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fairer than the English flour. The Ameri- 

 cans harvest the wheat in a much better 

 manner than in England : they cut it 

 greener, and put it up in general in large 

 shocks about a cart-load in each ; and it 

 gets no sun after it is cut. The reason 

 why they do this, is, that some of them 

 have not barns ; and the general practice 

 is to tread out the grain by horses ; there- 

 fore these shocks stand until a convenient 

 time to tread it out, and will receive no 

 damage from the rains. Their method is 

 to set many sheaves at the bottom, and 

 keep working them up to a small point at 

 the top ; and, from the shortness of the 

 straw, the sheaves are very small : and 

 some of them put a piece of rail in the 

 middle, so that the last sheaf is stuck upon 

 that, and lapped round the pole with a band 

 made of hay or grass, in such a manner that 

 no rain can penetrate into it, nor can the 

 wind blow it from the top ; and with a 

 hand-rake they comb the cock of sheaves 

 carefully down. This is by far the best 



