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quire. The mode of adjusting the lateral draugnt of the plough so as to give the share more or less land, and also to enable it to be drawn by a single or double team of horses, is by the addition of a bar f, fig. 5, to the end of which one of the drawing shackles is to be attached. The plough, shown at fig. 5, is constructed in every respect upon the ordinary principles of what is called a Scotch plough, the side bar only excepted, which by sliding horizontally, in a lateral direction upon a plate g, may be set at any angle to the beam, ard, being there fixed by a bolt, will cause the plough to follow a certain course to which the draught by the adjustment of the bar will incline it. The skeleton plough, fig. 6, designed for wet land, is constructed of bars set in the usual form of the mould-board, and landside; these bars may be either square or round, and set by screws or bolts, cradled together so as to produce the general figure of those surfaces. The object of this construction is that the earth shall not adhere to the surfaces, but pass through between the bars, and by that means allow the plough to clear itself as it proceeds.

Fig. 7 represents the improved harrow; it is formed of bars, which support a peculiar sort of tines (shown detached at fig. 8, and another form at fig. 9). The intention in forming these tines with rounded heads is that the stubble, roots, and other vegetable matters, may be enabled to rise over the top of the tines, and clear them. In order to regulate the depth at which the tines of this harrow shall penetrate the ground, the carriage of the fore-wheel is connected to a lever bar, a, by the raising and lowering of which the nose of the harrow is depressed or elevated to any required distance from the ground, and consequently the depth to which the tines are intended to penetrate will by these means be determined. The lever that regulates the fore-wheel is held at the hinder part of the harrow by a spring-guide, b, consisting of two rods placed close together with swells or bands, forming open spaces at several parts for the lever to rest in. When the tines are intended to penetrate the ground to the greatest depth, the handle of the lever must be raised to the top of the guide; but, when the tines are to be drawn out of the ground, the handle must be pressed upon so as to cause the lever to fall to the bottom of the guide, the elastic lateral pressure of the guide holding the lever in any intermediate position to which it may have been shifted for adjustment. As it is frequently necessary to lift the tines of the harrow out of the ground instantly, without stopping the horses, as in turning at the headlands, that may be done by merely pressing upon the handle of the lever. The hinder wheels of the harrow are also to be raised or lowered to correspond with the fore-wheel, and this is done by means of screws, c, c, which pass through the end bearings of the frame into the axle of the wheels. The last improvement proposed is a horse-hoe, or drill-harrow, with peculiarly formed tines attached to the frame-work, as seen in fig. 10. One of these tines has been shown at fig. 9, and before alluded to, as designed to permit the stubble to rise over its top, and thereby to relieve the hoc or harrow from choking. At the sides of

this hoe scufflers are introduced, their extremities being formed like shares for the purpose of cutting away obstructions.

The inventor has, we understand, received testimonials from a number of highly respectable agriculturists, expressing their unqualified approbation of the efficacy with which these ploughs performed when employed upon rough and unbroken ground, for which they are particularly designed: and the manner in which they throw off the stubble, permitting those obstructions to escape without clogging the progress, is obviously calculated to diminish the labor of draught, as well as perform clean work.

2. Other harrows are exhibited, Agriculture, plate II., as the first, or tusset harrow, and second, or fallow, with their teeth separately underneath. Then follow the double seed and chain and screw harrows. By mistake the plate containing the common and iron seed harrows has been numbered plate II. of AGRICULTURE, as well as that containing the ploughs; but the figures with these inscriptions speak sufficiently for themselves. The field roller of this plate is a very useful instrument: its weight being of course adapted to the land.

Harrows have not undergone much improvement in their construction; the principal point in which they have been rendered more beneficially applicable and convenient for use, appears to be in the form of the frames; the method of attaching the draught; the position and manner of fixing in the tines or teeth; and the directions of the bulls or solid parts.

It has been justly hinted by a late writer that there is no one harrow, whatever the nature of its construction may be, that can be applicable to every description of soil, or which can operate with equal effect and advantage on such lands as are rough and smooth, loose and solid, &c. It is necessary that they should constantly be fitted to the particular nature of the soil, and the peculiar uses to which it is devoted.

