HARVESTING EARS, [Chap. 



will shelly with great case, twenty bushels a- day, 

 and sit and gossip with his wife, or hear his neigh- 

 bour, who has nothing to do, read the news 

 at the same time, and shell four or five times as 

 much corn as he can thrash of wheat or barley, 

 leaving out of account all the plague of winnow- 

 ing and the rest of the fuss which appertains to 

 the cleansing of grain. 



137. In the next Chapter I am to speak of the 

 various uses to which the grain is applicable : 

 but, as we have now been speaking of the shell- 

 ing, let me observe that the usual piece of iron 

 made use of for this job in America is a bayonet, 

 which, as a great many poor souls have felt to 

 their cost, has three sharp edges. The Yankee, 

 patting a stout piece of Hickory or White 

 Oak into the socket, runs the point of the bayo- 

 net, or hammers it, into one side of the tub, 

 about three inches from the top ; he then 

 fastens the other end of the piece of wood to the 

 other side of this pretty broad tub. He then 

 takes the ears and shells off the grains by rasp- 

 ing the cobb down upon the upper edge of the 

 bayonet. We are instructed that swords shall 

 be turned into plough-shares and spears into 

 ]3runing-hooks, which I dare say will come, some 

 time or other ; but, here, we already see the 

 bayonet turned into a fiail ; and, this practice is 

 unwersaly mind you ; for I never, during the 



