Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 413 



before the Club by Isaac Baldwin, of Antrim, InT. H., report that they 

 supervised the operation of this cleaner at R. H. Allen's seed store ; 

 and they do not hesitate to pronounce it one of the most efficient 

 labor-saving machines in the line of farm implements that they have 

 ever met with. The principal parts of this machine which are 

 worthy of description, consist of a sieve about six feet long and two 

 feet wide made of perforated zinc. The size of the holes in each 

 sieve is made to correspond to the size of the kernels of seed that are 

 to be sifted. When the machine is in operation, the sieve has two 

 motions, a reciprocating movement endways, and at the same time, a 

 kind of half-rotary oscillating motion. ISTear the center of the sieve, 

 it rests on a pivot, so that the ends can play right and left, as the 

 sieve is worked back and forth by means of a crank which makes 

 several hundred revolutions per minute. This oscillating movement 

 of the ends of the sieve constitutes the great excellence of the 

 machine. Working a sieve either back and forth, or to the right and 

 left, is an old and familiar device, which every philosopher and 

 mechanic understands quite satisfactoril}^ But the oscillating move- 

 ment of the ends at the same time of the reciprocating motion, 

 secures an efficiency in the operation of sifting seeds which has long 

 been needed, but which has never before been put into practical 

 operation. 



Every intelligent farmer who has had practical experience in clean- 

 ing seed as red top, Kentucky blue grass, L. I. blue grass, and the 

 dacUjlis glomerata, each of which will weigh only twelve to fourteen 

 pounds per bushel, understands the great labor of sifting such light 

 seed, which has heretofore been done by hand' at a great expenditure 

 of manual labor. But this comparatively cheap cleaner will enable 

 a boy and one man to clean more seed in a given time, than could be 

 passed through sieves in the old way by ten or more faithful men. 

 The invention is not a patent. The only wonder is, that some ingen- 

 ious Yankee has not thought of this device long ago. 



Ice House and Preservatoky. 

 Mr. J. M. M. Gernerd, Muncy, Lycoming county, Penn. — Will 

 the Club please give me a full description of the best method for 

 constructing an ice house and preservatory. Is it true that the more 

 perishable fruits, as strawberries, cherries, grapes, peaches, lemons 

 and oranges, are kept in this manner the year round without a sensi- 

 ble- deterioration in flavor ? I am not aware that there is any arrange- 

 ment of this kind in this section of the State. 