In the lighter sorts of ground, it is obvious that smaller and lighter sorts of harrows, with shorter teeth, may more fully answer the purpose than in such as are strong, heavy, and tenacious, or which have been lately broken up from the state of old sward, and that of common moor heath, and other sorts of waste, where they should have much greater weight and length of tines. It is frequently the practice, where the soil is rough and stubborn, as in some instances of fallowing stiff clayey lands, to unite two common harrows together, in order more completely to reduce and break down the lumpiness of such grounds. And in the view of effecting these purposes, especially where the soil is stiff, adhesive, and much matted with weeds, it has been found advantageous not to have the harrows too thickly set with tines, by which they are liable to become choked up, and prevented from working in a proper manner.

The hitching or riding of harrows upon each other it has been attempted to remove, by having them constructed with running bulls, which are said to answer the purpose. It has also been suggested that inconveniences of this nature may be obviated by the mere fastening of the different

harrows together by means of hooks and eyes, or what in some places are called coupling-irons; as in this way the different harrows are only suffered to rise and fall at the same time.

3. Lester's cultivator of our (second) plate II. AGRICULTURE, is a fine implement amongst the variety that have been suggested as pulverisers of the soil. The scuffler is of similar character and use. But the grubber, RURAL ECONOMY, plate II. fig. 2, is thought an improvement on both.All the coulters but two are fixed in the bars; these two are placed in the side beams of the outer fame, and may be said to go more or less deep by pins and wedges. Land on which potatoes or turnips have grown, or that has been ploughed in autumn or winter may be so stirred by this instrument that a crop may be sown in spring without further use of the plough. Beans and pease have been thus sown in spring, says Mr. Cleghorn, on the winter furrow, after being stirred by the grubber: and barley also, after turnip, without any ploughing. In working fallow it is used with good effect.

4. The heavy roller of our (second) plate II. AGRICULTURE has been improved upon, in a compound or spiked roller, and in the roller and water-box, plate III. RURAL ECONOMY, fig. 1, of which latter a representation is given. The spiked roller is employed in working fallows, or preparing stiff bean land for wheat. In stiff clay-ground, when ploughed dry, or which has been much trod upon, the furrow-slice will rise in large lumps, or clods, which the harrow cannot break. In this state of the ground, the rollers commonly used have little effect. Indeed, the seed is often buried in the ground, observes Mr. Loudon, by the clods being pressed down upon it by the weight of the roller. To remedy this, the spike-roller has been employed, and found very useful; but a roller can be made, which, perhaps, may answer the purpose better than the spike one. This roller is formed from a piece of hard wood, of a cylindrical form, on which are placed several rows of sharp-pointed darts, made either of forged iron, or cast metal. These darts, by striking the hard clods in a sloping direction, cut or split them into small pieces; and, by this means, they must be more easily pulverised by the harrow.'

5. The best, and, as Mr. Loudon says, the essential drill machines, are French's for turnips, Cooke's for corn, and the drill attached to a plough for beans.'

Mr. French was an agricultural mechanic of Northumberland, who first suggested the great improvement of concave rollers in the drill machine. Since it has been usual to sow pulverised manure with turnip seed, two hoppers (h) (h) have been added to his invention. See plate III. fig. 2.

Cooke's improved drill and horse-hoe is shown in fig. 3, plate III. It can be used as cultivator, hoe, rake, &c. It is in general use in Norfolk, Suffolk, and various other parts of England. Its advantages are said to be, 1. That the wheels are so large that the machine can travel on any road without trouble or danger of breaking; also from the farm to the field, &c., without taking to pieces. 2. In the

coulter-beam, with all the coulters, moving with great ease, on the principle of the pentagraph, to the right or left, so as to counteract the irregularity of the horse's draught, by which means the drills may be made straight: and, where lands or ridges are made four and a half or nine and a half feet wide, the horse may always go in the furrow, without setting a foot on the land, either in drilling or horse-hoeing. 3. In the seed supplying itself regularly, without any attention, from the upper to the lower boxes, as it is distributed. 4. In lifting the pin on the coulter-beam to a hook on the axis of the wheels; by which means the coulters are kept out of the ground at the end of the land, without the least labor or fatigue to the person who attends the machine. 5. In going up or down steep hills, in the seed-box being elevated or depressed accordingly, so as to render the distribution of the seed regular; and the seed being covered by a lid, and thus screened from wind or rain. The bean drill attached to a plough is shown fig. 4.-It can be fixed in the handles of any common plough.

