to be a small affair, but every 

 thing that saves a minute is important in a coun- 

 try like ours, [where, above all others, labor is 

 high and " time is money." 



The annexed sketch of a machine for wash- 



ing potatoes, which is used in Nottinghamshire, 

 may bo acceptable to some of your readers. It 

 is easily made by any village Workman, and 

 will be found very effectual. It is simply a 

 chum-like cylinder, with open bars placed at 

 such a distance as to prevent any of the pota- 

 toes from falling through, except very small 

 ones, the lower part of which as it revolves, 

 passes through a trougl; of water. 



It may be made to be easily unshipped, like 

 a chum, or fixed more permanently, as in the 

 sketch. Where many potatoes are used, or 

 where it is requisite to wash them for starch- 

 making, it will be found a very valuable acqui- 

 sition. — M. J. B. [We have long u.sed a wash- 

 er similar to that here figured — differing from it, 

 indeed, but in one particular; that one, howev- 

 er, of considerable importance. The arms here 

 represented as containing the sockets in which 

 the axle of the cylindrical frame revolves, are 

 in our machine not vertical and straight, but 

 arched, and terminating in extremities over- 



hanging the ground, considerably beyond the 

 cistern to which they are attached ; the cylin- 

 der, too, revolves not in sockets pierced in these 

 arms, but in Ys at the side of them ; and after— 

 by its revolution — the potatoes in it have been 

 cleaned, chains from the extremities of the arms 

 are hooked into eyes on its axle, and as the ro- 

 tation proceeds, these, winding up on the axle, 

 lift the cylinder out of the water, and bring it 

 to a position overhanging a box or barrow 

 which has been placed beside the cistern. The 

 trap-door being opened, the potatoes fall into 

 this barrow and are easily removed.] 



THE INFLUENCE OF PASTURE ON SHEEP REARED ON IT. 



BY MR. WILLIAM HOGG, STOBOHOPE, PEEBLESSHIRE. 



system in all its parts is, as it ^vere, crowded to- 

 gether, it is subject to inflammatory diseases, 

 whether raised by external injurj' or by the sup- 

 pression of its natural evacuations. Another 

 description of pastures are such as are spread 

 out on an easy, downy surface. Here flourish 

 all the strong coarser grasses, with a good part 

 of those found in the former division ; but they 

 are here rough in the stem, and hold far more 

 fluidity — all the plants peculiar to a damp, deep 

 soil arrive here at perfection, and a soft, laihy 

 quality pervades the whole. The animal here 

 feeds to excess — viscera increase to a great size 

 and weight — the carcass is large, loose, and in- 

 compact—staples of the wool generally long, in- 

 clining rather to coarseness, if pains be not taken 

 to keep the fleece pure — not much anin^ation-- 

 and, for the most part, in their fifth year, swell 

 out to a great belly. The constitution does not 

 now become invariably unsound, it rather be- 

 comes unwieldy, and burthen.some for the ani- 

 mal to search for and gather its food ; evacua- 

 tions at all times profuse, and that natural pur- 

 gation common to all sheep in sprmg is here apt 

 to be continued well into summer, which not a 



Sheep, as they exist in this country, have a 

 twofold character — a general character, or what 

 belongs to them as a species, and a particular 

 character, or that temperament of constitution 

 which they derive from the pasture on which 

 they are bred. The qualities essen tial to them 

 as a species are, producing ^^'ool each year after 

 being one year old, shedding two incisor teeth, 

 cloven-footed, wild ; for domestication is an ar- 

 tificial state, effected only after considerable in- 

 timacy, and tasting of human food — this recon- 

 ciles ^heep to human company and human kind- 

 ness, and disposes the creature to look to man 

 for help in every emergency. These inherent 

 peculiarities belong to .sheep as a species. Be- 

 fore tracing their connection with the pasture, it 

 will be necessary to state that pasture may just- 

 ly be considered as of two divisions — dry, firm, 

 lea pasture, often less or more intermixed with 

 heath. This soil produces the finer gi-asses, 

 though not in great abundance; the animal 

 which it rears is .small sized, of a compact form, 

 hardy, excretions of all kinds small, constitution 

 sound, considerable How of animal spirits, not 

 easily overcome with privations, and, as the 

 (734) 



