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| forward into the department for the depositing 
barrel, causing an equal distribution in exact 
quantities of the most coarse or badly prepared 
artificial manures, or well rotted farm-yard dung, 
mixed with a small proportion of soil or ashes. 
It is likewise desirable to be able to regulate 
the delivery of manure as the drill travels, as in 
going over several acres of land, many portions 
| may be found much richer than others, espe- 
cially in places where the better soil has been 
washed (by continued wet) off the hills into the 
valleys. To ensure this variation of delivery, a 
slide is placed before the mouth of the manure 
box, worked easily up and down by turning a 
small wheel at the back of the drill, so that 
without stopping the progress of the implement, 
the man in attendance may alter the quantity as 
occasion may require. The ends of the drill boxes 
are made of iron instead of wood, allowing the 
travelling wheels to run half the distance from the 
outside coulters at which the others are set, and 
so returning in the same wheel-marks that they 
made in going the contrary way of the field, to 
leave the rows all the same distance apart. This 
improvement extends also to making drills to 
cover half-rod lands without the necessity of an 
additional part to put to it in the field; the full 
spread of the drill wheels outside, being no more 
than will admit of its passing through gateways 
of the ordinary dimensions, viz. 83 feet. The 
iron cill, or side frame, is much more durable 
than when made partly of wood and partly of 
iron, and affords a ready mode of altering the 
height of the box to receive the different size 
cog wheels, as the upright centre, upon which 
the box rests, is raised or lowered by a screw, 
numbered to correspond with the teeth in the 
wheels, so that no difficulty can arise in their 
being adjusted and kept in proper gear with the 
greatest precision. As a more convenient and 
easier method for the man in attendance to raise 
the manure box, when full, in and out of work, 
a compound lever is applied, by means of which, 
less than half the power formerly necessary for 
the purpose will now suffice; the attendant may 
easily throw both boxes when fully loaded with 
manure and corn, in and out of gear, as the drill 
travels.—In the second place, we come to the 
drill when used simply for corn or grass seeds. 
When the implement is required for either of 
these purposes only, the whole of the manure 
apparatus may be removed, leaving it a light 
corn and seed drill. The merits and form of the 
Suffolk corn drills are familiar to agriculturists 
generally; it remains therefore but to point out 
the latest improvements which have brought it 
to its present state of perfection, and classed it 
among the most complete implements of agricul- 
ture. Among these may be enumerated as the 
principal, the simple apparatus provided to en- 
sure a regular delivery of the seed when going 
up or down hill. In descending a drill has a pe- 
culiar tremor, and a tendency to go faster than 
SOWING-MACHINES. 
when ascending, giving greater velocity to the 
delivering cups, and consequently throwing more 
seed down the conductors. ‘To remedy this, and 
to render the delivery from the barrel as uniform 
as possible, two cog wheels of different speeds 
are placed, one on each end of the barrel ; either 
of which may easily be put in and out of gear, as 
required, and worked from alternate ends,—the 
small wheel when going up hill, and the large 
wheel when going down. The seed-engine ac- 
companying this drill is adapted to sow at the 
same time with spring corn, or may be used as a 
separate implement for grass seeds broad-cast, or 
turnips and mangold-wurtzel in rows. In order 
to ensure an equal delivery of the different kinds 
of seed, the box is partitioned off into two depart- 
ments, one for heavy seeds, such as clover, tre- 
foil, &c., and the other for the lighter seeds, such 
as rye-grass; the former being delivered from 
cups, and the latter from brushes, down the same 
conductors with it. Thus the required quanti- 
ties of each seed are nicely mixed and evenly 
sown all over the land, and may be regulated by 
turning the screw at the end of the box for rye- 
grass, and changing wheels on the cup barrel for 
clover, &c. By the new steerage machinery 
which acts as a fore-carriage to the implement, 
a man may keep the rows of corn perfectly paral- 
lel with the preceding course of the drill. This 
is done by a man holding the steerage handle and 
keeping the small fore wheels in the tract of the 
former large one; this, with a little practice, is 
very easy, and will amply repay, by the perfect 
regularity in the crop, affording the greatest fa- 
cility for the horse-hoe going between all the 
rows of plants, and with equal precision, where 
the drills join in their different courses through 
the field. The swing steerage, at a less cost, and 
managed without an additional attendant, is am- 
ply sufficient where the drill covers each stetch, 
or land, in twice.—Lastly, as a turnip and ma- 
nure drill, it may be used to suit all methods of 
cultivation, whether on flat lands, or ridges, as 
the axle-tree may be made to slip, so as to alter 
the sizes to the different widths of ploughing. 
The distances of the rows may be varied at plea- 
sure. The manure is deposited in a continual 
stream down the large conductors in any requir- 
ed quantities, and covered with the drags, or 
rakes, with soil to any depth before the seed 
(which passes through different pipes) is sown 
upon it; the seed is then lightly covered with 
mould by chain harrows suspended from the end 
of each lever. These drills are also made with an 
addition to drop the manure and seed at inter- 
vals, through separate conductors, instead of a 
continued stream, by means of which, expensive 
manures may be much economised, one-third, or 
half the quantity generally used, being by this 
means sufficient to afford every plant its full pro- 
portion of nourishment.” 
Lord Western’s drill is modelled remotely on 
Cooke’s drill, and proximately on the improved 
