IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING, CONSTRUCTING, AND DRAINING LAND, AND AN IMPROVED IMPLEMENT OR IMPLEMENTS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, АмоS
BRYANT, of Heavitree, in the County of Devon, Gardener, and RICHARD
TOTHILL, of the same Place, Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of May,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Amos Bryant and Richard Tothill, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Amos Bryant
and Richard Tothill, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Amos Bryant and Richard Tothill, our exors, adññiors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and
Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING, CONSTRUCTING, AND DRAINING LAND,
AND AN IMPROVED IMPLEMENT OR IMPLEMENTS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that we, the said Amos Bryant
and Richard Tothill, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Amos Bryant and Richard Tothill, hereby declare that the nature of our said
Invention consists,―
5
Firstly, in a certain method or system of preparing, constructing, and drain-
ing land, whereby land which in its natural state has but a thin surface, capable 1
of yielding only the most scanty herbage, may be rendered fit for the growth of
corn, pulse, shrubs, and trees, and whereby also low and wet land which is
inaccessible to the plough, or to be ploughed only with great difficulty, may be
made as available for arable purposes as any other..
And, secondly, in a certain improved implement which is intended to be 1
employed in the said operations.
And we declare that the manner in which the said Invention is to be
performed or carried into effect is fully set forth in the following descrip-
tion thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:
To.prepare for arable purposes poor land which has only a thin surface
soil, we proceed as follows:-Let us suppose the land to be of the description
shewn in the sectional view, Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed, and that the
section A represents a surface soil of some three or four inches only in depth,
with a substratum B of chalk and gravel: we take a plough of the con-
struction herein-after described, which from its peculiar action we call a
"transposing plough," and adjust the shares and cutters (by means of the
slotted segments provided for the purpose) so that they shall penetrate the
ground just between the soft surface soil A and the hard subsoil B; we then
run the plough down the space indicated by the arrow Figure 2, leaving a
space a equal to the breadth of the plough on the outside, whereby all the
surface soil of the section 6 is pared off, and as it is pared off gathered into
the apron (M) of the machine, and thrown by the lateral action of the rotating
shaft (G) over upon the top of the surface soil of the space a; which is thus
doubled in depth. By the return course of the plough up the space c, the
surface soil of that space is in like manner thrown over upon the top of the
surface soil of the right-hand space d, which doubles that also in depth (but
temporarily only). We then cut a trench in the stripped portion of land c, and
throw the excavated subsoil over upon the top of the other stripped portion 6,

page_text: which raises that to its original level, as represented in Figure 3. The plough
is next passed over the good soil space d, and a half thickness of it pared off
and thrown over into the trench made in c, as shewn in Figure 4, and by a
second course of the plough over the same space d the remainder of its surface
soil is turned over on c, and a depth of good soil thus formed upon c, equal to
that on a, but on a level some four or five inches lower, as shewn in Figure 5.
Another breadth of land e, f, equal to band c, is next laid bare in the same way
and the surface soil thrown over on f, as shewn in Figure 6, and by repeating
the same course of operations as before described a double depth of surface
soil is formed on f, and the space e filled up to its original level with the refuse
stuff; and so the operation goes on till a series of trenches filled with good
soil are formed all on the same level (except the first) with breadths of bad or
indifferent soil between them, also on the same level, as represented in Figure 7.
Should the plough not be able in any single course to accomplish the work
above assigned to it, it must be run twice, or oftener if necessary, over the
same space.
The good soil spaces may be sown or planted at once, and will yield an
abundant produce, while the others may be subjected to a course of preparation
which will bring them also in time into a productive state.
Or, instead of following the preceding mode of treating poor land, we adopt
the following:-We first prepare the whole of the surface soil for sowing
in the usual way, by ploughing it from three to five inches deep, and then
manuring it well. If the manure is short, we scatter it over the land and
harrow it in, so as to mix it intimately with the soil. We then proceed to
pare, trench, transpose, and fill up, as before directed, except only that we
make the trenches with an ordinary subsoil plough, and fill them up either by
manual labour with the help of the instrument called a scraper, such as roads
are scraped with, or by means of the implement called the trench filler, with
the aid of one or two horses, according as the soil is light or heavy.
If the manure is long, wo put only two-thirds of the good soil in the
trenches, then throw in the manure, and over that the remainder of the
good soil; but when this course is followed, the trench filler must go over
the same space of land twice, throwing in the two-thirds of the soil on its first
course, and on its second covering the manure with the remainder of the soil.
The implement may for this purpose be set wider in order to take last that
soil which is at the furthest distance from the trench, or two implements of
the same sort may be used in the field at the same time.
To enable low and wet lands to be cultivated (by the preceding or any other
processes) which are flooded with water, for which there is naturally no way of

page_text: escape except by evaporation, we proceed as follows:-We first make a largo
tank in one part of the land, and then several drains leading into and out of it.
We next fix an engine beside the tank, by which we force the water accumu-
Jated in the tank into a cistern of sufficient height to convey it away by means
of pipes carried under ground to any convenient distance, where it may be
either turned to useful account, as for instance, in turning an over-shot mill, or
allowed to run to waste.
To prepare land for growing forest trees, we first dig a trench of from three
to five feet in width, or wider if wanted, and from three to six feet in depth,
then pass over six feet and dig a second trench, and so we proceed till the
whole land has been trenched. The good soil thrown up is then cast over into
the trenches and the trees planted in it. A trench of the above dimensions
will admit of three rows of trees being planted in it two feet apart. Some of
the bad soil may be thrown in at top, if thought necessary, to stay the trees
from falling. In the second year all the bad soil remaining may be thrown
into the trenches, and the ground made level. Trees thus planted will grow
as much in fifteen years as they will do in thirty when planted on the
ordinary plan.
A, A, is the
The construction of the transposing plough before mentioned is represented
in Figures 8, 9, and 10 of the Drawings annexed. Figures 8 and 9 are two
side elevations of it in reverse positions; and Figure 10, a plan.
framework; B, B, the bearing wheels; C, C, guide wheels; D, D, flat-
bottomed ploughshares, of which the central one D' is of a triangular form,
and all the others are semi-triangular with the blade on the inner side; E, E,
are cutters, one of which is fixed immediately in front of each ploughshare;
F is a curved apron (before mentioned) into which the soil as it is turned up
by the shares and cutters is gathered, which apron is closed at one end and
open at the other; G is a rotating shaft (also before mentioned), which rotates
within the apron, and is armed with a number of sharp blades, all curved in an
outward direction, that is, in a direction inclined towards the open end of the
apron, which blades serve not only to break up the soil still farther, but to
throw it out sidewards on to the adjoining land; H is a toothed wheel, affixed
to the right-hand end of the shaft of the main bearing wheels B, B, which
through the medium of a second wheel I works a third wheel K, which turns
the rotating shaft G; L, L, are slotted segments, which are attached to the
under framing M, and pass upwards through the handle ends N, N, of the
top framing; and 1,1, pins, by passing which through the handle ends and
segments, the top framing (which carries the shares, cutters, apron, and
rotating shaft) can be fixed at any degree of inclination. required; 0, 0, are