AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. A large and important department of manufac turing skill is that which is devoted to agri• cultural implements and machines—to those mechanical aids by which the produce of the soil is developed. Like most other departments of industry, this has made a great advance within the last few years. The researches of Liebig, Boussingault, Thaer, and other foreign experimentalists, and those of our own coun trymen, have taught us what are the relations which each kind of soil bears to each species cultivated, and how the mechanical prepara tion of the soil can most efficiently be carried on. Our Smithfield cattle shows, and the annual exhibitions of the Royal Agricultural Society, demonstrate how much attention is now paid to the form and manufacture of agricultural implements.
The Comte de Gasparin, in his valuable Lours d'Agriculture, presents a useful analysis and classification of agricultural implements, according to the nature of the operations which they are destined to perform. First come perforating implements, intended sim. ply to make holes in the ground, generally for the reception of roots or seed ; these com prise the single and double dibble, a frame with pointed spikes, a roller with pointed spikes, and other contrivances of a similar kind. The second class comprises imple ments which cut the soil in strips, or loosen it in rows; these comprise ploughs, harrows, rakes, scarificators, &c. In the third class are implements used to cut the soil into hori zontal slices ; these are illustrated by paring machines, by turf-cutting machines, by many forms of plough-share, and by extirpators. The fourth class comprises implements which overturn long strips of soil upon themselves; among these are to be numbered cultivators, and many minor forms; indeed the plough it self in some of its forms belongs to this class, inasmuch as it exposes new portions of soil to the action of the atmosphere. The fifth class comprises the more complete forms of plough, by which three movements are ef fected—a vertical cut, a horizontal cut, and an overturning of the portion loosened. In the sixth class are instruments which dis- 1 place the soil in separate pieces, and not in continuous strips; they comprise spades, pick axes, hoes, pitchforks, and other simple hand.. worked tools. The seventh class comprises implements used in crushing, equalising, smoothing, and pressing the clods which have been loosened by any of the before mentioned means ; the various kinds of clod-crushers, rammers, and rollers are included in this class.
In the eighth class are comprised the nume rous varieties of sowing machines, from the simplest to the most complicated drills, &-c. The ninth class comprises the harvesting or reaping machines, such as sickles, scythes, &c.
Gasparin goes on to the formation of other classes ; such as implements for preparing grain for the market (flails, thrashing ma , chines, winnowing machines, ctc.) ; imple ments of transport (baskets, wheelbarrows, and vehicles of every description used upon a ' farm); and machines of any kind used in irrigation.
Under their proper headings in this Cyclo pedia, all the principal agricultural implements are described. There may be many readers who are not aware that the manufacture of such implements has assumed a magnitude and systematic character quite analogous to the great factory system. At the works of Messrs. Ransome and May, for example, at Ipswich, the operations are conducted on a gigantic scale, and with all that subdivision of labour which marks an advanced stage in manufactures. Many hundred persons are here constantly employed in the manufacture of agricultural implements and machines. Mr. Allan Ransome, a partner in this firm, has within the last few years published a valu able illustrated treatise on such implements. AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. The Board of Agriculture was established chiefly through the exertions of the late Sir John Sinclair, and was incorporated in 1793. One of its first proceedings was to commence a survey of all the English counties on a nni. form plan. The Surveys' were useful at the time in developing more rapidly the agricul tural resources of the country. During the years of scarcity, at the end of the last and beginning of the present century, the Board of Agriculture took upon itself to suggest, and as far as possible provide, remedies for the dearth, by collecting information and making reports to the government on the state of the crops. The statistics which the board collected were also at times made use of by the minister, or at least were believed to be so, in connection with his schemes of taxation. The board encouraged experiments and improvements in agriculture by prizes, and it naturally exercised considerable influ ence over the provincial agricultural societies.