The interval between the rows of drilled turnips, potatoes, and beans and peas, admit the employment of a horse-hoe, or hoeing-plough. Of this kind of machine there are many varieties. A very good one is described in the Northumberland Report (p. 43). The body is of a triangular form, and contains three coulters and three hoes, or six hoes, according to the state of the soil. A hoe of the same kind is sometimes attached to a small roller, and employed between rows of wheat and barley, from nine to twelve inches distant; it is also used in place of a cultivator, in preparing bean stubbles for wheat in autumn, and for barley in spring. For THRESHING and WINNOWING MACHINES, see those articles

ADDENDA.

We hoped (see our article Agriculture) to advert at this period of the publication of our work to a more satisfactory adjustment of the corn question by the government.

At present (1829) we have only seen another temporary and tampering expedient resorted to in the shape of a new corn bill which we believe satisfies no party. We consider this, therefore, still an adjourned question; and shall only add some miscellaneous observations on its importance. We are indebted to a pamphlet published at the period of the passing of the corn bill of 1815 for the following observations:

1. On the variations in seasons, and their effects on agricultural productions. Although the price at which productions will sell is in some measure regulated by the proportion betwixt demand and supply, yet it is by no means in the ratio of the excesses to the demand in times of superabundance, or in the ratio of deficiency to demand in times of scarcity. Thus, if the demand be as ten, and the supply as eleven, the price will be depressed more than ten per cent. If, on the other hand, the demand be as ten, and the supply as nine, the price will be raised more thau ten per cent. If the demand continue the same, and the supply be as twelve, the price to which the production will be reduced will be far more

than ten per cent. lower than it would have been with a supply at eleven.

It will not be necessary to carry this illustration farther, though it will be obvious that, in the case of excess of supply beyond demand, the depreciation will be much greater in a commodity that is quickly perishable, than in one that will retain its properties for a long period. Even in articles that lose none of their virtues by being preserved, but from their bulk require considerable space, the depreciation will be greater than in those which are more easily removed or stored at less expense. Thus potatoes have felt a much greater depreciation than wheat from their perishable nature; and, from being bulky, when raised at a distance from a large town or a populous district, they have not borne even the expense of conveyance to the consumers. The prices of commodities are also influenced in some measure, and occasionally in a considerable degree, by the prevalence of public opinion, as to the proportion between demand and supply; and, in articles of the first necessity, to a greater extent than in those of inferior consideration. This influence, however, is of a transient kind; and the opinion on which it is grounded is generally corrected before any very injurious effect is produced.

From the great variety in soil and climate within this island, the produce of our harvests generally does not vary so much as a slight observer would suppose. The wet seasons, which are injurious to our cold and heavy soils, are beneficial to those of the opposite description; and a summer of great drought, which parches the lighter soils, and lessens their productions, increases those of the heavier soils. There will, however, be variations in productiveness, but usually not to a great extent. Perhaps on a large average of years, not including one or two of very uncommon character, it will be found that, taking the standard as twenty, in the best years their production may have reached twenty-three, and the worst, not fallen short of seventeen; and that most of our harvests have been at some period between seventeen and twenty-three. If the views we have taken be tolerably correct, we may presume that for the past twenty years, if our production has been as twenty, our consumption may be estimated as twenty-one; and this estimate will be confirmed by the excess of our importation beyond our exportation of corn for that period, as shown by the public documents.

