1803.] Description of a Tand Drill Machine, 167

very light, four fect six inches long, Diameter of C six inches; of È, nine inches. Twelve cups on cach cylinder, placed as in Cooke’s drill in three divisions, four in each, in a line ob- lique to the axis, À cord or strap round the neck and shoulders of the sower, down to each end of the shaſts, will keep the machine atthe same angle of elevation throughout the whole work, and give an opportunity to him to use his left hand at the lever when necessary to Stop the sowing.

With different cups, this machine will sow all kinds of Seeds with mathematical accuracy. It will succeed best(as every other drill machine does) on tempered land, and in dry weather, but L believe may be used on the stiffest so1ls with advantage. The way in which I proposé using it here, is, to plough the land with a narrow-set one-horse-plough, which lays it out neatly in nine-inch furrows. Between every two furrows appears a strongly marked drill, if TI may s0 call it, up each of which the wheel passes adding somewhat to-the depth of the already formed drill. Hence, the better the ploughman, the straiter and more regular will the intervals between the corn appear. One harrowing along the drills will suffice, to bury the corn. On wet and stiff clays I should imagine this hand-drill will have its advantages, as it may be used when Cooke?s drill cannot get upon the land, and if the labour of driving it thould prove too great for à man to per- form singly, a boy going betore with a line would considerably ease the toil.

If any of your readers have looked on(as I have done more than once) and observed the tedious progress of hoeing by hand, and the extreme difficulty which the labourers in so0me of our best corn counties have to surmount, in picking out the weeds from among their broad-cast peas and beans, they can- not but be convinced of the disadvantage of not sowing their sced in equi-distant rows. To obviate this, dibling has not unſfrequently been practised, but the expence is heavy: another mode is séraying in the corn by hand, and a*third, dropping after the plough. But the irregularity of both me- thods is s0 great, as to be of but little service to the hoers; tor the grains on coming up, seem to cover the surtface, having no regular intervals between them: whereas, a small drill would remove every objection of this nature, and by the single- shared hoe, this operation, now$0 tedious, would become easy and efectual, and render even thé most untoward soils, pliant and clean. If it should be objected, that the furrows on «tiff and wet soils cannot be formed so as to leave the inter- vals open, as I have just observed is the case on our light soils, then let this drill follow every bout(as we call it) ofthe plough, and let the succeeding furrow be whelmed over it; of course shallow ploughing will be necessary. And further;