The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-17 00:00:00

CONTENTS OF TILE GLASS PALACE.

AGRICULTURAL MACHLNES AND IMPLE-

We resume our notice of this section of the Exhi-
bition, by adverting to the classes of ilnplements
which indicate more decisively the have
our
agriculture has made than that class we have already
described. For preparing the soil .nd manuring it,
for sowing the seed and clearing the growing crops
from weeds, the many effective. implements we pos-
° sees enable our husbandmen, to perform the work of
I cultivation with greater ease and less comparative
'expense than any other "rain growers in the world;
but the class we next refer to belongs as yet almost
exclusively to our own system of agriculture. We
allude to the various machines and contrivances for
preparing and economising the food of stock. These
are every day becoming more important to the farmer,
' for the course of events renders it absolutely mete-
, sary for farmers to increase the produce of
their land : to that end a considerable force of
manure is indispensable, and to obtain it large stocks
of animals must be kept. Now, the breeding, nor.
leg, and feeding of live stork are amongst the mat
important, and, perhaps, the most hazardous branches
of modern husbandry. The most difficult problem
the British farmer has at this moment to work out
is how to maintain live stock with profit; for lire,:
stock he must maintain for the sake of manure. Bat
the farmer who would apply his means to the beet
account mast not be satisfied with treating his sal.
male as mere manure-making machines which he
must work at considerable expense ; he must apply
himself to ascertain how a profit can be made upon
the animals themselves. lie will soon discover, as
indeed all our best farmers have long since demon-
strated, that shelter, warmth, and quiet, with liberal
and judicious feeding, will enable a much larger
stock to be kept, and, cons_nuently, much more
and much better manure to be made, than could be
kept on the rude and wasteful system still too much
prevalent.
Go through the dairy or grass-grazing districts of
England, and we the cattle in the wet and cold
weather of winter, shivering under hedges, or in
open: unsheltered yards,
re
their hay placed on the
ground and exposed to all weathers, and the manure
bung well nigh wasted, or look at the Scotch system
of giving very large quantities of turnips with un-
limited supplies of straw in yards for the most part
open, and all the management of the stock conducted
in the rudest manner, and then compare it with more
rational systems of housing and separating tho
cattle and preparing their food which we find
adopted amongst our foremost agriculturists. The
means of adopting such improved management with
profit must however be sought in the use of the aids
afforded by some of the machinery and implements
we are about to describe.

First, we have the chaff-cutters, for cutting hay
and straw into chaff which has been found to be a
great source of economy, both from making the
fodder go further and enabling the farmer to add to
the bulky food which is essential for diges-
tion, a moderate quantity of highly nutri-
tious food, such us meal, linseed muc•illugo
(Menke or turnips ; and in that way to produce much
greater improvement upon the animals than by
meanm of larger quantities of the same kinds of food
given separately and unprepared. Corn and linseed
crushers are necessary implements to such a system;
and we may mention, in illustration, a fact ascer-
tained by experiments made within our own per-
sonal knowledge, that the saving of corn effected by
giving horses bruised instead of whole outs amounts