Previously to the year 1811 there had been for several years a gradual increase in the prices of corn, such as must have happened if, as in every other country, the population had a little preceded in its march the production of food. This increase had given a stimulus to agriculture; the capital which had accumulated in that branch of industry had been invested in making further improvements; some extraneous capital also was attracted into the same channel, and in consequence a greater portion of labor was exercised in cultivation than it had before received. The harvest of 1811 was miserably deficient; and, before one half of it was threshed, the deficiency became obvious; prices rose with rapi

dity, and to a height scarcely ever known before. The advance in price came too late to produce much influence on the ensuing harvest. Some spring wheat indeed was sown; but its effect in aiding national subsistence was trifling, as the same land would probably have produced more food, if, as usual, barley, and not spring wheat, had succeeded to turnips.

The deficiency of the harvest of 1811 was not made up by that of 1812, which probably reached the average of our usual production, or onetwentieth less than our consumption. The same price thus continued, and, appearing to be almost permanently fixed at a rate that would pay the most expensive cultivation, it gave a stimulus to still greater agricultural exertions; no cost was spared in the purchase of manures; every portion of land capable of bearing corn was appropriated to that purpose; the usual ånd regular courses of cropping were generally deviated from; and a breadth of land sown, far exceeding what had ever before been done. Potatoes, which had borne a higher relative price than corn, were cultivated also to an extent before unknown.

The year 1813 proved highly propitious; all the different species of corn were favored by the seasons, whose variations seemed exactly executed as if to promote abundant vegetation; the weather whilst harvesting this crop was unusually favorable; and this bountiful supply, housed under such happy circumstances, proved as good in quality, as it was excessive in quantity. But the impression of its abundance upon the public exceeded the reality.

It is extremely difficult to estimate the quantum of excess in this year of singular character. As far as pretty extensive enquiry, and not inattentive observation, may enable us, we may attempt the calculation without the fear of erring very materially. Most of the farmers on poor lands, whose usual growth of wheat had been twenty bushels to the acre, in that year allow that their growth amounted to from twenty-four to twenty-five bushels; those on better lands usually producing twenty-four to twenty-six, produced from thirty to thirty-two busbels, and on the very best wheat lands some have stated their excess above the usual production to amount to eight bushels. Allowing difficulty of accuracy, and requesting that indulgence which the nature of the case requires, it will not be deemed presumptuous to estimate this great production at twenty-six, taking, as before, the average production as twenty, and the consumption as twenty-one: this will account, if tolerably accurate, for an enormous depreciation in price. The happy events which led to the peace followed each other in quick succession. Soon after our harvest was securely housed, the foreign ports were opened as well as our own, and a large importation of foreign corn was made. The words peace and plenty have been so commonly joined together that the public expected some union by which one must necessarily produce the other; as if a magical operation was to be performed by the cessation of war, by which either the earth was to become more fertile, or the physical necessity for food become lessened.

Partly from the clamors of the populace, partly

from the state of the foreign exchanges, and, perhaps, partly because the measure originated with their political opponents, the alterations in the corn laws, which it was afterwards found necessary to make, were protracted by ministers till the greatest mischief was effected; and then, when too late to be of any service, they were enacted amidst as much popular confusion as could have happened had it been done at the proper period.

Notwithstanding the surplus quantity of corn produced by the harvest of 1813, the markets would not have been so ruinously depressed if the law had protected the grower early against the foreign competitors. A sufficient number would have retained their stock, or at least a part of it, till a more distant period; but, seeing no check on the foreign corn, and dreading a larger quantity than even could be imported, each rushed to the market, the produce rapidly fell, till at last it seemed permanently settled at a price from thirty to fifty per cent. below its actual cost. Those farmers who were obliged to sell, and who are the far greater proportion of the body, when they wanted money to pay their rent, taxes, and laborers, were under the necessity of selling a double quantity, to realise the usual sum; and thus a glut was produced, which has been attended with the most serious consequences. The harvest of 1814 was by no means abundant in quantity, and the quality of the wheat was so bad in general, and yielded so little flour, that it may be fairly estimated below the average rate of our production. The surplus of the preceding great harvest, and the quantity imported, which was increased by the expectation that the corn bill would raise the price, were sufficient for the consumption of the year, but left a very small stock on hand to meet the future wants of the country. The harvest which followed, in 1815, was a month earlier than our harvests usually are; and from the surplus of the great harvest, from the imported quantity, and from the harvest of 1814, instead of twelve not more than eleven months' provision had been consumed, when the next harvest commenced.

