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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



astonished to sec the dust %iug fiom it like thick 

 smoke. This is the first and only instance of which 

 I am aware of anything having been done to pro- 

 mote the health and comfort of the work-people 

 when engaged in this often most disagreeable, if not 

 actually unhealthy employment. I consider it alike 

 creditable to Mr'. Hislop's head and heart, and I 

 mention it here ia hopes that lie may soon have 

 many imitators. 



Before the application of steam power to the 

 thrashing machine, it never was practicable to do 

 more tluin blow the clialf from the grain, and even 

 that very imperfectly accomplished. The first 

 thrashing mill driven by steam in Scotland, or I be- 

 lieve anywhere else, belonged to the late Mr, 

 Aitehisoii of Drumore. At the close of the last 

 century, he had got a steam engine put np by Bolton 

 and Watt at his distillery a^ Clements Wells. It oc- 

 curred to him that as the steam engine could do the 

 work of the distillery, there was nothing to prevent 

 it di'iving the thrashing mill. He accordingly had it 

 attached, at what exact period I cannot say, but it 

 was certainly previous to 1803. However, he was 

 so doubtful or afraid that something would happen 

 to prevent its continued use, that he kept up the 

 horse wheel attached to the mill for several years. I 

 am not aware of any steam engines having been 

 erected, solely for the purpose of thrashing corn, 

 previous to ISIS, when the late IMr. Sked, Dunbar, 

 put up one at Westlield, near Haddington, for Mr. 

 Arelid. Dunlop. Either in that or the following 

 year, ]Mr. Sked erected other two — one for my late 

 friend Mr. Reid, Drem ; the other at Linplum. 

 Thereaftei, condensing engines were speedily to be 

 seen on all large farms where there was a sufficient 

 supply of water. It is singular that the engine at 

 Drem, after 40 years' use, should look as well, and 

 be as efiieient, as the day it was erected. In 1834 

 and 1S35, high-pressure engines came into vogue. 

 In a few years they multiplied rapidly ; and now 

 there is scarcely a farm of 100 acres in extent that 

 has not got its steam engine. It is almost impossi- 

 l)le to over-estimate the benefits we derive from 

 steam power ; at least, I am confident that no man 

 who has ever been in possession of an engine, would 

 again submit to see his horses toiling and straining 

 in the weary course of a thrashing mill. I believe 

 we have not yet taken full advantage of this wonder- 

 ful power. It has been simply attached to machines 

 contrived for horse labour, but it is eminently fitted 

 for instruments of a far higher class. At the end of 

 the last century, thrashing mills were considered by 

 agriculturists as the great invention of the age. The 

 saving of manual labour of a most laborious descrip- 

 tion, the more perfect and expeditious way in which 

 the grain was separated from the straw, and the 

 facilities they afforded for managing large farms, 

 certainly entitled them to be so considered. But 

 notwithstanding the great advantage we derive from 

 the possession of steam power for propelling them, 

 and the length of time that has elapsed since their 

 first invention and general introduction, few will 

 deny that there is a strong feeling of dissatisfaction 

 at the way in which a great proportion of the ma- 

 chines in use perform their work. It seldom re- 

 quires any great examination of the straw before it 

 must be pronounced " rather imperfectly thrashed." 



If you shake up a quantity of the chaff, the chances 

 are you find grain at the bottom. Is the straw barn 

 empty, it will surely pay to sweep the corn from 

 the floor for the sake of the pigs. And the rank 

 vegetation often seen on the top of manure heaps 

 demonstrates too clearly that we have in the end 

 failed to reap tiie whole reward of our previous ex- 

 penditure of time and money. Again, choked hop- 

 pers, overloaded fanners, and the barn in confusion, 

 by a complete mixture of chaff and grain, are not 

 such uncommon events, that any farmer would dream 

 of losing his temper, or even of speaking a sharp 

 word. "These disagreeables and mischances are 

 coolly set down as belonging to the nature of the 

 machine. And when you hear complaints of the 

 slowness of railway trains, and the stoppages at 

 stations, we may be excused a little grudging and 

 grumbling if, after two days' thrashing, it takes four 

 days, as it usually does, to dress grain fit for market, 

 and to clean up the barn. At this period of our 

 history, and advance in mechanical science, we are 

 surely entitled to look for something more expedi- 

 tions and perfect. 



Throughout the greater part of England matters 

 have proceeded somewhat differently than in Scot- 

 land. From a supposed redundancy in the popula- 

 tion, aggravated by the poor laws and the law of 

 settlement, it is only within a recent period that 

 thrashing machines have gained a footing there. In 

 Mr. Boy's agricultural survey of Kent, published I 

 believe at the close of last century, that gentleman 

 states that his own thrashing mill was the only one 

 in that flourishing county. He states ; " 1 find there 

 is a saving of nearly one-half of the expense of 

 thrashing, besides the advantage of gettiug the corn 

 out cfeaner from the straw. There is, however, no 

 small inconvenience attending so large a tpiantity of 

 straw, chaff, &c., being got out at one time, when 

 perhaps it is not wanted ; and by that means it is 

 either wasted or spoiled by neglect, before it comes 

 to use." A commentator, in 1801, considered this 

 disadvantage as imaginary, or at least easily obviated, 

 " being convinced from trial, that if carefully and 

 closely packed at the instant, stiaw receives no man- 

 ner of damage from keeping, particularly if not much 

 mangled or broken. But they who apprehend the 

 contrary may secure themselves by cutting it into 

 chaff forthwith, in which state we have Mr Young's 

 authority that it will keep, undergoing a gentle 

 fermentation. This process may be forwarded, by 

 now and tlien throwing a little water on the heap, 

 which, however, must be laid in a brick or stone 

 building, having proper ventilation in the roof." 

 Whether it was the failure of this plan of keeping 

 the straw, or, as I suspect, the more potent reasons I 

 have already mentioned, there can be no doubt tha 

 until lately thrashing machines never found much 

 favour in the midland or Southern districts of Eug- 

 laud. In my first journey to the south I was aston- 

 ished to find that the ■whole of the grain was thrashed 

 by flails, on several large and otherwise well man- 

 aged farms. I remember even in 1851, of a gentle- 

 man who farmed part of his own estate in Essex, 

 showing me a small thrashing machine driven by a 

 man, and which he looked upon as a very great im- 

 provement, A Scotchman has difficulty in compre- 

 hending this state of matters. However, the ma- 



