A MACHINE FOR PREPARING LAND FOR. THE RECEPTION OF SEED
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BERRIMAN, of Speen, in the County of Berks, Wheelwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,:
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United.
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-third day of January, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Berriman, my excecutors, administrators, and:
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I,
the said Robert Berriman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during.
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, my Invention of "A MACHINE FOR PREPARING LAND FOR.
THE RECEPTION OF SEED," which I am confident will prove of the utmost.
advantage to agriculturists in sowing corn, in producing a regular and more
abundant crop, and in enabling the farmer, at an easier rate, to keep his land;
free from all kinds of weeds, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-.
upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Robert Berriman, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should in my discretion seem meet; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Robert Ber-.
riman, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in.
writing, under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and imme-:
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then, the said Letters
Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should.

page_text: utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said recited
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Berriman, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof and references thereto (that is to say):
Fig. 1 is a bird's-eye view of the machine. a, a, a, the pressing wheels (of
which there may be from one to three or more at the discretion of the person
making or using the machine), made of cast iron, or wood bound with iron,
or any other material applicable to the purpose, although I consider cast iron
to be the best, but by using different materials they may be made lighter or
heavier as occasion may require. The best weight seems to be about an
hundred weight and an half for each wheel. b, the axletree for the two hind-
most wheels, which is shewn separately at G. c, the axletre for the fore wheel
fastened to the frame by a nut and screw at one end, and at the other by a
staple clasping it, and screwed on by two nuts. This axletree may be more
clearly seen at F. d, d, d, the scrapers to clean the dirt off the pressing
wheels in bad weather. These scrapers have a start which goes through a
hole in the head of the screw that fastens on the tine; K, the scraper
separate; L, the screw which fastens on the tine; N, the nut; M, the tine,
with a sliding hole in it, by which it may be made to go at any height from
the ground; e, e, two pieces of iron, by which the machine is drawn, and
which are fastened to the frame by three nuts and screws, which screws also
go through the handle, as shewn at A, through the hind axletree b, and the
cross bar f. One of these picces is shewn separately at O. I, the cross bar,
with two sliding holes, through which the screw L goes and fastens on the
tines and scrapers. N.B.-The wheels should be placed at such a distance
apart as to run in and press the grits or channels made by the common
plough; or if it be used on land which has been harrowed, they may be placed
at any distance the farmer may choose, by having the hind axletree sufficiently
long to admit of bolsters on each side of the wheel, which may be altered at
pleasure. The tines may also be set wider or narrower, so as to go just
before the wheel by means of the sliding holes in the cross bar I.
Fig. 1. is a side view of the machine. a, a, two of the tines; b, b, the
scrapers; c, the piece of iron by which the machine is drawn, as at e, e, in
Fig. 1; d, the box for holding the seed, if the machine is used with a drill;
e, the Landle for lifting up the tine at the time of turning the machine; B,

page_text: front view of the pressing wheel, with a bevel edge, by which the channel is
made in the ground for receiving the seed; C, D, H, front views of wheels
with different edges, which may be used, but which are not so useful as the
bevel edge B; E, the side view of the wheels.
This machine is intended to be drawn over land recently ploughed, in order
to press in the grits or channels made by the common ploughs, that no hollow
places may be left for the seed to be buried too deep, and that every kind of
grass, stubble, or anything else, may be pressed into the ground. After the
field has been pressed, almost any kind of seed may be sown by broad cast, and
it will, by rolling into the channels of the pressing wheels, be evenly and
equally buried at a proper depth after being harrowed, and consequently bo
kept out of the way of the birds, and will come up moro regularly. It
is evident, therefore, that there is no necessity for sowing so much seed to an
acre as in the common broad cast husbandry, thus combining the advantages
of the drill and broad cast systems. This machine is also of such a construc-
tion, that in the most uneven ground every wheel acts as fully and amply as if
it was drawn over a level surface. One of these pressing wheels, with or
without the tine before it, may be put before a common hand-drill and drawn
by one horse, by which means any ground, however foul, may be drilled, or a
drill may be added to the pressing machine above described, with three wheels,
so as to throw the corn into the channels, as seen at d, Fig. 2.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Berriman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and six
ROBERT BERRIMAN. (L.s.)
ROBERT BERRIMAN. (L.s.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of February,
in the forty-sixth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said Robert Berriman came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the forty-fourth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and six.