©0—1851. | 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



315 



Tliis contrivance is very 



to point is set forward 

 Ibepb with screw; and m< 

 w 'ug the wedge in or out.. 



ample, and lias a minimum ol - -. 



jtLumow-. which are the commonest implements of 

 i- mKin irv next to ploughs, occur but scantily in the 

 ^hib ition : possibly because the forms produced for 

 Ar j^ years by the bast makers, especially those of 

 Howard of Bedford, leave little room for novelty com- 

 yjfrA with improvement. The peculiar zigzag shape 

 d Howard's harrows is well known, giving the utmost 



iplicity to the framing, with the least liability to clo 

 mA the arrangement and fastening of the tines appear 

 •H that can be desired in this kind of implement. At 

 Perbv, York, and Exeter, the first prize of the Royal 

 j^mcultural Society has been gained by these harrows. 

 A? the two latter meetings they were shown with joints 

 in the centre of each harrow, allowing them to adapt 



Ives to any uuevenness of surface. We noticed 



inequalities of surface without altering the position of the i the term finished and done ? 



likely to compete 



crusher, made by Pearce, of Poole, Dorsetshire. This 

 consists of two axles carrying rings of a peculiar form. 

 The rims are narrow or sharp, but instead of being 

 straight are waved or vandyked, the edge, which is 

 seen from behind the ring, appearing thus : — 

 One axle has ten rings, and the other eight working 

 between them, The rings are 26 ins. in diameter : 



"Another, and anotlw*, 



before 



cr • 



also some admirable harrows, by banders and Williams 

 of Bedford. They are patented : the general shape is 

 just like Howard's, and the two outside bulls of each 

 harrow are bent in the same way ; but the rest traverse 

 it diagonally, so that a greater rigidity of framing seems 



mend it without niakin 

 here represented : 



difference is 





Howard's. 



Sanders and Williams'. 



In these figures, the harrows are hardly long enough 

 in proportion to their breadth. Of wooden harrows we 

 saw none. One exhibitor has a number of iron harrows 

 hung together so as to cover a large surface, and 

 furnished with short levers and small wheels, by pressing 

 on any one of which a portion of the harrow is lifted 

 to clear it from clods or weeds. A " Patent Four 

 Wheel Harrow" is shown by A. F. Campbell ; but we 

 hardly know whether we ought not to class it as a 

 grubber. It consists of two rows of teeth, in shape and 

 fixture resembling those of Finlayson's harrow ; the 

 frame supporting them being slung by four parallel 

 connecting bars from an iron framing upon two 

 large wheels. This upper frame rises or falls in 

 front by means of a lever sliding it up and down 

 on a spindle from two small front wheels ; and 

 the frame carrying the teeth can be set higher 

 or lower by a chain wound upon a small barrel with a 

 ratchet. The excellence of the Norwegian harrow is 

 sufficiently established : its rowels are exactly adapted 

 for stirring as well as breaking cloddy land, and for 

 keeping each other clear. Barrett, Exall, and Andrews, 

 of Reading, show one wi£h a simple apparatus for 

 raising the rowel axles out of work, or vice versa. The 

 frame from which they hang may be said to be sup- 

 ported, when out of work, upon vertical levers, at the 

 lower ends of which are the wheels, one in front and 

 two behind. _ The frame is lowered by bringing these 

 into a slanting position, the upper ends toward the 

 horses. They are connected above and below the frame 

 by parallel rods, and the movement is made by a crank 

 with screw axle. Crosskilt, of Beverley, also exhibits a 

 Norwegian harrow, which is put in or out of work by 

 levers at each side lowering or raising it upon its wheels. 

 A spindle runs along the top from a crank or winch to 

 the front of the frame, and by a worm working a 

 toothed segment, sets the fore part of the machine more 

 or less high above a small wheel. The implements 

 generally cannot be taken as specimens of what are in 

 daily use by English farmers, but are the very choicest 

 yet invented, only some having come into extensive 

 practice. For the wooden plough and wooden harrow, 

 the commonest implements in the country are not to be 

 found here, unless perhaps by a scrutinising search. 