The very low price at which wheat was sold, now increased the consumption very considerably; and the inferior qualities of it, which would produce but little at the market, were used for fattening cattle, and for other purposes to which wheat was never applied before. Thus a degree of profusion in the use of it has rendered the surplus quantity of little avail towards supplying any future scarcity that may occur.

The harvest of 1815, which has been before stated to have taken place a month earlier than usual, found us with a small quantity of foreign wheat of an indifferent quality in the granaries at the sea ports, and but a small stock in the hands of the grower, probably not more than sufficient for our consumption to the usual period at which our corn is harvested. The productiveness of the harvest of 1815 most certainly was below the average of our consumption, at least if the whole may be judged of from the southern parts of the island; but still the markets became lower, not from abundance, but from the impoverished condition of the cultivators. At an unusually

early period a great quantity of new corn was produced in the markets; the pressing demands for money could only be met by sacrificing at less than half the cost the greater part of the year's production and even that became insufficient to satisfy only the most pressing wants; the inferior wheats could not be sold at any rate; the prices were so low that only wheat of the best quality would suit the palates even of the poor; and accordingly at this early period there is felt a scarcity of the finest kinds of wheat. The same profusion of the inferior descriptions has continued; and the probability is that, before the harvest arrives, a sensible deficiency will be discovered. Thus from the alarm produced by an expectation of enormous importation of foreign corn, added to a surplus at home, our own prices have been reduced so low as to bring ruin on many cultivators, and a loss of capital to all, which, whatever may be the future demand, must prevent them from bestowing on the land that labor which can alone enable it to produce nearly sufficient for our subsistence.

If the corn-bill (of 1815) passed in the last session of parliament, had been enacted when it was first proposed, it is probable that the price would have been kept at nearly its cost, notwithstanding the surplus quantity. The general profusion in the use of corn would not have taken place; some of the surplus would have been stored to meet future periods of scarcity; and the land whose culture is now slighted, and neglected, would have been kept up to that full power of production, which is now from the loss of capital gradually diminishing.

2. On the present and future effects of the depression of agriculture.—It is not unusual to hear those who have paid but slight attention to the nature of agriculture express their surprise that a year or two of actual loss, should be produc'tive of so much distress as is complained of at present; especially when following years in which the cultivators have gained large profits. They ask, cannot those who during several years have gained on the amount of their capital a larger share of profit than other members of the community endure the discontinuance of that profit, or even some loss, without suffering more than has been inflicted on their neighbours?

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It may not be amiss in the first place to remark that, in those years in which the produce of the land has borne the highest prices, they have seldom been very much raised till a large part of the growth of the more numerous portion, the poorer farmers, had passed from their hands into those of the corn merchant, the factor, or the meal-man; and, therefore, those who most needed have been the least benefited by such high prices. The fact is that the smaller class of farmers are under the necessity of selling their produce early; long before the deficiency is apparent; and therefore never can have the full benefit which the richer part of the profession, the smaller number, may sometimes gain. Very high prices of produce, such as were obtained three or four years ago, have been occasioned by crops deficient either in quantity or quality; and then such advanced prices amounted to but little more on the whole growth

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of the year, than a good crop would have produced at lower prices.

Whatever gains have been made in prosperous years by the great mass of cultivators, however much they may have increased their substance during those years, it has not usually been diverted into other channels than that in which it has been acquired. It has generally been expended either in improving the soil already under cultivation, or in preparing land, before in a neglected state, to bear the most valuable crops. Thus this increase of property, added to what they had before invested in agriculture, has only increased their loss. It is almost needless to state that all land recently brought into cultivation, instead of repaying any part of the capital expended upon it, or even any interest, has not paid the annual expenses of seed, labor, and taxes; and the loss has been equal to the capital expended, and the annual rent. It will thus appear that a series of years of moderate prosperity and accumulation, if that accumulation has been re-invested in the soil, is not a compensation equivalent to the disastrous events which the two last years have produced; in which probably the whole rental of the corn land in this kingdom has been paid (as far as rents have been paid), not out of the profits, but out of the capital of the cultivators.

