December 27, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
5G3 
FRUIT. 
s. 
a. 
S. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
Apples .. .. 
1 
6 
to 4 
0 
Nectarines .. 
dozen 
0 
0 
to 0 
0 
»» • • • • 
per barrel 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Oranges. 
6 
0 
10 
0 
Apricots 
. box 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Peaches. 
dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Chestnuts .. 
. bushel 
10 
0 
0 
0 
Pears, kitchen 
dozen 
1 
0 
1 
6 
Figs .. .. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
„ dessert 
dozen 
1 
0 
5 
0 
Filberts .. .. 
.. .. ft. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Pine Apples English., lb. 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Cob3 .. 
1 
4 
1 
5 
Plums and Damson 
3 . . 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Grapes .. .. 
1 
6 
4 
0 
Strawberries.. 
.. ft. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Lemon .. 
15 
0 
21 
0 
St. Michael Pines 
..each 
o 
6 
8 
0 
Melons .. .. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
VEGETABLES. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
s 
d. 
Artichokes 
.. dozen 
2 
0 
to 4 
0 
Mushrooms .. 
punnet 
i 
0 
to 1 
6 
Beans, Kidney 
100 
1 
0 
0 
0 
Mustard and Cress 
punnet 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Beet, Red 
.. dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Onions . 
bushel 
2 
6 
8 
3 
Broccoli .. .. 
.. bundle 
0 
9 
1 
0 
Parsley .. dozen bunches 
3 
0 
4 
0 
Brussels Sprouts 
.. 1 sieve 
1 
6 
2 
6 
Parsnips. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Cabbage .. .. 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Potatoes. 
cwt. 
4 
0 
5 
0 
Capsicums 
100 
1 
6 
2 
0 
,. Kidney . 
cwt. 
4 
0 
5 
0 
Carrots. .. 
0 
3 
0 
4 
Rhubarb. 
bundle 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Cauliflowers .. 
.. dozen 
o 
0 
3 
0 
Salsafv. 
bundle 
1 
0 
0 
0 
Celery .. .. 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Scorzonera 
bundle 
1 
6 
0 
0 
Coleworts doz. bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Seakale. 
basket 
2 
S 
2 
9 
Cucumbers 
.. each 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Shallots. 
.. ft. 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Endive .. 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Spinach. 
bushel 
2 
6 
3 
6 
Herbs 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Tomatoes 
.. ft. 
0 
3 
0 
4 
Leeks .. .. 
0 
3 
0 
4 
Turnips. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Lettuce .. .. 
1 
0 
1 
6 
NEW AND IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL 
MACHINERY. 
Under this heading we intend noticing some of the various 
changes which have taken place since our last remarks on 
agricultural machinery in December, 1881 ; more attention 
will, however, be given to those implements and machinery 
exhibited at the Islington Hall meeting of the Smithfield Club, 
held in the second week of the present month. After full con¬ 
sideration of this matter we can only use words of caution to 
the purchasers of labour-saving implements. In addition to the 
large outlay required to furnish a farm with the best imple¬ 
ments and machinery, another matter has to be considered— 
that is, the annual repairs to valuable machines, for these 
require skilled labour to effect them, a large covered area is 
also essential to their preservation, and the skilled labour re¬ 
quired for conducting farming operations by machinery is an 
important item in the labour bill which these implements were 
designed to save on the farming accounts. To avoid a wrong 
position as to the purchase and usage of some costly machinery, 
it becomes an important question as to the adaptation of im¬ 
plements to the acreage and soils of the farm; and when its need 
is considered it is quite impossible to leave out of calculation 
the size of the farm, for as a general rule it is only the require¬ 
ments of the largest arable farms which can justify the use to 
the full extent of the best machinery. We have no better illus¬ 
tration of the soundness of this idea than the practice of the 
Americans on the large prairie farms, where the use of the best 
and most costly machinery is a great necessity. These observa¬ 
tions apply more particularly to costly machinery, such as reap¬ 
ing and binding machines, threshing machines, ploughing and 
cultivating by steam power, which the home farmer can nearly 
everywhere hire for use upon moderate occupations. It is, 
however, true that the farming upon small acreages may be 
carried on with moie advantage by the purchase and use of 
various implements as adapted for the tillage operations. For 
instance, farms of 300 acres, and often less, of arable land, the 
ploughing, harrowing, rolling, scarifying, and horse-hoeing will 
require implements of the best and newest designs. '1 he same 
observations apply with equal force to the carts and waggons 
available at haying and harvest time. In these and numerous 
other requirements machinery becomes a necessity upon small 
farms, more especially in those instances where a full complement 
of sheep are kept, and also where dairy farming and bullock¬ 
feeding are included, because under the latest style of manage¬ 
ment these animals require great attention and much hand 
labour, which can be greatly economised by using the best 
implements. 