Of Rollers, there is scarcely to be seen one ; cer- 

 tainly not one of the old wooden rollers employed by 

 almost every farmer. Among this description of imple- 

 ments, Crosskill's Patent Clod-crusher undoubtedly 

 stands unrivalled ; its sharp points being as well adapted 

 lor pressing and dinting in Wheats as for breaking and 

 pounding clods, while its loose rings shake out all dirt 

 and cannot clog. But there are several others of great 

 jaerit. S. Chenery, of March, Cambridgeshire, has 

 invented a " land-presser/' particularly adapted for the 

 ll gnt peaty fen land, consisting of 15 large iron rin<*s 

 ttpon an axle, the section of the rim of each ring being 

 wus lj, the flat circumference rolling upon the 

 ground. Mapplebeck and Low, of Birmingham, show a 

 toiler or crusher which has. two axles, one before the 

 wer, and carrying a number of rings with sharp or 

 wrow rims. These rings are about 2 feet in diameter, 



eat* a i° Ut mcheS apart ' WOpkin S into or between 

 <*cn other. The two axles are braced together at their 



aas by two bars, upon the middle of which the shaft 

 ™ is supported by pivot joints. By this excellent 

 ^ngement, the frame 





ly implement, however, which appears and another" visit from Mr. Inspector must occur 



3 with Crosskill's is the Improved Clod- the total reimbursement is to happen, and the commis- 



.. t» r»_-i- t-v . „.. . gj^ugrg a dvise that it is very desirable that certificates 



of advance should not be required for very small sums, 

 as it is necessary that all works should be examined and 

 certified by an inspector, which must necessarily be 

 attended with expense/* These after proceedings " to 

 the entertained application" raise our fear, " the dread 

 of something after death" alarm our seeking it. The 

 proprietor having to advance the money, and perform 

 the task before remuneration comes, strips the loan of 

 half its value, it being mostly wanted to set the thing 

 going. The repayment of principal and interest in 2'2, 

 years, by an annual payment of 6 £ per cent, on the 

 capital borrowed, is liberal and unobjectionable, but the 

 appendage of lawyers, inspectors, and a host of unseen 

 spectres, " puzzle the will, and make us rather bear the 

 ills we have, than fly to others we know not of." There- 

 fore I presume to ask the detail of expenses from 

 some of the initiated of your correspondents. A Tenant 

 for Life. 



Management of Small Far/n*. — In your Paper of the 

 5th inst., you ask for any information as to management 

 of small farms. I claim nothing original in my system ; 

