42 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Their cost has doubtless been the principal barrier to 

 their general introduction. 



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SOWING BROAD-CAST AND BY DRILL. 



Although drilling machines are comparatively a 

 modern improvement in our agriculture, yet we have 

 no right to claim the invention as one of recent date. 

 The cultivators of China and Japan have drilled and 

 dibbled in their seed from time immemorial. 



Timbowtski, a Russian officer, who conducted a mis- 

 sion to and from Peking in 1821, says, "We saw some 

 Chinese at work in the fields. Their usual plough, 

 which resembles ours (Russian), is drawn by two oxen ; 

 then they employ a sowing-machine, which has a great 

 resemblance to the plough, and has three hollow teeth 

 with iron supports ; above the wheel there is a box, from 

 the bottom of which the seed falls through the teeth, 

 which are about an arsheen (twenty-eight inches) in 

 length, constantly following the motion of the plough in 

 the furrows. Behind is a small wooden roller, which 