In commencing our notice of the exhibits at the late meeting 
in Islington Hall, we derive great assistance from the well- 
arranged illustrations and remarks in connection, as given in 
the hell's Weekly Messenger, by Mi-. John Algernon Clarke, one 
of the most experienced agricultural writers to be found con¬ 
nected with the agricultural literature of the period. One of 
the important novelties exhibited by Messrs. John Fowler & Co., 
of the Steam Plough Works, Leeds, is their compound traction 
engine fitted on springs. These engines work with o0 per cent, 
less fuel and water than those of the ordinary type, they are 
more easily handled than any single or double-cylinder engine, 
and are noiseless. The introduction of the spring enables the 
engine to travel faster, and reduces the wear and tear consider¬ 
ably, with other valuable improvements. An interesting exhibit 
was their working model of the new patent combined roller, 
cultivator, and harrow. This implement is intended to be 
employed for pulverising land after ploughing, and by the 
successive action of the roller, the cultivator tines, and the 
teeth of the drag harrow, the clods turned up by the plough 
are effectively pulverised. 
We must also noticed a new sectional system of ploughing, 
the working model being exhibited. By this new method, 
recently patented, can be attached to the ploughing rope as 
many implements as the engine can pull. Each implement 
ploughs its particular length of ground, joining the work done by 
the one fastened next on the rope. One-third of the wear and tear 
on the rope is saved, and on rough uneven land, by using two 
narrow implements instead of one broad One, more regular 
and better work is done, and there is less danger of the imple¬ 
ment choking. A slower speed can also be used if necessary 
without reducing the quantity of work done. Several of these 
sets have been at work during the last season on the prairie 
lands in America, and with a pair of ten-horse power engines 
an average of 35 acres of ploughing per day has been done. 
Great improvements are also made by the mode of laying down 
the engine railway lines, taking up, removal, and relaying very 
expeditiously without the exercise of skilled labour. The home 
farmer should know how to estimate the advantages just enume¬ 
rated, besides many more, of which details will be found in 
the catalogues of the implement makers. As the occupation 
of large farms increases through so many small farms not being 
let, improvements in machinery will be more imperative than 
ever, especially in the event of overwhelming supplies of foreign 
corn continuing. 
The new and improved implements offered by Messrs. James 
and Frederick Howard of Bedford have next to be noticed, 
taking first the new portable straw-trusser, which in use is 
intended to be attached to the rear end of an ordinary threshing 
machine. The increasing value of straw as a marketable com¬ 
modity, especially in the various pasture districts of the kingdom, 
and the relaxation of many landowners of the restrictive lease 
clauses as to its sale, have lately given great prominence to the 
inquiry for a practicable machine for binding straw in trusses as 
it is leaving the threshing machine. This machine was awarded 
the medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England at their 
last meeting held at York in July last, where it was exhibited 
for the first time. This machine was worked throughout the 
Show, and elicited the general opinon that its exhibition marked 
the introduction of an important labour-saving machine. The 
straw-trusser is easily understood and readily managed. The 
whole, very portable and compact, weighs but 12 cwt., and is 
mounted on an axle with a pair of travelling wheels, and when 
the machine is set to work it is simply hooked on to the thresh¬ 
ing machine. It is driven by a chain from the shaker spindle. 
The threshed straw on leaving the shakers passes between 
canvas conductors to the cultivators, which receive aud compress 
it against weighted levers, and when the required quantity 
of straw is collected to balance and move the weighted levers, 
the binding mechanism is thereby started, the pair of bind¬ 
ing arms from below the collected straw rise up, enclose, and 
bind it with two bands whilst the truss is under compression. 
The sizes of the trusses may be regulated to suit different 
requirements, but it has been found that a truss of about 18 lbs. 
weight is the most useful size for general purposes. The average 
cost of twine to bind a ton of straw is Is., which is not more 
than the cost of labour for making straw bands to bind the 
same weight of straw, whilst the whole of the labour for trussing 
is saved. This new patent trusser is made to attach to the 
threshing machines of nearly all makers, and to suit different 
widths of drums. 
One of the most ingenious mechanical notions lately applied 
to field implements was seen in the new ring and self-lifting steel 
beam cultivators which Messrs. Howard brought out a,t the 
York Show. This is the first riding and self-lifting cultivator 
