? 
CHAFF-CUTTER. 
forward on an endless web, which passed over 
one roller in the fore part and another in the 
hinder end of the box. Though the original 
form of this machine is now quite obsolete, and 
its contrivance of an endless web has long been 
generally exploded, yet machines which closely 
resemble it are still extensively employed. 
The cylinder straw-cutter, a very distinct ma- 
chine from Lester’s, is modelled in the Highland 
Society’s Museum, and described as follows in their 
Catalogue:—“In it the feeding is produced by a pair 
of grooved rollers ; and the hay protruded through 
the cutting-box is presented to the cutters. The 
two cutters are fixed upon a skeleton cylinder, 
mounted on the fly-wheel shaft, so that two 
strokes or cuts are made for each revolution of 
the fly. The mouth of the cutting-box is formed 
| to stand obliquely, and the edge of the cutters 
| parallel to the axis; thus distinguishing it from 
| those wherein the cutting-box is parallel with 
_ and the cutters oblique to the axis.” 
Weir’s chaff-cutter is pronounced by Loudon 
one of the best, and is the only one noticed by 
him in his Encyclopeedia of Agriculture. It has 
two cutters on a fly-wheel, and admits a very 
facile regulation of the pressure of the straw.— 
Cornes’ chaff-cutter gained a prize at the Shrews- 
bury meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society 
in 1845. It has a sliding top-roller and pressure- 
plate, cuts with three knives, and makes two 
_ lengths of chaff.— Dean’s chaff-cutter gained 
prizes from the Evesham and the Gloucestershire 
Agricultural Societies in 1844. It has steel faces, 
| rising-rollers, and pressure - blocks, allows the 
| straw to advance so freely as to prevent any 
liability of choking, and cuts three different 
lengths of chaff—Barrett’s chaff-cutter cuts four 
different lengths; its rollers are turned and 
grooved spirally by machinery; and its mouth- 
piece is case-hardened, so as to sharpen the knives 
as they revolve. 
The Uley chaff-cutter, Plate XVIII. F%g. 1. 
gained prizes at the Royal Agricultural Society’s 
| meetings at Liverpool in 1841, at Derby in 1843, 
and at Southampton in 1844. It possesses con- 
siderable novelty of principle ; its cutters are thin 
blades, with serrated edges, coiled round a cylin- 
| der, and effect their object with much less ex- 
penditure of power than cutters mounted on the 
| fly-wheel, and can be sharpened simply by a few 
_ retrograde revolutions of the cylinder; and a 
simple contrivance exists for changing the lengths 
_ of the cut of chaff. 
The Canadian straw-cutter is an American 
invention, and acts ona peculiar principle. It 
was first introduced to the notice of British far- 
_ mers in the Highland Society’s Transactions of 
| 1838; and it is briefly noticed, as follows, in the 
Catalogue of the Highland Society’s Museum :— 
“One plain cylinder of hardwood revolves in 
contact with the cutting-edges of 24 knives, 
which are set in the periphery of an iron cylinder, 
_ placed parallel to the former,—the knives stand- 
CHAIN. 
ing also parallel to the axis of the cylinder. By 
this arrangement, the two cylinders feed and cut 
at the same time by simple pressure.” This ma- 
chine cuts large quantities with small power, but 
does not make the chaff of regular lengths. 
Ransome and May’s chaff-engine, patented 
in 1840, has two shafts, with the screw which 
impels the rollers upon the one, and the wheel 
which carries the knives upon the other, and 
with such a connexion of the two by toothed 
wheels of varying diameters as easily to vary the 
lengths into which the straw or hay is cut; and 
the presser, instead of being fixed to the support 
of the upper roller, has a motion round the axis 
of it, and so rises or falls as to give the proper 
pressure alike to a thick feed and to a thin one. 
This machine is represented in F%g. 2. Plate 
X VITI, 
CHAFF-FLOWER,—botanically Alternanthera. 
A genus of tropical plants, of the amaranth tribe. 
Both the popular and the botanical names allude 
to the alternate fertility and barrenness of the 
stamens. About a dozen species have been in- 
troduced to Britain; and about fifteen others are 
known to botanists. 
CHAILLETIA. An evergreen shrub of Sierra 
Leone, forming the type of both the genus chail- 
letia, and the natural order Chailletiacew. This 
order comprises three genera, and consists of 
shrubs, nearly allied to those of the turpentine-tree 
tribe, with alternate entire leaves, and with axil- 
lary and terminal racemes of white flowers, and 
natives chiefly of the tropical regions of Africa. 
But the only species known in Britain is Chaille- 
tia toxicaria; and this was introduced in 1824. 
It attains a height of about five feet, and blooms 
from May till July. The kernel of its nut is 
poisonous, and is used in Sierra Leone for destroy- | 
ing rats and mice. 
CHAIN. A well-known instrument used in | 
surveying. The measuring chain is usually made 
of strong iron wire, with a handle at each end, 
by which two persons called chain-bearers carry 
it. The one that precedes is called the leader, 
and the other the follower. Any one can lead a 
chain, but some skill and attention is necessary 
in the follower, because he has to direct the 
leader in his movements, and to give him other 
instructions. The arrows or markers are always 
10 in number, and are composed of pieces of 
strong iron wire, about 15 inches long, sharpened 
at the point, and bent into an eye at the opposite 
end, for the convenience of stringing them upon 
a cord or leather strap to carry them and prevent 
their being lost. A piece of scarlet cloth should 
be attached to the eye of each arrow to render 
them distinctly visible when stuck in the ground, 
particularly in the grass, as without this precau- 
tion much time is frequently lost in searching 
for them. In using the chain, a peg or stake is 
driven into the ground to mark the starting 
point from which the measurement begins, and 
the whole of the 10 arrows are given to the 
i ae 
~« 8 : 
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