more extensively practised, and from its having recently ceased to make progress in general practice, we should be inclined to hold, that with respect to the cereal grains, the rule of agriculture is the broadcast system, and the exception the row system. The cases falling under the exception may be, and doubtless are, very numerous and important. There are many light soils in which the seeds require to be deposited, at a considerable and equal depth, and this the drill-machine effects better than sowing on the surface; and there are many thin cold clays which tend to throw out the plants, the best remedy for which is thought to be deep sowing. These purposes, indeed, may be served, by ribbing the surface, as it is termed, with the common plough previous to sowing, thus,

The seed being sown from the hand in the common way, falls into the hollows, and is thus more deeply covered. The drill may be advantageously employed, where the land is very subject to be over-run with certain annual weeds, as the scellock or wild mustard. If the growth of these can be destroyed in the early part of summer by the hand-hoe, it may frequently save the crop. The corn-drill is therefore an instrument of much importance in agriculture, and the row-culture may, in the case even of whole districts, be preferable to the broadcast, though the latter system, we must still contend, is the most generally applicable to the circumstances of this country.

The sowing of corn from the hand, however, is known to be attended with some uncertainty, being dependent, for the accuracy of the execution, upon the skill and attention of the sower. The regularity of the work is also affected by winds; and, unfortunately, the means rarely exist of detecting the degree of inaccuracy in the work until too late to correct it. As a remedy for these inconveniences, a machine has been for some years introduced into the agriculture of Northumberland, North Durham, and some of the southern counties of Scotland, for sowing broadcast. As regards economy alone, little perhaps is effected by the employment of this machine. Its recommendation is the regularity and certainty with which it performs the work, and

the rendering the execution independent of unskilfulness or want of care in the operator.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Figure 1. represents the machine as seen from the side, with the shafts in the position in which they are when the horse is yoked. Figure 2. represents the machine as seen from above, with the box upon it, the end of which is seen in Figure 1. fixed upon the frame-work of the machine before the wheels. Figure 3. represents it as seen from above, without the box. the frame-work of the machine, the rods or spindles, upon the rod in the interior of the box, are seen.

In this

and wheels

The length

of the box is 17 feet; and the lid is in two parts, for the greater convenience of opening when putting in the seed. In the interior of the box, nearly at the bottom, is a square rod of iron, as seen in Figure 3, on which are fixed thirty-six wooden wheels, set at equal distances, about 12 inches in the middle where the cog-wheel is fixed, being left vacant. Behind this interval, the horse walks in the hollow of the ridges, so that the machine may sow at once the half of each adjoining ridge. The wooden wheels are 24 inches in diameter, and 1§ inch in breadth. Each of these has eleven teeth covered with tin *, the breadth of which is g, and the depth of an inch. Besides a division in the middle of the box, there are six wooden partitions in the inside at equal distances, so that, when the machine is sowing on the sides of hills or other inequalities of surface, the seed may be kept more regularly at each wheel. There is a small hole in the bottom of the box behind at each interior wheel, through which the seed falls as these wheels revolve. The wheels work in grooves in the bottom of the box, and are so near the holes behind, that the seed only falls out when the wheels are revolving. A piece of deal is generally attached to the under side of the box on the outside, which hangs down with an inclination backwards; and the seed, by falling upon this board, is disseminated more regularly in a lateral direction. On the outside of the box, covering the holes, is a thin narrow bar of iron, in two parts, having a hole of the same size opposite each hole in the box. This bar is moved at each end of the box by a male screw working into a female one, by which the holes can be made less in any required degree, or even closed altogether. An index is attached to the end of this bar, by which the holes are adjusted as required for the different kinds of seed, so as to regulate the quantity required to be sown.

The manner in which motion is conveyed to the wheels within the box is as follows:-The axle of the two wheels of the machine is fixed to, and revolves with, one of them. A cog

* Some machines have brushes in place of teeth covered with tin. The lalter, however, are superior to the brushes; for, when a large quantity of seed is in the box, the brushes sow thicker than when there is a small quantity; whereas a greater or less weight of seed makes no difference with the teeth.

wheel is fixed upon this axle, as seen in Figures 2 and 3. This cog-wheel works into a similar wheel on the end of a spindle placed at right angles with the wheels of the machine; on the other end of which is a cog-wheel, which works into a wheel of the same kind on the spindle or rod on which the wheels covered with tin are fixed in the interior of the box. The wheels in the interior of the box revolve in the same way as the axle of the machine; that is, revolve upwards when passing the holes through which the seed falls out. The spindle which communicates motion from the axle to the rod within the box, is fastened at the end next the box, by passing through a socket on the middle cross-beam of the frame-work of the machine, as seen in Figure 3. On the hind cross-beam of the frame-work is an apparatus similar to that of a common door-lock, as seen in Figure 3, by means of which the cog-wheel of the spindle is, when required, detached from the cog-wheel of the axle; and thus, as no motion is communicated to the wheels within the box, the seed, as already stated, is prevented from falling out. This is necessary when the machine comes to the turnings at the end of the ridges; it is only the work of a moment, and can be performed by the person who directs the horse by reins from behind, without stopping the machine.

The box, as already stated, is 17 feet in length, which will answer for the breadth of almost any ridge, the breadth of the common ridge being generally only 15 feet; but, that the box may be accommodated to the breadth of smaller ridges, six or eight holes on each end are made to shut up by thin pieces of iron, which slide down over any required number of holes. The breadth of space which the box occupies when on the machine would render it inconvenient to convey it through gates and from one field to another; but the box is then placed between two upright posts on the right side of the machine, and lies forward by the side of the right shaft.

A man and a horse with this machine will sow between twentyfive and thirty acres in a day. The regular manner in which the seed is disseminated renders less seed necessary than in the common method of sowing by the hand. Besides the advantages arising from a saving of seed, the greater regularity, as

VOL. II. NO. VIII.

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