THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. No. 1.-VOL. I.] JANUARY, 1840. PLATE I. [SECOND SERIES. The Engraving which forms the subject of our first Plate, is a Bull of the Hereford breed, bred by and the property of T. Jefferies, jun., Esq., of the Grove, Herefordshire. He was calved in September, 1835, gained a Prize at the Meetings of the Herefordshire Agricultural Society in 1837 and 1838, and also obtained the first Prize of Thirty Sovereigns at the Meeting of the English Agricultural Society at Oxford, in July last. PLATE II. The subject of our second Plate is a Leicester Ram, bred by and the property of John Earl, Esq., of Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, which obtained a Prize of Thirty Sovereigns at the late Meeting of the English Agricultural Society at Oxford. LORD WESTERN'S IMPROVED SUFFOLK DRILL. The Suffolk Drill has been long in use and very high repute. It is calculated to overcome the difficulties which strong lands present to the working of the coulters; this is effected by fixing them in one end of a sort of arm, about two feet long, the other end of this arm is fixed to the machine itself by hinges, which enable it and the coulter attached to play up and down as the unevenness of the land or clods may require; the coulter is forced into the ground by weights hung on the end of the arm more or less heavy, according to the state of the land, and thus makes the ringes into which the seed is dropped. The first striking and unquestioned improvement of Lord Western's Drill will be seen OLD SERIES.] at once in the hinges on which these arms with the coulters work. The present mode is very troublesome, and can hardly be made to do the work well, however attentive the drill-man: the arms will so often get loose, and of course the rows of corn cannot be equidistant. Then again the shifting of these arms, with their coulters, as the different sorts of corn require different distances between the rows, is very difficult and wasting of time, Lord Western's improvement on this point is obvious,-simple, durable, and not so expensive as the present mode, particularly if its durability is considered, and the loss of time, and the frequent mendings and reparations, that must occur in the present mode. The other improvement introduced by Lord Western has for its object the guidance of the drill, so that the rows of corn may be put in STRAIGHT, B [No. 1.-VOL. XII. |