428 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



the corn, chaff, aud cavings or short straw to the 

 first riddle, whicli separates the corn aud cliaii trora 

 the cavings, and delivers the latter outside the ma- 

 chine; tire 'chaff aud corn fall on another inclined 

 board,' which carries them to the sccoud riddle, 

 aud subjects them to the first blast, which takes out 

 the greater part of the chaff. A second inclined 

 board takes the grain to a third riddle, to take off any- 

 thing larger than corn. The corn passesfrom the third 

 riddfe over an inclined screen (whicli takes out small 

 seeds) on its way to an elevator. This elevator takes 

 it up to the barley humraeller, where a spout admits 

 of the grain being put iuto sacks, or passing on 

 through the hummelier, which, by having the slides 

 open, 'acts as a carrier; it may again be deUvered 

 into a sack, or it passes down, aud the operations it 

 received on the second and third riddles and blast 

 are repeated, coustituting the second blast, and 

 fourth aud fifth riddles. On leaving the fifth riddle, 

 it reaches the second elevator, aud is carried up and 

 subjected to the third blast, where it can also be 

 taken out as it passes on to the rotary screen, 

 with Palmer's separator blades, which sizes the 

 grain and finishes the operation. I may sum up, I 

 am afraid, this rather vague description with repeat- 

 ing that the grain is five times riddled, thrice blasted, 

 once screened, and once sized. As there are no 

 toothed wheels in the machine, the whole being 

 driven with belts and pulleys, it is not liable to 

 breakage, aud the chief noise is the loud hum of the 

 drum, which sounds at a distance like a huge French 

 top. It is extraordinary the quantity of work it 

 will do, the difficulty beiug to get people to carry off 

 the straw fast enough. It thrashes clean, aud 

 shakes the straw admirably; however, with very 

 thick feeding, a small quantity of grain maybe found 

 under the straw-heck. Of course it requires soaie 

 knowledge to set the concave propeily in relation to 

 the drum, to thrash clean, and at the same time not 

 to injure the grain ; with a little experience this is 

 soon obtained by a workman of ordinary intelligence. 

 The chaff is deposited at one end cf the machine, 

 and the straw at the other. This latter comes out 

 so unbroken that it might almost be again tied up 

 into sheaves. I think this a matter of some import- 

 ance, even for littering cattle ; it remains longer dry 

 than broken straw, and it is incomparably superior 

 for thatch. Before last harvest I was thrashing 

 some wheat stacks at Fenton farm with an excellent 

 Scotch mill put up 12 years ago, and I wished to 

 make the straw into thatch; but it came out so bro- 

 ken as to be quite unfit for that purpose. I there- 

 fore drove the unthrashed grain to Fenton Barns, 

 put it through the English mill, and sent the straw 

 back tied up iuto excellent thatch. I had the Scotch 

 mill completely overhauled at the same time last 

 summer that the English mill was fixed, and having 

 used both regularly since then, I thought it would 

 be well to test the one against the othci. The first 

 trial was with wheat. Two carts were placed beside 

 the stack, and sheaf about was regularly given to 

 each ; then other two carts were loaded iii the same 

 way, thus giving two loads to each machine. The 

 carts having been previously weighed, were again 

 weighed when loaded. The weight of the grain and 

 straw sent to the English machine was found to be 

 30 cwt. 1 qr. 8 lb., and to the Scotch mill 39 cwt. 



3 qr. II lb., making a difference of 'Mib. of addition- 

 al grain and straw sent to the English mill. This 

 latter produced of wheat, including best and light, 

 12 cwt. 14 lb. The Scotch mill gave only 1 1 cwt. 

 2 qr. 1 lb., being 69 lb. less. If 17 lb. are deducted 

 for the extra weight of grain and straw in carts sent 

 to the Euglish mill, it will leave 52 lb. as the net 

 gain on 12891b., or rather over 4 per cent, in its 

 favour. Tlie time taken to thrash these quantities 

 was, by the English mill, 25 minutes, and by the 

 Scotch mill 40 minutess. The straw that had been 

 thrashed by the Euglish mill was then put through 

 the Scotch machine, aud 10 lb. of wheat were 

 obtained ; and the straw from the Scotch machine, 

 on going through the English one, produced 14 lb. 

 The wheat was excellent quality, had been secured 

 before the rain, and having been cut by a reaping- 

 machine, there were few or no heads at the bottom 

 of the sheaves, so that the circumstances were highly 

 favourable for the Scotch machine. The next trial 

 was with oats. When weighed, the oats from the 

 English mill were found to be 43 lb. per Bushel, 

 while from the Scotch mill they were only 425- lb. ; 

 but there M'as an extraordinary discrepancy in the 

 quantity in favour of the Scotch mill, which made 

 me doubtful of its accuracy. At least it did not 

 appear the grain was left in the straw, for on put- 

 ting what came from the English mill through the 

 Scotch one, literally nothing was got ; while, when 

 the straw from the Scotch mill was put through the 

 English one, 12 lb. of oats were obtained. This 

 experiment not having been conducted altogether 

 under my own immediate superintendence, and the 

 person who weighed the grain admitting it was pro- 

 bable he might have been mistaken with regard to 

 the weights, I resolved to make another trial with 

 oats. On this occasion the weight of the grain aud 

 straw thrashed by the Euglish mill was 25 cwt. 18 lb., 

 and by the Scotch 25 cwt. 841b., thus giving the 

 latter G6 lb. of additional grain and straw, though I 

 saw sheaf about given to each cart, which shows the 

 necessity of weighing if perfect accuracy is required. 

 The English mill produced 9971b. of best oats, 

 weighing 43,^ lb. per bushel, 81 lb. of grey, and 7 lb. 

 of thirds. The Scotch mill produced 932^ lb. of 

 best oats, weighing 42^ lb. per bushel, 95 lb. of grey, 

 and 221b. of thirds — making altogether 1049Hh. 

 Thus the English mill produced 35|lb. more corn, 

 or 3^ per cent., and that without any allowance for 

 the larger weight of straw and grain sent to the 

 Scotch mill, or for what forms a most striking fea- 

 ture in the experiment, the greater value of the oats, 

 from their being li lb. per bushel heavier, from hav- 

 ing passed through the open hummelier in the 

 English machine. The time taken by the English 

 mill was 26 minutes, and by the Scotch one 47 

 minutes. The oats were the Sandy variety ; they 

 had been cut by the scythe, aud though particularly 

 tall and rank, they had been well handled, and no 

 rakings were given to either machine, though to the 

 English one it does not signify whether heads or 

 tails go first. I attribute the great additional time 

 taken by the Scotch mill to the extreme length of 

 the straw. As every i)art of this experiment was 

 done under my own eyes, I feel perfectly certain of 

 its entire correctness. I have no hesitation in say- 

 ing that before I made these experiments I preferred 



