} 
288 
which serve both to consolidate the drill and to 
give motion to the seed barrels; and they are 
self-adjustable to the width of drill by sliding on 
their own axis. The seed barrels are made of 
tin, and have small orifices of three sizes for dis- 
charging the seed ; and the tubes which receive 
the seed from the orifices terminate in the cham- 
ber of the coulters, and deposit the seed in the 
ruts which the coulters form. Two small rollers 
are occasionally used, attached to the seed-box 
frame, for covering the seed. 
Geddes’s turnip-sowing machine is an improved 
form of the one-horse two-row turnip-drill. It 
was invented by Mr. Geddes of Cargen-Bridge in 
Dumfries-shire, and was first exhibited in 1837. 
A figure of it is given in Plate LIX. The im- 
provements occur, not in the general construc- 
tion of the machine, but principally in the sub- 
stitution of a seed-box and distributing roller for 
the tin-plate seed-barrel, and in the communi- 
cating of motion from the rollers in which the 
machine moves to the distributor. The horse- 
shafts are bolted down at their hinder end upon 
a bed-plank ; the handles also are jointed to the 
bed-plank, and can rise or fall within the guid- 
ance of sheers affixed to its hind edge; and two 
inverted standards are attached by bolts to the 
ends of the bed-plank, and connect it with the 
travelling-axle. The curved rollers, on which 
the machine travels, are, as in the common two- 
row turnip-drill, 16 inches in length, and 14 
inches in diameter at the ends, and diminish to 
8 inches in the middle; and they consist of cast- 
iron, with cross arms at each end, and have a 
rod or axle, common to both, passing through 
them and the standards. A pendant iron V- 
stay supports the middle of the axle; and the 
length of the bed-plank and the axle is such as 
to afford space for the rollers to shift to right 
or left, accommodating themselves to the varying 
width of the drills. The seed-box frames are 
also appended to the axle, and move laterally 
with their respective roller; and the seed-boxes 
are placed on a small platform attached to the 
arms of the frame. The motion which the rollers 
acquire by the travelling of the machine is com- 
municated to the seed-distributor through trains 
of small wheels; and these are enclosed in a 
case, to prevent earth from falling into their 
teeth; and the first wheel of each train is con- 
nected with the end of its roller, and the last is 
placed upon the axis of the distributor. Small 
rollers are attached to the frames, similar to those 
which are used in the common two-row turnip- 
drill, for the purpose of giving a slight cover to 
the seed; and here they serve also as regulators 
of the depth to which the seed rut is formed, 
and therefore they can be raised or lowered by 
shifting their axes, and are provided with scrapers 
to remove any adhering earth. The seed-box 
frames are attached to the handles by a chain; 
and by means of this, they can be lifted from the 
ground at pleasure. The seed-box is a bowl of 7 
2 
SOWING-MACHINES. 
inches in diameter and 5 inches in depth, and 
opens at the bottom into a space which is filled 
with the distributing roller. This roller is of 
brass, and about 14 inch in diameter, and has a 
groove of one-tenth of an inch wide running 
round it. A slider has a tongue adapted to fit 
into the groove, and is fixed by means of a screw 
to suit any required quantity of seed that it may 
be desirable to sow per acre,—the quantity of 
seed distributed being proportioned to the extent 
of opening left between the point of the tongue 
and the bottom of the groove. 
The two-row turnip and bone-dust sowing- 
machine makes a simultaneous deposition of the 
seed and the manure, and is used in the best 
arable districts of Scotland. It is drawn by one 
horse, and has the distance between the coulters 
regulated by hand-gear. It is mounted on two 
wheels, which serve to turn both the seed and 
the bone-dust apparatus. The former consists 
of the common tin seed-barrels; and the latter 
comprises two wooden hoppers, with each an 
enclosed wide-toothed or notched wheel, whose 
revolving motion discharges the bone-dust con- 
tained in the hopper into a tube which termi- 
nates, in common with the tube from the seed- 
barrel, in the chamber of the coulter. The regu- 
lation of the discharge of the bone-dust is effected 
by means of a slider which enlarges or diminishes 
the passage from the hopper. 
Nicol’s turnip and bone-dust sowing-machine 
is one of the oldest combinations of mechanism 
for simultaneously depositing the seed and the 
manure; and it considerably resembles the com- 
mon two-row turnip and bone-dust sowing-ma- 
chine in general structure; but it has a dif- 
ferent arrangement of parts, and different modes 
of communicating the motions. It travels on 
one large roller and on a fore-wheel without 
a swivel-bar; and the former gives motion to 
the sowing apparatus; and the adjustment of 
the coulters is not self-acting, but is effected by 
hand-gear.—Hamilton’s turnip and bone-dust 
sowing-machine possesses the same properties as 
the preceding, but is differently arranged. 
Crosskill’s improved turnip and manure drill 
is made of two kinds,—the one for sowing one 
drill and the other for sowing two drills. It 
sows, in rows 24 inches apart, quantities of seed, 
graduated by the number of cogs upon a regu- 
lating wheel, from 13 to 2? lbs. per acre; and it 
sows, with the same cups, from 20 to 40 bushels 
of bones or other pulverized manure per acre. 
By drawing the box with the iron lever fixed to 
it. to the hindmost part of the drill, it sows more, 
—and by drawing it forward, less; and a slide in 
the box is also drawn up or down to assist in 
depositing the quantity required. The iron lever 
on the side of the machine is likewise used to 
throw the wheels in or out of work. 
Garrett’s lever ridge-drill for turnips or man- 
gel-wurzel with manure is made with two coul- 
ters, and is intended for ridge ploughed lands, 
