FOR THE FARM, ROAD OR FIELD. 13 o 



and shape that can be obtained. Give your personal supervision 

 to their produce in the care and treatment they demand at your 

 hands, and you will be amply repaid for all your trouble and 

 expense, in the handsome sums drawn into the pocket from the 

 sale of trusty, sound animals ; or, if ambitious of honours in the 

 show-yard, you will have the material ready at hand ; besides 

 the pleasure and honour, it may be, of having bred, reared, and 

 sold to your landlord his favourite hunter, which ever carries 

 him so well to the front ; the petted park hack, or hunter, his 

 lady loves so well ; the pair of horses they drive together ; or 

 the sprightly, sturdy Clydesdales which, when at work in the 

 field, attract the attention and admiration of every passer by, and 

 the pride and delight of the cheery ploughman who so carefully 

 tends them. 



THE MOST ECONOMICAL METHOD OF THRESHIXG GRAIN 



COMBINED WITH EFFICIENCY. 



By William Sloan Hamilton, Springside, Kilmarnock. 



[Premium — Tlie Minor Gold Medial.] 



Before entering upon the subject proper it might be profitable 

 to consider shortly the different modes by which the object of 

 separating^ the grain from the straw has been accomplished. 

 Prom very early times, the Israelites appear to have had a 

 machine of simple structure, consisting of a square of wood with 

 wheels or rollers witiiin it. This was drawn by oxen, and during 

 their march over the produce, neatly placeil in rows, the grain 

 was pressed out by the wheels. It looks as if the Jews of later 

 date had not been altogether satisfied with the rude instrument 

 of their fathers, for we find them generally preferring to "tread 

 out the corn " by means of oxen alone. Tlie "Hail" is still fresh in 

 the memory of some, who were accustomed to this method in their 

 youthful days. That the duty was performed in no half-hearted 

 spirit may be taken for granteil from the vivid, and characteristic 

 manner in which some of its devotees portray their recollec- 

 tions of threshing days (or rather mornings) wlien no otlier means 

 existed for providing the day's supplies for the cattle, &c., hut 

 this obsolete weapon. Certainly the feats performed in a morn- 

 ing before breakfast appear a little incredible to the uninitiated, 

 but in any circumstances, it must have been a laborious under- 

 taking. Tlie advent of the old threshing mill must have ])een 

 liailed with deliglit, and a completely new state of things would 