 perhaps there is much that, to more scientific ininds, 

 may appear objectionable. Every farm, however, must 

 be judged by its own peculiar circumstances. I have 

 only a small proportion of arable land to about 2.6 acres 

 of Grass. My object is to raise as much winter food as 

 possible, and therefore look to green crops more than 

 to corn. Carrots I grow in large quantities in the 

 kitchen garden ; consequently, valuable as they are, they 

 are not included in the held culture. I give a sketch of 

 the cropping &c.,for 1850-51, of the four fields, if I may 

 call pieces of an acre each by such a name, into which 

 my arable ground is divided. No. 1. 1850. Cabbages cut 

 in September. The leaves, sprouts, &c, Jed off' with sheep 

 folded, then plougl*ed and sown with black Barley, w Inch 

 is now about to be fed off by ewes with fattening lambs, 

 to be then immediately dug, heavily manured and 

 sown with Mangold Wurzel. No. 2, 1850, Mangold, 

 having been deep trenched previous winter. Manure 

 forked in in the spring, 3 cwt. of superphosphate put in 

 at same time as seed, produced 32 tons per acre, now 

 under Wheat, which promises very well. No. 3, 1850, 

 Wheat, 36 bushels per acre. Now winter Vetches to 

 be eaten off by sheep, fed at same time with corn and 

 oil-cake, then dug and sown with Swedes, or hybrid 

 Turnips, manured with guano or superphosphate. No. 4, 

 1850. Part winter Vetches, followed by Swedes; all 

 vacancies filled up with Kohl Rabi, the larger roots 

 drawn off to fattening cattle, the smaller ones and tops 

 fed off by sheep, which received at same time £ lb. of 

 Oat chaff (half Oaten straw and hay), ad libitum. This 

 piece was heavily manured in January, ploughed deep, 

 and is now under Drumhead Cabbage. The other part 

 of No. 4, 1850, black Barley and spring Vetches, followed 

 by partly Rape and partly Thousand-headed Cabbage 

 planted out from seed-bed iu August, fed off this spring 

 by sheep, then deeply ploughed, and now having manure 

 forked in, to be sown with Mangold next week. The 

 sheep which have been living on this Cabbage are now 

 folded on a warm paddock, fed with Mangold, Oats, and 

 oil-cake, and so being made quickly ready for the 

 butcher. The Grass of this paddock, which will be 

 forced by the manure of the sheep, and liquid manure 

 also, will be cut for soil, aud keep some young steers in 

 yards, while the meadows are up in May and June. 

 Henri/ Mil ward, Paxdton Vicarage 9 Bristol, April 10- 



Facts relating to a Fourteen-acre Field, drained 4 feet 

 deep. — Happening to return from the town of C — one 



they are fixed upon square axles, but the centre wheel on 

 each can revolve independently of the rest. As there is 

 an intervening space of 4 inches between adjacent 

 wheels, no clogging can easily ensue ; and all the land is 

 subjected to pressure, the clods slipping between the first 

 row of wheels being caught by the second. As the resist- 

 ance is thus not met all at once, it is supposed that the 

 draught is lighter than it would otherwise be : the width 

 covered is 6 feet, and on rough land, three or four horses 

 are required. Not having points like Crosskill's, it does 

 not need encumbrance and delay of plain wheels to carry 

 to and from the field ; and yet, its piercing and grinding 

 power is supposed to be little short of what it would be, 

 had the wheels been serrated. One of the. principal ob- 

 jections to double rollers is their tearing up the soil in 

 turning round : but a beautiful and simple contrivance 

 obviates such a disadvantage in this implement. The 

 horses can turn die shafts round without moving the main 

 frame, so that the crusher is drawn backwards and for- 

 wards. The shafts are fastened to a fiat iron ring or 

 wheel, which rests upon another at the top of the 

 frame ; and the upper one with the shafts can 

 slide round upon the lower one, a pivot passing through 

 the centre of each, the movement resembling that of a 

 chaise turning upon the axle of its fore-wheels. Two 

 pins or bolts passing through both rings hold the upper 

 one fast ; and when it is required to turn, the pins are 

 raised and withdrawn by two wedges on a bar slided by 

 a lever. The shafts can be turned either way, and 

 when in their right position, the pins drop again into 

 the holes. The action is extremely easy ; but the 

 whole machine can be turned round, instead if the 

 driver chooses. — As this number of our report contains 

 an account of a steam plough and other outlandish 

 instruments, it ought perhaps to comprise also all the 

 notices of a similar kind. There is a model of a 

 digging maching to which we may hereafter refer ; 

 and there is a model of " a steam and human-power 

 cultivator, or universal tillage machine and irrigator," 

 invented by C. Burcham, of Fincham, near Lynn, 

 Norfolk. This appears to be a long gallery or shed, 

 supported above the ground at one end by a sort of 

 pivot, and at the other by an engine-house on wheels. 

 A great number of men are stationed in a row along 

 this gallery, each having charge of a lever shod at its 

 lower end with something like a hoe. The idea seems 

 to be that, while the engine moves the whole apparatus 

 like the radius of a great circle around the pivot ; these 

 hoes or stirrers are to do, by the help of the men, what 

 is required for the laud. Along the opposite side of 

 the machine a number of large scissors are designed, 

 apparently for cutting corn. A circular index at the 

 central pivot tells the quantity of ground passed over. 



i. a. a 



[Erratum. The last three lines of the first column, on page 

 29S, ought to have been toe first three lines of that column.] 





