GEAIN COMBI^'ED WITH EFFICIENCY. 137 



sections ; it will thus not only be more easily taken down, but 

 will have the advantage should the work be overtaken by rain, 

 of presenting less of an unfinished surface than would be the 

 case in a long section similarly exposed. As drenching showers 

 will occur suddenly in the winter season, a waterproof cover 

 ought to be in reserve to meet this emergency ; when it has been 

 thrown over the grain stack the work can be suspended or 

 abandoned with safety. 



Bad effects accrue from threshing wheat during rain or even a 

 drizzle. Unless the weather is very promising, the thatch ought to 

 be removed from only one stack at a time, being likewise carefully 

 bunched to prevent confusion and facilitate its future replace- 

 ment. Before proceeding to state the cost of the day's work, it 

 may be explained that nothing is allowed for time occupied in 

 making the straps, as opportunities will occur when the men 

 and horses cannot be judiciously employed outside, and in any 

 case it need not be a prolonged afi'air, because one man and stout 

 boy, setting to the work with a little animation, will throw oil' 

 thirty-five bundles with fifty in each in ten hours, but if, on the 

 contrary, it be gone about as a pastime merely, no approximate 

 indication can be (Aveu of the result. 



Total, £3 15 per diem. 



Xow, as most farms can command three men and one bov, the 

 actual extra cost need not far exceed £3, 3s. per day, which, for 

 the work accomplished, and considering the manner in which it 

 has been executed, will compare favourably with any other 

 method. It ought to be part of the person's duty in charge of 

 the water to drench the ashes as soon as they are drawn from 

 the furnace, otherwise tlie master may find a quantity of burning 

 cinders deposited in alarming proximity to a stack, though he 

 is still assured by the engineer that no danger can possibly 

 accrue from that source. 



Upon farms where a large quantity of chafl' is required for 

 (hiiry purposes, and, in a season like the present one (1870), when 

 an unusually small percentage of chatf is removed from the straw 

 in tlie process of threshing, tlie presence of the engine can be 

 furtlier utilised by placing a straw cutter on a portable frame 

 three feet high, immudiately bnliind the engine, and attaching a 

 pulley twenty inches diameter on the reverse end of crank sliaft 

 from lly-wheel, the extra power reijuired from tlie engine to 

 drive the cutter not being perceptible, with the addition of 



