374 



SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part II. 



drawing screw repeatedly applied, take out the plug of hay which has been detached. 

 If, however, the hay be in a moist, heating state, it will occasionally coil round the 

 cutter in proportion as it is pierced, and impede its action. In such cases, the drawing 

 screw must be slipped over the rod of the cutter, and must be applied from time to time, 

 to draw out the hay, in proportion as it is detached from the mass. {NewtorVs Journal, 

 vol. V. p. 308.) 



2489. The hedge-bill is of various kinds. The scimitar (^Jig. 229. a) has a handle four 



18 in,. 



^ 



-zjh 



J^ 



z:\ 



280 



\ 



j^ 



feet long, bent a little out of the direction of the blade in order to admit the free action 

 of the operator's arm while standing by the side of a hedge and cutting upwards. The 

 axe (6) is used for cutting strong boughs or small trees ; the bill-hook (c) for fag- 

 goting, and stopping gaps in hedges; the dress-hook 

 (d) for cutting the twigs in very young hedges, and for 

 dressing faggots ; and the bill-hook (e) for lopping 

 branches close at hand. A chisel with a handle eight 

 or ten feet long is used for cutting off branches eighteen 

 or twenty feet from the operator, and is of considerable 

 use in pruning forest trees in plantations or hedges, and 

 also fruit trees in orchards. 



2490. The axe, saw, wedges and hammers, of different 

 kinds and sizes, are used in agriculture, in felling trees, 

 cutting them up, preparing fuel, driving nails, &c. ; but 

 these and other instruments common to various arts need 

 not be described. 



2491. The scorer (Jig. 230.) is a well known instru- 

 ment used by woodmen in marking numbers on timber 

 trees. 



2492. The line and reel is occasionally wanted for the 

 manual operations of agriculture, and should be pro- 

 cured rather stronger and with a longer line than those 

 used in gardens. 



2493. The potato set scoop is of two kinds ; 

 one a hollow semiglobe, (jtg. 231. a), and 

 the other (6) a section of that figure. They 

 are only used when potatoes are very scarce, 

 as in ordinary cases the larger the set the 

 more strength and rapidity of growth in the 

 young plant. 

 2494. The Edinburgh potato-scoop {fig. 232.) is by far the best, and indeed the only one deserving of use. 

 'he handle (o) has a round stem which passes through a piece of metal (d), and has there a semicircular 

 ^^ knife or cutter {e) fixed to it. This cut. 



232 c ^ ^^.^ _ *^ ^~^^\""~~^~^ ter is sharp on both edges, and turns 



on a pivot fitted in a piece of brass 

 formed out of a piece of plate {b, c). 

 This plate forms a shield to hold the 

 ^yC^ W ""^^^ instrument firm upon the potato, by 



S.,^^"^^ f / ,.^ __^-^ placing the thumb of the left hand 

 upon it, and pressing the point in 

 which the cutter is fixed into the 

 tuber. Then by turning the handle 

 half round with the right hand, the semicircular knife cuts out a set, which is a segment of a small 

 sphere (e,/, g). The only attention necessary in the use of this instrument is, to place it upon the potato, 

 with the eye or bud in the centre of the diameter of the semicircle of the knife when laid flat on the tuber 

 The advantages of this scoop, besides that it is very quick in its operation, is that the pieces being all 

 exactly of one size, that is about an inch in diameter, may be planted by a bean-barrow or drill machme, 

 with much less labour and more accuracy than by the hand. 



2495. The essential instruments of labour are the scythe, reaping-hook, hay-knife, wool- 

 shears, Hedge-bill, axe, saw, hammer, and line and reel. 



Thai 



