advantage which cannot be so completely obtained by any double sower heretofore in use.

MоTEJAм иHOL Yours, &c.

ROBERT COWARD, Farmer. ayor playst5 Jo ROBERT GIBSON, Farmer. Tompo mk7 quioscs WM. MARSHALL., unds moni to vent on JOHN EMBLETON, Farmer. ading in their 93 9THOMAS BROWNE, Farmer?

pod Links House, near Morpeth, Nor106 Sir, lang sami lo thumberland, April 4, 1818.0 Having seen your letter to Mr. John Common, dated March 30, agreeably to your wishes expressed therein, I have to inform you that in the spring of 1814 I got of Mr. Commion one of his self-shifting double turnip-sow+ ers, which I have continued to use ever since, in prefer ence to those on any other plan.

te During which time I have sown 86 acres of turnips, and that I fully intend to continue using the same in preference to any other, as above stated; and that the implement deserves that publicity which the approbation of the Society will confer on it.

Yours, &c.

stod w ROBERT COWARD

Having signed Mr. Common's certificate respecting the utility of his double-drill turnip-sower, which I did from a conviction of its being superior to any instrument of the kind now in use in this neighbourhood, I beg to dd, that having used it for the two last years, in which time I have sown upwards of sixty acres with it, I find

that

that whatever shape the drills are, it invariably sows, on the top or centre. SET R Yours, &cjowca oldyob yus

Sir,

L

JOHN EMBLETON.

Chillingham, 8th March, 1818. Upon making inquiries respecting John Common's turnip-drill, I find that he made the first of them about ten years since; it is therefore somewhat particular, that I should not have heard of it sooner, as Glendal Ward (in which I live) is by much the most extensive turnip district, and has larger farms on it than any other in the county, yet there is only one of those drills in it, and that was gotten only last year, by a young man beginning farming. The reason for this most probably is, that the plowmen in this county, as well as those in the adjoining counties of Scotland, set out the one-bout ridges at such exact, equal distances, that the two-row drills, which have been used here many years, deposit the seed exactly in the middle of the top of the one-bout ridges, and, of course, the farmers have not thought it necessary to get new and more expensive implements, as their old ones served all the purposes wanted. But in counties where this system of drilling turnips is only introducing, and where the ploughmen are not so accurate in setting out the ridges at equal distances, Mr. Common's drill, with two concave rollers moving laterally, I think, will be found very useful.

Mr. Thomas Brown of Alnwick, a very ingenious meThye, that he ma chanic, says, that he made one of them eight years since, on hearing that John Common had made one about two years before; and he believes that John Common was the person who made them..

first

Yours, &c.

JOHN BAILEY.

Z z 2

RE

a a, (Plate XVII.), shafts. bb, handle. cc, two concave rollers, which, from their particular form, always traverse along the top of the ridge d d. These rollers do not occupy the entire length of the axle, and, being loose on the same, readily traverse on one side or the other, in order to accommodate the occasional differences of distance between two adjacent ridges, and thus to enable the rollers continually to move along the top of the ridges.

e, Fig. 2, a sheave attached to one of the rollers, and revolving on the same centre with them.

f, Figs. 2 and 3, a sheave attached to the same spindle that carries the barrels g, Fig. 3, which contain the seed. h, a jack-chain passing over the sheaves e and ƒ, and communicating the motion of the concave rollers to the seed-barrel. i, a spout to receive the seed from the barrel, and to convey it into the drill formed by the cutters k k. m, a cord passing across the handle, and fixed at each end to a frame n; hence, by raising the handle, the frame is also raised, which last lifts the cutters out of the ground, and thus prevents them from being damaged when the machine is turned from one furrow to another. o o, a light cylindrical roller, to fill up the drills. p, a box with a flap-cover to contain the seed-barrel.

1

Fig. 4, the seed-barrel. r, a hole, with a slide, through which the seed is poured into the barrel. ss, a hoop, with eighteen holes in it, of three different sizes, corresponding with similar holes in barrel through which the seed is delivered. This hoop is moveable, and by means of the pin t, may be fixed so as to leave uncovered either of the three sets of holes according as the seed is to be scattered near or more distant in the drills.

Fig. 5, a section of the seed-barrel, at right angles to its axis.

Observa