Jo 2 Anf'wer to Abator's Letters on 'Ihrajhwg Machines. Ang. 



method is elij^lble in high fituations, where turnips are very 

 liable to be deftroycd by froft ; and in any fituation it is conve- 

 nient to have a few preferved in this manner, which may be 

 ufed when the froft is too hard to allow them to be taken up 

 from the field. I am, Sir, your conftant reader, 



RoxburghJJj'ire^ 1S04. S. E. 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMERS MAGAZINE. 



Anjiuer to Avatar's tivo Letters on ThraJJAng Machines, 



Sir, 



In your laft volume, page 128, Remarks are made on my 

 Letter on Thrn/ljing Mills, VoL III. p. 428, for my having pre- 

 fumed to clafs Mr Meiklc's name with that of Ivir Cotterei, in 

 defcribing fuch thrafliing mills as had come to my knowledge. 

 Never having (ctn any thrafliing mill ered^ed by Mr Meikle, I 

 certainly could not pretend to give a defcription of its powers; 

 and my reafon for exprefiing my uncertainty of who jthe real 

 inventor of the machine now in ufe v/as> originated from a com- 

 munication in the Agrlcdltural Magazine, which ftated, that, 

 in an adlion raifed againft a Mr Raftrick of Northumberland^ 

 for an encroachment on Mr Meikle's patent, the jury found that 

 the thrafhing mill was not entirely the invention of Mr Meikle. 



My wifli was, through the medium of your Magazine, to in- 

 form fmall farmers, who form rather the moll numerous clafs 

 of that body of men, that a machine of a fmall fize, and at a 

 very moderate expence, could be erected ; and, notwitliilanding 

 the opinion of Arator, I will take the liberty of faying, that 

 both the machines I hav^ ufed, thrafii the ftraw as clean as any 

 machine can do. One corroborative proof of the hCt is, that 

 numberlefs machines in the north country are erected, and many 

 more in the courfe of being ere£led, upon the very fame plan, 

 and nearly of the fame dimenfions, as the one I at prefent 

 ufe. 



I do not pretend to be a firft-rate mechanic ; but it does not 

 appear to me, from the defcriptions that have been publiftied of 

 Mr Meikle's machine, that it requires very great mechanical 

 knowledge to comprehend its powers ; though the real inventor,, 

 whoever he was, had certainly very great merit. I muft alfo 

 beg leave to inform Arator, that I received my information in 

 the year 1782, of the exiftence of thrafhing mills in Sweden, 

 from a timber merchant near London, when on a vifit to his 



friends- 



