Ch. XIV.] 



ON THRASHING. 



201 



together with tlie maintenance of the horses, the original cost, and the wear 

 and tear of a mill, it will be found that no great saving can be made by the 

 farmer of expenditure in money; but the saving of corn, by its more effectual 

 separation from the straw, and the avoidance of all pilfering by servants, and 

 depredations by vermin during the nights when it lies upon the barn-floor, has 

 been supposed to amount in most cases to not less than one twentieth of 

 the crop, when thrashed by a machine. To which also must be added the 

 advantage which it affords of getting the corn ready for market at any 

 moment, whenever either prices or convenience may render it expedient. 



Winnowing machines, or fanners, are attached to most thrasliing 

 mills, as they are now constructed, and they are a necessary appendage to 

 every homestead, either in tliat form or separately ; as there is, perhaps, no 

 single fact which so decisively attaches the character of slovenliness to a 

 farmer as that of his presenting ill-cleaned grain at market. The principle 

 of construction is in all the same: the hand-winnower contains four ohlong 

 boards, termed " fanners," crossing each other diagonally at equal distances 

 through the whole breadth of the machine, and fixed upon an axle which 

 is driven round by a wheel turned by hand ; so that a strong current of air 

 is produced by the fanners, and the corn which falls from the top through, 

 the hopper is thus cleared of the chaff which is blown through the opening. 

 The grain is sifted, in falling, through sieves, moved by cranks, in the same 

 manner as the fanners ; and, after passing through them, it is received on a 

 floor perforated with small holes to clear it from dust and sand. 



When these machines are not connected with the mill, they are made so 

 light as to be easily moveable, and the side on which the axis, of one 

 of the most simple construction, is fixed, appears thus : — 



It is framed of wood, and stands upon a space six feet by two feet four inches, and 

 is about four feet bigh. At the circular end of the machine in ibe inteiior there is a 

 fan-blower or winnower, which, being put in rapid motion by the wheel and pinion where 

 the crank is attached, occasions a strong blast of wind. Beneath the hopj)er are two 

 sieves horizontally placed at two inches apart, which are also put in motion shaking 

 from side to side by turning the crank. Upon these the corn falls from the hopper, and 

 while in motion, and the corn falling through them, the blast from the fan-blower sepa- 

 rates the chaff' and other rubbish from it, blowing them out some way behind the machine. 

 The chobs or grains of wheat in the calyx, and other substances larger than the corn, 

 pass over the sieves into a skep placed by a spout on the side of the machine. The corn 

 then falls upon a fixed skreen placed in the centre of the machine, and laid in a sloping 

 direction towards the ground ; from this it works off; and on to a moving skreen, placed 

 also in a sloping position, and at such an angle as at the time best suits the purpose. 

 This skreen, shaking frum side to side, completes the dressing, the very thin grains falling 

 through the skreens. — There are five sieves belonging to the machine, of different sized 

 meshes, which are used fur the various sorts of corn, and two fine sieves for the purpose 

 of dressing clover-seeds, &c. "When the machine is used for clover-seeds, the two sliding 



