No. 3. 



BenneWs Solving Machine. 



97 



BENNETT'S SOWING MACHINE. 



We have copied from the 4th volume of the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for pro- 

 moting Agriculture, this all-important implement, which ought to be in the hands of every 

 agriculturist in the Union. After many years' experience, we are prepared to say, it is per- 

 fect in all its parts, and superior to every other sotcing machine, for the purpose of distribut- 

 ing the seeds of grass, turnip and clover, with the most minute exactness, in any quantity 

 required, and with a facility and ease quite inconceivable to those who have never witnessed 

 its operations. We copy the following account, with directions for its use, from Dr. Logan's 

 communication addressed to the president of the Society. 



" The cultivation of clover is considered the basis of a rotation of crops on which is founded 

 the improved system of agriculture in the United States, but many of our husbandmen are 

 discouraged from adopting its use, on account of the delay and difficulty in sowing an exten- 

 sive field with light grasses by hand. It is, therefore, with great pleasure I inform the So- 

 ciety, that I have received from a friend, one of Bennett's sowing machines for sowing grass, 

 turnip, or clover-seeds, which promises to be a most valuable addition to our implements of 

 husbandry. The experiments made with it at Stenton, in sowing clover and timothy seed, 

 exceed my most sanguine expectations; a man, pushing the instrument before him in the 

 manner of a wheelbarrow, will sow twenty acres a day, uninterrupted by wind or weather. 



" Instructions for using. When you get into the field, set the regulator and lay the box 

 across the carriage, setting the regulators behind for dropping the seeds; then put the seed 

 into the box, place three sticks in a straight line to guide, and drive straight across the field; 

 then remove the sticks to the proper width, and drive back, and so continue, leaving the head- 

 lands until the last. When you want to turn, take the wheel in your hand and lift the machine 

 off the land, and place it in the line you wish to follow in returning ; it is light, and there will 

 be no difficulty in performing this operation: once going over the land will be sufficient. 



" Instructions for setting the machine. When you want to sow mixed seeds, such as rye- 

 grass, trefoil, clover, or any other mixture of these, let them be well mixed before going to 

 the field ; then turn the large hole of the plate opposite the brush in the box : the hole at full 

 size will sow twelve or fourteen gallons to the acre, and half the hole, seven gallons, (there 

 is a difference in the size of grass seeds.) In sowing turnips, one small hole at each brush 

 will sow two pounds of seeds per acre, but of ruta baga not quite so much, as the seed is 

 larger. If you desire to sow but one pound of seed per acre, put one hole to every other 

 brush and a blank to the others; and if the seed be good and the season kindly, it will pro- 

 duce a good crop and come in drills, which will need little labour in hoeing. In sowing red 

 clover, five holes will sow eight pounds of seed per acre; of white clover, about eleven pounds 

 per acre, and so in proportion to all other seeds of the same size. The distance you walk in 

 sowing an acre of land when using the box at full length, is 235 rods." 



N. R The plates are made of brass and are easily turned, so as to submit each hole or set of holes to an aper- 

 ture in the box, through whicli the seeds are forced by the brush in its rotary motion ; no difficulty is encountered 

 in any part of the operation, and the machine may be used many years without the least danger of disorder, 

 except by accident. 



