Miscellaneous Implements Exhibited at Chester. 569 • 
readily and firmly attached to a gate, a fence, or the pole of the 
machine. A portion of the holder serves as a convenient anvil 
for riveting sections. The importance of sharp knives is not 
quite sufficiently appreciated by the rising generation, and it is 
common to see them in a quite disgraceful condition, but their 
fathers would know that the “ strongest man in the world ” 
cannot drive a blunt scythe very far, while even a weak man can 
swing a sharp one from daylight till dark. Sharp knives reduce 
friction in every part of the machine and save horseflesh. A 
good knife-holder, therefore, goes a long way to secure good 
sharpening, and with it these important results. 
Article 5006. W. N. Nicholson & Sons, Ltd., Trent Iron 
Works, Newark-on-Trent. Hay Kicker. The “ Switchback 
Hay-turner and Tedder,” price 15/. — This machine goes far to 
justify the claim of the exhibitor, viz., that it gives the same 
motion to the forks as the human wrist and arm. In addition 
to the straight backward kick, a rotary motion is given to the 
fork when near the limit of its throw back, causing it to turn 
the hay. The amount of turn can be regulated at pleasure, or 
it can be set to “ kick straight ” if required. To remedy the 
tendency to dig into the ground when working on ridge and 
furrow, the shank of each fork is free to lift vertically 4 inches 
in its socket on meeting with an obstacle, dropping into its 
normal position again by its own weight and without the aid of 
any spring. The fork itself, also, by means of a very ingenious 
universal joint attaching it to the shank, has sufficient freedom 
to yield in any direction and avert breakage. 
Article 5070. Ransomes, Sims, & Jefferies, Ltd., The 
Orwell Works, Ipswich. Potato Digger, price 17/. 10s., if with 
ordinary screen, 15/. — This machine (fig. 12) is similar in prin- 
ciple to that shown at Warwick last year, 1 with the addition of 
a novel rotary net screen. This, again, is one of the potato 
raising appliances it would be interesting to try. The screen 
catches the potatoes and the rotary motion tends to shake them 
clear of earth, &c., and drops them in a line for collecting. 
This it is well calculated to do, as the somewhat loose string net 
would immediately cancel the force of delivery from the prongs. 
Neither can there be any danger of bruising or rebound. It is 
also lighter than the hanging wooden screen it supersedes. 
The Lactoserin Co., Ltd., Stockholm, Sweden, exhibited an 
interesting apparatus (not in the Catalogue) for use in factories, 
the object being to reduce the solids in whey and skim-milk to 
dry cakes, so forming a marketable product with great keeping 
properties, suitable for a great variety of purposes as a food for 
1 Journal, 3rd Series, Vol. III., 1892, p. 548. 
