MORRIS BIRKBECK, ESQ. 



farmer in a large way, I would scon 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 expence of sending 

 will pay for a mill in two or three years. 



1040. I 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 y 

 and that the thing made a clinking noise like the water-mills, I 

 know that the whole affair occupied but a small space. Mv barn 

 was about forty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and the mill 

 stood at one end of it. The man who made it for me, and with 

 whom I made a bargain in writing, wanted me to agree to a 

 specification of the thing : but I declined having any thing to do 

 with cogs and wheels, and persisted in stipulating for effects. And 

 these were, that with a certain force of horses, it was to make so 

 much fine flour in so long a time ; and this bargain he very faith 

 fully fulfilled. The price was I think seventy pounds, and the 

 putting up and altogether made the amount about a hundred 

 pounds. There were no heavy timbers in any part of the thing. 

 There was not a bit of wood, in any part of the construction, so 

 big as my thigh. The whole thing might have been carried away, 

 all at once, very conveniently, in one of my waggons 



1041. There is another thing, which I beg leave to recommend 

 to your attention ; and that is, the use of the Broom-Corn Stalks 

 as thatch. The coverings of bams and other out-houses with 

 shingle s makes them fiery hot in summer, so that it is dangerous 

 to be at work in making mows near them in very hot weather. 

 The heat they cause in the upper parts of houses, though there 

 be a ceiling under them, is intolerable. In the very hot weather I 

 always bring my bed down to the ground-floor. Thatch is cool. 

 Cool in summer and warm in winter Its inconveniences are 

 danger from fire and want of durability. The former is no great 

 deal greater than that of shingles. The latter may be wholly 

 removed by the use of the Broom- Corn Stalks. In England a 

 good thatch of wheat-straw will last twelve or fifteen years. If 

 this straw be reeded, as they do it in the counties of Dorset and 

 Devon, it will last thirty years ; and it is very beautiful. The 

 little town of CHARMOUTH, which is all thatched, is one of the 

 prettiest places I ever saw. What beautiful thatching might be 

 made in this country, where the straw is so sound and so clean ! 

 A Dorsetshire thatcher might, upon this very island, make himself 

 a decent fortune in a few years. They do cover barns with straw 

 here sometimes ; but how one of our thatchers would laugh at the 

 work ! Let me digress here, tor a moment, to ask you if you have 



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