at the Canterbury Meeting, 1860. 
50'J 
Dray and Co. show many good articles : tlicir forge for farm-service is a good 
one, and their idcld-gate has the novelty of its bars being sawn and the ends 
reversed, which is said to give it additional strength. Isaac Speight's horse- 
hoc attracted our best attention ; but, as it is not the year for the trial of 
horse-hoes, we declined to notice it as a new implement. John and George 
Drury and William Henry Biggleston, Canterbury, exhibit a stand very 
numerously supplied with superior implements, machinery, and miscellaneous 
articles, in very great and good varictj^ : we should have been much pleased to 
have awarded a high commendation to this excellent stand had our rules per- 
mitted. J. and F. Hancock's butter-making machines we also declined to 
notice, this not being the year for the churning and butter-making trials. 
Plenty and Pain exliibitcd a singular but very useful shepherd's house for 
bleak situations. F. Morton had a capital stand of iron gates, wire fencing, 
straining-pillars, &c., alt strong and good. Ward and Burman's brick-making 
machine we also declined to remark iipon for reasons before stated. Mr. B. 
Gibbs's superb collection of grain, grasses, seeds, roots, &c., &c., was as attractive 
as ever, and adds much to the interest and information of the visitors. Messrs. 
Lawson and Son add to a similar collection a pleasing variety of ornamental 
trees, slu'ubs, &c. H. Bridge's stand of pretty butter-prints, &c., always pleases 
us. George Spill's stand of rick-covers and other articles highly deserves 
our notice. Thus, having taken a very brief notice of most of those implements 
and machines which fell more immediately within our dejiartment in the 
yard, we wiU now say a word or two upon those implements and machines 
we put under a short trial. And first of F. Reimann's sowing plough or drill, 
invented by Mr. Pruneau. The chief characteristic is an ingenious con- 
trivance to regulate the deposit of seed by clockwork machinery and graduated 
slides ; this it would undoubtedly effect, supposing the horse to move also by 
clockwork at an even and self-regulated pace : we thought it very ingenious 
but not very practical. We also put under our inspection in work Ward and 
Burman's brick-making machine or clot-fonner named above. Its chief 
novelty and value appeared to consist in its adaptation to form clay into clots 
of proper size I'or the moulding-machine ; this is done by piTtting the clay into 
the hopper, when, by the machine being set in motion, the die advances to 
become filled with the clay, and, as it recedes, by other appliances the clay is 
forced out and taken by the attendant — as one die advances the other 
recedes, and so is continuously filling and forcing out : we could pass no 
opinion upon its merits for the reason above stated. We also carefully 
examined a novel and Utopian invention of D. L. Banks. It is no less than a 
suspension railway, supported upon wheels, to traverse headlands, while the 
rail is suspended from either headland upon these wheels, on which are also 
fixed at either end an engine-house, with engines and all requisites com- 
plete. Thus these rails are to support two engine-houses, two engines, the 
suspension-rails, with all the machinery required for draft in ploughing or cul- 
tivation ; the forced extension of the rails is by a balance-power also at either 
end : we think it unnecessary to express an opinion as to the merits of this 
apparatus. Ericsson's caloric engine was imder trial for several hours. It 
has a cylinder at one end and a furnace at the other ; cold air is admitted 
through a valve into the piston, and, when expanded by the heat, it forces the 
piston forward. This outward stroke furnishes the available power, which, by 
acting through the balance-wheel, forces the piston to its original place, expel- 
ling the expanded air, and introducing a fresh supply of cold air for the suc- 
ceeding stroke. It was said to be about two horse-power ; but, upon a careful 
trial, it was proved not to exceed the third of one horse-power : we regretted 
this much, as hoping it wotdd prove another available power of a cheap and 
safe character for farm-service. Another still more impracticable machine was 
exhibited by the inventor, J. Evans, called a weed-exterminatnr. It was 
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