200 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XIV. 



but .a sliort experience will enable any careful man wlio has the charge of 

 the business to make himself master of the practice. 



In order to perform the work completely, with a four-horse machine, 

 nine persons should be employed in tlie following manner : — 



1st. A person accustomed to horses to drive them steadily at one uni- 

 form pace of about three miles per hour. 



2nd. A man (or two boys) on the stack, to bring the slieaves to a 

 woman who unties them. 



3rd. A woman to untie the sheaves, and lay tliem handy for the fourtli 

 person, in order that he may feed the machine fast enough. 



4th. An active man, as feeder, to put the corn into the machine. 



5th. A man with a rake, to take the straw and such colder* as comes 

 from the machine t. 



6th. A man with a fork to take the straw, shake the corn from it, and 

 carry tlie straw away as far as the door. 



7th. A person with a rake to pull the chafi-colder from under the 

 machine and dispose the same about the floor; so that he can with 

 the rake separate most of the colder from the chaff and corn, putting 

 the colder to the door, and the chaff and corn to the 



8th and 9th Persons. A woman and boy, one of whom should sift the 

 chaff and corn through a coarse sieve, which is filled by the other. 

 What remains in the sieve is put into a large " skep,'' or basket, and 

 most commonly emptied, when required, outside the barn door. It 

 should, however, be carried to the straw-yard, and given as fodder 

 to the store cattle, to whom it will be found very acceptable so long 

 as it is fresh. 



These nine persons, if well arranged, will keep the barn in tolerable 

 order, and the machine constantly going for eight hours ; when, if it be 

 worked by horses of moderate strength, they will generally have thrashed 

 about twenty quarters, or one hundred and sixty bushels of wheat. If a 

 stronger power be employed, more grain will be thrashed, as well as 

 winnowed — for winnowing machines are now very generally attached to the 

 mill ; but the quantity thrashed by the mill should not be estimated so much 

 by the number of quarters of corn which have been thrashed, as by the quan- 

 tity of straw, for it is that alone which retards its operation : thus sujiposing 

 the same quantity of straw to yield more corn in one year than in another, 

 the time consumed in thrashing by the machine would be the same. Some 

 farmers dispense with a portion of these hands, employing only one to 

 fetch and loosen the sheaves, and one to riddle the grain ; but although 

 the work may be thus performed, it is generally executed in a slovenly 

 manner. 



The thrashing of grain hy the flail was formerly paid for, in most parts 

 of the north, by the allowance of a certain portion of it to the thrasher, 

 and one twenty-fifth ))art was then supposed to be a fair remunerating 

 price for his labour ; but now he would hardly be content with less than one- 

 eighteenth. The work is, however, at present almost universally paid for 

 in daily wages, or else at a rate per bushel according to the different species of 

 corn. If to this be added the wages of the persons employed on tiie machine, 



* Short pieces of sfraw ami ear-ciuls are usuallj' called " colder." 



\ A moveable skreen should be placed between the man's face and the rake, to 



protect him lioin the grain, which is tluown ajjainbt the rake with extraordiuarj' velocity 



by the scutchers of tl;e drum. 



