The best Wood for making all Sorts of Hoppers is Walnut-tree or Elm; our Beams and Standards we make of Ash.
Plate. V.
P.392
B.Cole Delin et Sculp
What is meant by Wood-screws, are taper Screws made with Iron, having very deep Threads, whereby they hold-fast when screwed into Wood, and their Points will enter into soft Wood without boring any Hole for them into the Wood they are to take hold of; but near their Heads they are round, and have no Thread, and that Part of them must always be in a bored Hole thro’ that Part of a Board that is to be drawn close.
If the Standards should be much swollen by being wet, it may be proper to anoint them with Soap.
In drilling, when the Wind is very strong, and the Hopper goes high above the Funnel, the Seed might be blown over it, if we did not take care to guard it from the Force of the Wind; and for doing this there are many Ways: Sometimes we nail a Piece of Linen Cloth round the Ends, and the fore Side of the Hopper; or else we nail on a Piece of old Hat, or Shoe-leather, round the Edges of the Funnel, to raise it higher; or if the Hopper go a great deal above the Trunk, we nail up a Pipe of Leather to the wooden Bottom of the Box, which Pipe, being about an Inch wide at Bottom, protects the Seed from the Wind, till it arrives so near the Funnel, that the Wind cannot blow it over.
If we would have a long Hopper, to plant many Rows at once, of Clover or other fine Seeds, it is easy to make each of these wooden (false) Spindles turn Two or Three Brass or Iron Spindles; but then, as in all other Cases; where the same Hopper is to supply more than one Chanel with Seed, each of its Wheels must have Liberty to rise without the other, as those of the hinder Hopper of the Wheat-drill do.