Book IV. 



ROLLERS. 



417 



one-bout ridges, in order to prepare them for drilling turnips upon, are commonly shorter, 

 and of much less diameter. Large rollers should have double shafts, in order that they 

 may be drawn by two horses abreast ; and such as are employed for arable lands should 

 have a scraper attached to them. Strong frames are also necessary for rollers, so that 



359 8 1? proper weights may be put upon them ; and open 



boxes or carts (Jig. 359.) placed upon them may 

 ' sometimes be requisite, in order to contain any addi- 

 tional weight that may be thought proper, as well as 

 to receive stones or other matters that may be picked 



up from the ground. Pieces of wood or stone, as 



heavy as a man can lift, are the most suitable substances for loading these implements 

 with, where they have not the advantage of boxes for receiving loads. 



2708. The parted cast-iron roller was invented to remedy the inconvenience expe- 

 rienced in the use of the common implement, in turning at the ends of ridges or other 

 places, where, from the roller not moving upon its axis, but being drawn along the sur- 

 face of the ground, it is liable to bear it up, and make depressions before the cylinder 

 comes again into the direct Line of draught ; and at the same time it is not brought round 

 without great exertion in the teams. The cylinder, in two pieces {jig, 362. a a), 

 obviates this inconvenience, by enabling the two parts to turn round on their own axis, 

 the one forward, and the other in a retrograde direction. 



2709. The spiky or compound roller is occasionally employed in working fallows, or 

 preparing stiff bean-land for wheat. In stiff clay-ground, when ploughed dry, or which 

 has been much trod upon, the furrow-slice will rise in large lumps, or hard clods, 

 which the harrow cannot break so as to cover the seed in a proper manner. In this 

 state of the ground, the rollers commonly used have little effect in breaking these hard 

 clods. Indeed, the seed is often buried in the ground, by the clods being pressed down 

 upon it by the weight of the roller. To remedy this, the spike-roller has been employed, 

 and found very useful ; but a roller can be made, which, perhaps, may answer the pur- 

 pose better than the spike one. This roller is formed from a piece of hard wood, of a 

 cylindrical form, on which are placed several rows of sharp-pointed darts, made either of 

 forged iron, or cast metal. These darts, by striking the hard clods in a sloping direction, 

 cut or split them into small pieces ; and, by this means, they must be more easily 

 pulverised by the harrow. 



2710. BartletCs cultivator (Jigs. 360. and 361.) is an implement of the roller kind, 



said to be useful in preparing wet land for tillage in Cornwall. It consists of a roller 

 composed of 13 thin iron plates, each fastened to a circular block of wood of four 



361 



inches in thickness, and nine inches in diameter, and bound 

 round with iron. Both blocks (a) and plates (6) are 

 movable on an iron axle ; and though Mr. Bartlet, the 

 inventor, has adopted a diameter of nine inches for the 

 blocks, and fifteen inches for the plates, yet these dimensions 

 may be increased or diminished at pleasure. The frame 

 in which the roller is inserted has a bar, on which are 

 fixed scrapers of iron, which keep the roller continually 

 clean. (Gard^ Mag. vol. v.) 



2711. The roller and water box (Jig. 362.) is sometimes used for watering spring 



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