The first of the evils, a long train of which must follow, has fallen on the laboring poor, whose wages, indeed, have not been lessened to the full extent of the reduced prices of the produce of the land, and who, could they obtain employment, would have no great reason to complain; but their sufferings arise from the scarcity of labor. The farmer has no means, and no inducement to employ laborers, the cost of whose labor is greater than he can hope to be paid for; and should corn now become higher in price, the greater part of his growth being sold, he would still be unable to pay those whom, excited by hopes of further improvement, he might wish to employ.

Át no period in the memory of man has there been so great a portion of industrious agricultural laborers absolutely destitute as at the present moment. They cannot procure employment, and parochial relief is doled out with a scanty hand, by those who want even the pittance that is bestowed to pay the few workmen they are obliged to employ. This evil is not likely to be lessened, but, on the contrary, must increase as the capital of the farmers approaches nearer to annihilation. To them it will be of no consequence that labor is cheap, and corn scarce. The capital, which by setting in motion the labor would increase the quantity of corn grown, is departed, and a long period must elapse before it can be again collected. The mechanics and tradesmen, whose principal dependence was on the agriculturists, and who form a very large proportion of the kingdom, are in a situation not much better than the laboring poor. Their best customers can scarcely employ them; and for the little trade they have, instead of being paid with punctuality as heretofore, they are glad to receive a very small proportion, and defer the remainder to a future period. This

evil extends to all the other classes not immediately dependent on the agriculturists; and it would be difficult to point out a single branch of industry that is not suffering under the influence of the general depression.

The higher classes of the community, the landed proprietors, whose wealth and rank are as beneficial to the poor as to themselves, must suffer in their revenues and their comforts, as well as in their feelings. They have been warranted in living very nearly up to their annual incomes; and, in general, cannot be capable of very great retrenchments, without denying themselves many luxuries, and even comforts, in the furnishing of which numerous members of the community have found the means of subsistence. It is notorious that rents cannot be paid, except in a few partial instances; that, as the capital of the tenants is d minished, their means of paying must become lessened; and, for many extensive portions of land, no tenants will be found who have the means of cultivating them. Thus that important class, the pillars and the ornaments of our country, are already in some degree, and must more extensively hereafter become sharers in the general calamity.

This slight sketch of the evils which have already resulted from the depression of agriculture, and whose extent must be yet increasing, is by no means overcharged. The subject is too painful, or it might be much enlarged. Alarming, however, as this representation is, it is by no means equal to those which the future presents. The distress of the agriculturists has been stated to have already diminished the labor applied to the land. The withdrawing of the labor will diminish the produce; and if the opinions before stated, of the proportion between our supply of food and our consumption, be nearly correct, a very small diminution in our produce, which is already begun, and will surely continue, must reduce the community to a state approaching to famine.

It may appear ridiculous, to those who supposo we are overloaded with food, to talk of approaching famine: they may think that, having already too much corn, we shall never again feel a

deficiency of that necessary article: but let it be considered that, during twenty years, we have regularly, with one exception, felt a deficiency; that in the whole of that period, if not rapidly, our agriculture was regularly increasing, whereas now it is at least as rapidly on the decline; that many producing farms are now absolutely and totally without cultivation; that the number of such farms is daily increasing; that the land which has hitherto enjoyed its full portion of labor is deprived of the greater part; and that the population has increased, and will continue to do so till it is checked by a scarcity of food. If these facts are correct, and it is scarcely possible that they should be controverted, the time cannot be very distant when our cultivation will be so much diminished, that after a harvest but a little below the ordinary rate of productiveness, our deficiency in corn must be too great for any surplus in foreign countries to supply our wants, however high the price we may offer for it.

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