to 23 per cent., whilst the horses actually thrive best
on the lesser quantity. This will be readily under-
stood by ull who observe how large a propor-
tion of the whole corn putoes undigested from tlw
animals. There are also oilcake breakers for break-
ing up cake into sizes adapted for feeding cattle or
sheep, or for manure; and nearly all our best im-
plement makers have sonic peculiar forms of their
own in which they manufacture these machines.
Another must essential implement is a turnip-cutter,
and of these there are many varieties ex-
hibited. Of the linseed and corn crushers,
those of Wood, Stanley, Garrett, and Whitener,
were selected for trial at the Exeter meeting of the
Royal Agricultural Society, and crushers by each of
those makers may be seen in Ilyde Park. Ransom
and Co. have also a very useful Luke crusher; and
amongst these crushers there will be found imple-
ments adapted to all sorts and conditions of farmers,
from the small occupier, who finds it most economi-
cal to use hand machines, to the more extensive
farmers, whose crushers will require the assistance
of horse ur steam power. The chaff cutters selected
at Exeter were Smith and Co.'s, Richmond and
Chandler's, Garrett's, Comes's, Williams's, Comes,
jun.'s, and Gillett's, all of which are in the present
Exhibition. We may also mention Howard's, lkr- I
ot's, and Ferrubee'a chaff-cutting machines as meri-
torious implements. It has been also ascertained
that it is most economical to cut the straw used us '
litter into lengths of three or four inches, in prefer-
enee to throwing it into the stalls or boxes in an un-
cut state. The same quantity of straw when cut
goes further as litter than when uncut ; and is much
better when applied to the land in a fresh state, now
well known to be the most advantageous method of
applying manure. Without well arranged ma-
chinery, it would be impossible to adopt this prac-
tice; but on farms where the best plans are carried
out it is the custom to cut all the straw into short
chaff for food, or longer chaff for litter when the corn
is threshed out, the corn and cut straw being carried
by the machinery to their separate receptacles. Of
the turnip and mangold wurzel cutters Gard-
ner's well known machine is certainly the best,
though there are other makers not far behind.
Gorse or furze when crushed, cue into short
lengths, and mixed with chaff, has been found
a very nutritious and valuable food for cat-
tle, especially for milking cows, and accordingly
we find several machines for smashing and cutting
gorse are exhibited. We may also mention a mill
for grinding corn into fine meal, by Messrs. Clayton
and Shuttleworth, which driven by a five-horse
power steam engine will grind eight bushels per
hour. But the economical preparation of food when
cut into chaff is only half effected, for by steaming
and moistening it becomes more palatable to the
animals, and more digestible; and the practice of
cooking and steaming tho food of stock is coming
much into use. Stanley, of Peterborough, has a very
convenient apparatus for this purpose, which has the
advantage of being moderate in price and simple and
convenient to use; and there are others on a larger
scale well worthy of attention.
Another important class consists of the thresh-
big machines, of which several varieties are
exhibited. Of late Years these machines have
been greatly improved both in workmanship
and lightness of draft, and ars very superior to
the ponderous machinery first used for threshing
grain. Most of these machines are portable ones. and
the custom which now so widely prevails in Eng-
land, of hiring a moveable threshing machine from
persons who make it a kind of business to let them
out, has stimulated the manufacturers to great exer-
tions in this department. Still we believe that on
every farm exceeding 200 acres of amble land, it
would be found good economy to have fixed thresh-
ing mai:llium, with proper dressing apparatus at-
tached, as well as fixed steam engines. For about
3fitil. a very complete arrangement of fixed machinery
for threshing and dressing corn, cutting chaff, bruis-
ing linseed and grain for stock, and cutting turnips,
with steam engine complete, may be erected; and the
economy effected therefrom where there is much corn
So thrall, or stock to be provided for, is incalculable
by those who have not witnessed it in operation.
*The threshing machines exhibited are chiefly of
the portable kind. Amongst the most prominent
makers we may mention Garret, Erroll, and Co..
Cambridge; Hornsby. Clayton, and Co., Crosshill.
In the report of the judges of the Royal Agricultural
Society at Exeter they t that where " close
drums, with beaters in some not projecting

more tistin half an inch," arc used in these thresh.'
ing machines, " machines so constructed are Yrsr7
I;tely to be broken by sticks or stones passilst; 'be-
tween the drum and the concave." And
add:—" We consider it a great reflection, ttn the agri-
cultural interest, that while machi 'so.' y then
",:
ry in various
manufactures performs the most ''..ieticate operations,
and produces the most exquisite fabrics, the compara-
tively rough operation of threshing corn and per-
fectly dressing it has nut yet been accomplished, or
machines for that purpose encouraged by the
society ;" and they then recommend that the
society should offer prizes for fixed thresh-
ing machines and steam engines. It must
bo recollected that, though the threshing and
dressing corn arc rough operations when coin-
paredwith some of the nicer operations performed by
machinery in manufactures, vet the material on
which agricultural machinery has to work is of a
rougher sort than the manufacturing machinist has
to deal with. Take, for instance, the liability of a
machine intended for threshing corn out of straw, to
have sticks and stones passed through it, and it will
be obvious that no reflection need be cast on the agri-
cultural machinist because he has not at once pro-
vided for the performance of his work with that un-
erring certainty found in our manufacturing ma-
&lines. At the same time there can be no
doubt that the Royal Agricultural Society
ought to give more encouragement than it
has hitherto done to fixed machinery and
permanent weeks, which require and missive
either an intelligent co-operation be wees landlords
and tenants or the grant of long and rational leases.
These arc points, however, on which the society,
being chiefly managed by the great landowness, ns
rather shy. One great reason why fixed machinery
for agricultural purposes is not so common on Ellg-
lish farms as it ought to be. or even as it is in the
more improved districts of Scotland, scents to 1/C the
lamentably deficient and ill-arranged state of the
farm buildings on must English farms, and the short-
sighted economy which has almost universally caused
them to be built with wood instead of brick or stone.
To correct these things must of necessity be a work
of some time, but still a society professing to eueou-
rage agriculture, by the union of "practice with
science, ought to omit no moans of promoting per-
manent improvement.
It may afford our mechanist renders some notion of
the force and work dine by the portable thresh-
ing machines exhibited, to state some of the
results of the Exeter trial of a few of them.
Thus we find that Garrett's machine of
four horse nominal power, going at the horse speed
of 1.87 miles per hour, threshed 1011 sheaves of
wheat in three minutes and fourteen seconds; but
that it actually required 6.34 horse power to work
the machine. So (.Irosskill's with a nominal power
of four horses, going 2.31 miles per hour, threshed
100 sheaves in three minutes and sixteen seconds,
and required 5.12 horse power. Again Humbs.'s,
also of nominal 1 horse power, going, at 2.47 miles
per hour, threshed 100 sheaves in two minutes and
Illty seconds, but to effect that work 8.01 horse
power was Used.
Exalt and Co.'s threshing machine, alma of nominal
4 horse power, working at a speed of 2.21 miles per
hour, threshed 100 sheaves of wheat in three minutes
thirteen seconds and a half, with actual exertion of
6.21 horse power.
In all the above eases, as also in all the others
tried, the actual power required to do the work per-
formed on the trial was greater than the nominal
power, consequently the machines were tested beyond
their actual power, and the work done in practice
cannot be so much as 100 sheaves within
the period specified on this trial. The rate of work-
ing at these trials is however regulated by the ex-
hibitors themselves; for the judges at Exeter re-
marked " that the exhibitors generally, when on
trial, arc anxious to do their work in the shortest
possible time. Were they to feed and work their
machines as they would do in the farm-yard, the
results obtained would be more in their favour, and
the advantages possessed by the machine more
clearly developed," and, they udd, that remark
applit'd to all the threshing machines tested.
points attended to in testing these machines are, the
quantity and quality of the work done, and the
power required; and care is taken to ascertain that
u proper balance is kept between these points.
Hensman's ono Hornsby's corn-dressing machines
seem to have been the two closest competitors at
Exeter, and the result of several trials was that
" Hensman's machine turned out the best grain--a
shade cleaner than Hornsby-'s; but, as a drawback,
the tail corn had a large quantity of good corn inter-
mixed with it."