Home Correspondence, 



Drainage Act. — It might be of considerable advan- 

 tage to some of your subscribers, if any person having 

 borrowed money of the commissioners appointed under 

 the Drainage Act would detail the expense of his pro- 

 ceedings. The printed paper of the commissioners 

 states that applications for money are to be made w in 

 the form furnished." — " As soon, as they are enter- 

 tained (but not until the end of two months after the 

 last advertisement thereof iu the London Gazette and 

 local paper) the case is, on the request of the applicant, 

 referred to an inspector, who is to inspect all the land 

 proposed to be drained, and to report to the commis- 

 siouers upon the general scheme of drainage, and if 

 approved by them an application is made to the Trea- 

 sury to authorise the issue of a provisional certificate." 

 The printed directions state " that the greatest caution 

 is necessary iu furnishing an accurate description of the 

 lands to be drained by an extract from the title deeds, 

 or by a plan of the estate; for works executed on lands 

 not included in the provisional certificate cannot in any 

 case be allowed.*' Let us stop here to enquire what 

 expense has been already incurred by this first inspec- 

 tion ? Whether tli3 commissioners have approved the 

 inspector's report, or if they have not approved it — such 

 report, be it recollected, stating that the property will 

 be increased in value for letting, equal to an increased 

 rent, for the money proposed to be laid out. The primed 

 directions say, "the drainage has to be executed, in the 

 first instance, at the expense of the applicant ; but when 

 any portion of the works which are complete in them- 

 selves lias been executed to the satisfaction of the 

 inspector, he certifies the amount expended to the com- 

 missioners," and they "being satisfied with such a 

 report, issue a certificate of advance for the amount 

 specified." Now, here we want to know the expense of 



frosty evening in December, about 7 o'clock, when a 

 close mist hung over the whole country, I passed by the: 

 gate of my field— the moon being near the full — when 

 thinking I would turn through flie field, instead of fol- 

 lowing the road, to look at a few sheep that I had win- 

 tering there, I took to the field, when I was instantly 

 gratified by one of the most striking sights I had ever 

 witnessed ; for I had not ventured 10 yards from the 

 fence of the road within the area of the drained field, 

 before the mist disappeared. The moon shon,e cold and 

 clear ; and I stood in a clear space of 14 acres, as if in 

 a vast bowl or crater, surrounded by white walls of 

 mist, indescribably beautiful. The first impression was 

 one of astonishment, succeeded by one of satisfaction, 

 that I had before my eyes the plainest phenomena of the 

 results of draining. The other incident i$ as follows : 

 We had in January a fall of snow, which covered the 

 ground, say three inches deep, ; on the third day after it 

 had fallen, while the whole country was still white, I 

 took a walk to see how the drains were running, when 

 to my surprise I found that not a yard of the field was 

 covered with snow ; it was all melted, save a little on 

 the west side, where the main drain runs 7 feet deep, 

 thus giving me the satisfactory hope that the field is 

 prepared to receive the first advances of the smiling 

 spring. R. W. [We should be glad to receive the further 

 communication you propose.] 



Open Furrows on Brained Land.— In reading Mr, 

 Paine's reply to Mr. Mechi's observations on the ne- 

 cessity of making surface drains, or open furrows, on 

 thorough drained land, it seemed to me that Mr. Paine 



-£* is tree to follow the vertical movement of the h 



themselv 



oner 

 orses 



such second inspection- for work done, be it remembered, has founded his opinions on the experience of tolerably 

 at the cost and advance of the proprietor, before he can level land ; but that Mr. Mechi had alluded to steep 



wi tU both : for I cannot 

 imagine any clay land so porous (eve* after expending 



demand any reimbursement, although the commissioners 

 shall "have entertained the application" in the first 

 instance. Now, so much of the work done is to be 

 inspected ; beingjinished, how is this accomplished, with 

 pipesjieeesaarily laid down, and earth filled in, to meet 



upon it in draining such a sum as. 16*. per acre !) as to 

 absorb instantaneously such rain as we have recentlv 

 experienced, provided the field be a steep fall, bomo 



