Part III.] Morris Birkbeck, Esq. 337 



stantly at work. And then, it is so much more con- 

 venient than a windmill. A windmill is necessarily a 

 most unhandy thing. The grain has to be hauled up 

 and the flour let down. The building is a place of 710 

 capacity ; and, there is great danger attending the ma- 

 nagement of it. My project is merely a neat, close 

 barn, standing upon stones that rats and mice cannot 

 creep up. The wagon comes to the door, the sacks 

 are handed in and out ; and every thing is so con- 

 venient and easily performed, that it is a pleasure to 

 behold it. 



'638. About the construction of the mill I know 

 nothing. 1 know only the effect, and that it is worked 

 by horses, in the manner that I have described. 1 had 

 710 Miller. My Bailiff, whom I had made a Bailiff out 

 of a Carpenter, I turned into a Miller ; or, rather, I 

 made him look after the thing. Any of the men, how- 

 ever, could do the millering very well. Any of them 

 could make bettei- flour than the water and wind-millers 

 *tised to make for us. So that there is no mystery in the 

 matter. 



639. This country abounds in excellent millwrights. 

 The best, I dare say, in the world ; and, if I were settled 

 here as a farmer in a large way, I would soon have a 

 little mill, and send away my produce in flour instead 

 of wheat. If a farmer has to send frequently to the 

 mill, (and that he must do, if he have a great quantity 

 of stock and a large family,) the very expense o{ send- 

 ing will pay for a mill in two or three } ears. 



640. 1 shall be glad if this piece of information 

 should be of use to any body, and particularly if it 

 should be of any use in the Prairies ; for, God knows, 

 you will have plague enough without sending to mill, 

 which is, of itself, no small plague even in a Christian 

 country. About the same strength that turns a threshing 

 machine, turned my mill. I can give no information 

 about the construction. I know there was a hopper and 

 stones, and that the thing made a clinking noise like the 

 water-mills. I know that the whole affair occupied but 

 a small space. My bam was about forty feet long and 

 eighteen t'eet wide, and the mill stood at one end of it, 



Q 



