18

Implements oj Hufbandry.—Improved Drill.

pafling through the hopper containing the feed, bring forward in each cavity anumber of feeds and drop them into the fpout, by which means they are conveyedto the coulter, which forms a channel on the top of the one-bout ridge in order toreceive them.

If the cavities in this drill be made to hold five feeds when the regulator isfcrewed clofe down, and there be fixteen of them, it will depofit eighty feeds eachrevolution ; and from the diameter of the wheel being twenty-fix inches, and the cir-cumference eighty-one inches and a half, eighty feed will be fown in eighty-oneand a half inches, or nearly twelve in a foot. This being the minimum quan-tity, by fcrewing up the regulator the number may be increafed gradually to fiftyor fixty in a foot; which is far more than is neceflary, except in particularly un-favourable fituations.

Another Drill conftru&ed by the fame gentleman for fowing all kinds of grain, inany quantity, and at any diftance, feems likewife to have confiderable merit. The in-fide part of it, by which the quantity of feed is regulated, is an iron axle one or oneand one-fourth of an inch fquare, upon which are fixed, at nine or ten inches diftance,five or fix or more brafs fluted cylinders, the flutes being rather more than a femi-circle five-eighths of an inch in diameter, Or five-eighths wide and fix-eighths in depth.To thefe are fitted hollow cylindrical rims of hammered iron, which have fegmentsturned down at right angles, to form exactly to the flutes of the brafs cylinders ;the cavities of which are increafed or diminifhed by the fegments of the iron cylin-drical rims Hiding backwards and forwards in the flutes. This is performed in altthe cylinders at the fame time, by a rectangular fpace being made in the brafs cylin-ders, through which pafles a ftraight piece of iron moving on fridtion-wheels, andfattened to the plates, and alfo the cylindrical rims. A lever moved by a fcrewpafles through the frame; one end of which is forked, and made to fit exactly thefides of the collar or plates of iron. By turning the fcrew the lever moves the wholeof the rims at once, and the cavities are increafed or diminifhed at pleafure, andalmoft inftantaneoufly, even while the machine is going and at work, fo as to fowall forts of grain and in any proportion.

When Turnips are to be drilled, the large hopper is taken off, and a fet of fmallones fixed upon the half-egg cavities at the end of the brafs cylinders, and thequantity of feed regulated as in the turnip-drill juft defcribed.

For fowing beans and peas at wide intervals, as from twenty-feven to thirtyinches, Mr. Bailey makes ufe of a drill with only one wheel and one cylinder,which a man wheels before him in the furrow : or a method which he finds better,is, to fix it in the body of a fmall plough drawn by one horfe, with one ftilt that