249 
RECENT AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS, 
The subjects of Applications for Patents from January i to 
March 15, 1890. 
Inventive genius has been greatly stimulated, since 1883, by the 
large reduction in the cost of obtaining a patent, which was one of 
the principal features of the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks 
Act of that year. The number of applications for protection have, 
in consequence, increased annually, the total for the year 1889 having 
amounted to close upon 21,000. Of this number, a considerable 
proportion relate to inventions affecting the interests of members 
of the Society in their various occupations. It has, therefore, been 
decided, in the new series of the Journal to publish every quarter 
a list of such inventions connected with agriculture, compiled from 
the Official Journal of the Patent Office. 
In order that readers of the Journal may better understand these 
lists, and how best to utilise the information they give, some general 
explanation of the proceedings at the Patent Office may here be useful. 
Each application for a patent is accompanied by a specification 
describing the invention, such specification being either " pro- 
visional," or " complete/' as the case may be, according to whether 
the applicant desires only provisional protection for nine months, 
or a complete patent for four years. Should the inventor decide, 
eventually, not to go beyond the provisional stage (for he may file 
his " complete " any time within nine months), or, in other words, 
abandon his application for a patent, the particulars of the invention 
are not disclosed to the public ; but if otherwise, and the complete 
specification is " accepted " by the Office, it is open to public inspec- 
tion. Copies of such specifications, with photo-lithographic repro- 
ductions of the drawings (if any), are on sale at the Patent Office Sale 
Branch, about three weeks after the date of acceptance, and may 
be obtained, if desired, through the post, by forwarding the price, plus 
the postage, in stamps. Within two months from the official adver- 
tisement of acceptance of a specification, any person who desires 
to oppose the grant of the patent may do so by giving notice to 
the Comptroller, who accordingly affords a " hearing " to the two 
parties, and gives his decision on the case. If no such opposition 
occurs, the patent is usually sealed within three months from the 
date of acceptance of the complete specification. 
To each list of inventions published in this Journal will be 
appended a list of the numbers of the specifications on sale at the 
time of going to press, with the price subjoined in brackets (the 
postage being, in nearly every case, \d.). With the information 
given above, therefore, any reader who is interested in one or more 
of the subjects before him may, by waiting until he sees the publi- 
cation of the same announced, obtain a copy of the specification, 
with the full particulars of the invention. If, at the expiration of 
fifteen months, the number does not appear in the list of specifica- 
tions published, he will know that the application is either aban- 
doned or under opposition. 
