THE DRILL-MACHINE. 43 



covers the seed which has been sown, and supplies the 

 place of a harrow. This plough is so light that it may 

 be lifted with one hand. If the harvest in China pro- 

 duces fifty, seventy, and even a hundred fold, the 

 cause will be found in the care with, which they manure 

 the ground, the custom of sowing early, of weeding and 

 watering ; besides, the furrows are from seven to four- 

 teen inches distant from each other, which gives the 

 corn room to grow freely." 



The Hindoos also are well known to employ the drill 

 system, which, among a people so little liable to change, 

 is an argument for its great antiquity. 



In the Museum of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society of Edinburgh is a series of models of Hindoo 

 agricultural implements, and among them an interesting 

 model of a drill-machine ; rude in its construction, but 

 possessing all the essential points of the more elaborate 



DRILL-MACHINE. 



modern implements; all of which, of whatever degree of 

 merit, can therefore only be considered as improvements 

 on the Hindoo model. As long ago as 1669, Evelyn 

 made mention of a drill-plough, which had been in- 

 vented in Germany, and had found its way into Spain. 

 The essential parts of a drill-machine are easy to be 

 understood, although some of the improved forms of the 

 implement have the appearance of being very difficult 

 and complicated. The simplest description of a drill 