With some remarks on the portable steam-engines
exhibited, we must close our comments on this brunch
of the agricultural machinery of the Exhibition, re-
serving for future notice all that relates to land-
dra' g and such novelties us rather indicate future
improvements than can be assumed to be at present
of practical utility; and here we cannot avoid re-
peating the regret expressed by the Exeter judges
that the society confined its prizes to portable steam-
engines. They say truly that it is an important
practical question " as to how far it is desirable to
increase the weight of a portable farm engine, by
adding to the size of the boiler, ' within certain limits,'
if well designed, the less will be the consump-
tion of fuel per horse power per hour; but
the most economical engine in work may be in weight
and price the least suited to a fanner's purpose; and
as these engines arc only required fur a limited
period during the year, it is questionable whether
lightness and portability should not be deemed of
great moment in guiding the decision of the judges."
And to guard against the exhibition of too large a
size and too expensively censtructed—made rather
for winning at the trial than for general sale—it was
suggested that each engine entered in future trials
should be of 6-horse nominal power, and that the
entire weight of the engine to be worked at that
power should not exceed 55 cwt. We appre-
hend most of the portable engines now exhi-
bited conform to these conditions; for it will be re-
collected that the agricultural implement and machi-
nery section of the Exhibition is in fact that of the
Royal Agricultural Society. The steam engine ex-
hibited by Dean and Co. was stated to perform its
work economically and well; but its price (2001.,
being 50/. per horse power) was considered too high.
Clayton and Co's. 7-horse power engine obtained
the second prize at Exeter. Hornsby's engine
was a 6-horse power, was reported as good
and well adapted to farm work, with the exception
of its size, which was deemed too large. This en-
gine obtained the first prize. Tuxford's engine was
commended, but some delicate mechanical arrange-
ments it contained were suggested as likely to " re-
quire a little more care in the engineer while working
the same than might at all times be found in agricul-
tural districts." What an argument does that sentence
afford for the better instruction of our rural popula-
tion as the means of aiding the advance of agricul-
tural industry. Garrett's engine also was greatly
commended. The judges say of it. the crank shaft
is of good length, very strong, and is placed at the
extreme end of the boiler, to which the bearings are
very firmly fixed, the cylinder being securely fas-
tened on the side close to the fire-box, thereby ob
taining a long connecting rod, which we consider
moro desirable than a short one; the twee pump is
attached to a cold-water cistern placed under the
crank shaft, from which it is worked, and is so ar-
ranged that the foot valve is below the water in
the cistern, thereby ensuring an unfailing action of
the pump—a point gained which is second to
none in importance, and an arrangement which
neither of the prize engines p, having to lift
their water from the groun . All the working parts
of the engine are brought so low that they are easily
reached, oiled, and adjusted from the ground; indeed
we were so pleased with its strength and portability,
being a light load for two horses, and thinking it so
suitable to the purpose for which it was designed,
that had it not been for the superior duty done by
the large" boilers of the prize engines (though in
economy of time and coal used in getting up steam