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THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



JTOVELTIES AT THE GREAT ENGLISH EXHIBITION. 



The Irish Farmer's Gazette, one of the very best 

 of our foreign exchanges, mentions the following 

 among the new implements at the recent Fair of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society : 



A patent combined harrow, seed drill, and horse 

 hoe. This implement is supported on wheels, and 

 besides its onward, maintains a lateral or zigzag 

 motion when at work, pulverizing the soil thor- 

 oughly, and the tines can be either let down or 

 shortened at pleasure. It is furnished with a seed 

 box and swing harrow, to follow in the tracks of 

 the wheels, so as to obliterate the marks. Alto- 

 gether, it is an excellent implement, and the won- 

 der to us is that it has not obtained more general 

 use than it has ; for though it it stated to be an en- 

 tirely new implement, a similar one was exhibited 

 in 1855 at the Royal Show at Chester. It is en- 

 tered in the official catalogue as a " Transversal 

 seed harrow, invented and manufactured by the 

 exhibitor ; a wheeled harrow to work in a zigzag 

 direction across the furrows, thereby ensuring the 

 covering of the seeds with half the usual labour." 

 We were particularly pleased with its action on 

 that occasion, but lost sight of it ever since. 



Mr. Levi Lemon Sovereign, of Canada, exhibited 

 several combined implements of his own invention; 

 particularly a combined plough, drill, and harrow, 

 which completes the whole process of ploughing, 

 ribbing, and depositing the seed, and harrowing 

 simultaneously. 



J. Gray & Co., Udingston, had all their ploughs 

 and similar implements furnished with solid iron 

 handles, instead of wooden ones, which certainly 

 Is a great improvement ; the wooden ones so gen- 

 erally rotting or getting loose in the sockets. 



A combined, double mould-board plough was 

 exhibited, which had a new and very simple mode 

 of regulating the width of the mould-boards with- 

 out leaving the stilts, which consisted of a spring 

 slip moving up and down on a central rod, and 

 much quicker in action than the usual one of a 

 screw. 



The Busby Agricultural Implement Company 

 exhibited a new implement — a combined plough 

 and land- presser, the invention of T. and J. G. Har- 

 rison, consisting of a plough, to which a presser is 

 attached, which completes the ploughing and press- 

 ing the seed furrow in one and the same operation. 

 The presser is so constructed that it can be readily 

 attached to any ordinary plough and regulated to 

 any breadth ot furrow. 



The patent-jointed clod-crusher, exhibited by 

 Coleman and Sons, by its patent jointed bearings, 

 accommodates itself to the undulating surface of 

 the laud in any direction, and supplies a desidera- 

 tum long and much wanted in the roller and clod- 

 crushing tribe. 



It would be an omission in this section not to 

 notice the capital improvement effected by Ran- 

 somes and Sims in fixing the teeth or tines in the 

 harrow frames, and also their flexible harrows, by 

 which any undulating surface is harrowed as effect- 

 ually as if perfectly plane. 



Tuxford and Sous, amongst their powerful porta- 

 ble steam engines, exhibited a Lilliputian one, of 



one-horse power, suit'jd to work chaff-cutters, cake use." 



breakers, root pulpers, churns, <fec. ; so that these 

 useful portable steam engines are brought down to 

 suit very small occupations, indeed. It is built of 

 the best materials, and is perfectly safe, as far as we 

 could judge. 



Amongst the several portable farm railways ex- 

 hibited, we find divisible four-wheeled barrow 

 trucks and rails, a great convenience for feeding 

 cattle. 



A model of a capital system of irrigation was 

 exhibited by Isaac Brown, of Aberdeen, consisting 

 of a systematic arrangement of finely perforated 

 pipes placed over the surface at regulated distances, 

 and connected with self-acting mains, distributing 

 the water or liquid manure, as the case may be, 

 equally and gently over the land, and may be kept 

 acting day or night at pleasure, without any fur- 

 ther trouble or labor. The growth of grass from 

 the water distributed by this model during the 

 show was very rich and luxuriant. The piping 

 used is a composition of lead, and the whole cost 

 of mains and distributing pipes is said to be about 

 $72 per acre. 



A newly-invented churn was exhibited by Win. 

 Sawney, Beverley, Yorkshire. It is a square box 

 churn, stands upon four legs fixed to a frame, two 

 of which are of wood and hinged, to give free ac- 

 tion ; the other two are of spring steel, and fixed 

 above and below. The slightest push gives the 

 churn action backwards and forwards ; it keeps its 

 horizontal position, and the milk or cream is vio- 

 lently agitated within, through and over a simple 

 fixed perforated dash, and the butter produced ; 

 it is a simple and effective invention. 



Daniel Lancaster Bank, Camberwell, London, 

 exhibited a model of his traveling suspension rail- 

 way, suited to every operation connected with 

 agriculture, which he took great pains to explain 

 and illustrate. It deserves the attention of all 

 engaged in steam cultivation. 



S. & E. Ransom & Co. exhibited, amongst a large 

 assortment of mechanical apparatus, a patertt hy- 

 draulic lifting jack ; it is worked by about a pint of 

 fluid, and is a very powerful one, if we may judge 

 of the manner in which it compresses blocks of 

 wood, and is said to be capable of lifting 10 tons ; 

 it struck us that it could be very readily adjusted 

 to compressing hay in trusses, is very poiraMe, 

 occupying but the space of an ordinary lifting 

 jack. _^ 



Healthfulness of the Tomato. — Dr. Bennett 

 writes as follows in regard to the properties of the 

 tomato : 



"First, that the tomato is one of the most pow- 

 erful aperients ot the liver and other organs ; 

 where calomel is indicated, it is probably one of 

 the most effective and least harmful remedial agents 

 known to the profession. Second, that a chemical 

 extract will be obtained from it that will supersede 

 the use of calomel in the cure of disease. Third, 

 that" he has successfully treated diarrhoea with this 

 article alone. Fourth, that when used as an article 

 of diet it is almost sovereign for dyspepsia and in- 

 digestion. Fifth, that it should be constantly used 

 for daily food ; either cooked, raw, or in any form 

 of catsup, it is the most healthy article now fo 



