at the Derby McduHj, 1813. 
47r 
of its use are mentioned as of hifjli antiquity. It Avill not be 
thousfht an undue tribute of praise to the Enp^lish agricultural 
mechanics, to nolice that the implements employed are also of 
purely Knsflish invention ; neither the mechanic nor the agricul- 
turist has been indebted to any other portion of the British empire, 
or to the foreigner, for any improvement in the art itself, or in the 
machinery by which it is accomplished. To the drilhng of seed 
has been added, within the last few years, the drilling of manures, 
a process also purely English, and which can scarcely be ranked 
as secondary in importance even to that of the mechanical deposi- 
tion of seed. If the annual collection of mechanism sent to the 
Society's country meetings afford any evidence of the demand for 
particular implements, or of the progress made in distinct branches 
of husbandry, then we may, with confidencCj deduce that the drill 
sy stem is advancing with rapid strides. More than sixty imple- 
ments, expressly designed and employed for the deposition of 
seed and manure conjointly or separately, called for the examina- 
tion of the Judges on the present occasion. If to these be added 
the horse-hoes and other tools auxiliary to the system, it results 
that one-third of the articles in the tillage and cultivating depart- 
ments of the exhibition consisted of drilling machinery ; and if 
the ploughs common both to the broadcast and drill systems be 
excepted from the summary, more than one-half of the remainder 
was specially subservient to the preparation of the soil for drilled 
crops, or to their after-treatment. The contemplation of such a 
display cannot but have been gratifying to the members of the 
Society, including as it did an adaptation of the drill to almost 
every species of grain and seed crop, and justifying the encourage- 
ment extended by the Society to this pre-eminently important 
division of the agricultural art. 
By referring to the analysis of the exhibition it appears that, 
of the 61 implements denominated drills and pressers, two- 
thirds of them combined the deposition of manure with that of 
seed ; thereby testifying to the fast-increasing appreciation of the 
value of these united processes both by agriculturists and me- 
chanics. The following concise history of the first introduction 
and progress of the manuring drill-system in Lincolnshire* has 
been obtained from sources on which it is believed full reliance 
may be placed ; and its relation may have the effect of exciting 
the farmers of more backward districts to emulate those of a 
county excelled by none in Britain, in respect of the quantity of 
its produce, though far inferior to many in the natural fertility of 
its soil and character of its climate. 
• The Judges have set on foot inquiries relative to the origin of manure- 
drills in the south-eastern counties, but have not yet succeeded in esta- 
blishing the historical dates to their satisfaction. 
