OLD HOMESTEAD 



by means of a coupling or cap made of wood and a rawhide 

 thong, which allows a flexible movement in any direction. 



The grain was spread upon the floor, a foot or so deep, 

 and pounded with the flail back and forth — whack, whack, 

 whackity-whack^ — until the flooring was gone over; then turned 

 over and thrashed on the other side in the same manner, until 

 the kernels were all pounded out of the straw. Two men some- 

 times worked opposite each other, striking their flails upon the 

 same spot on the floor as they moved back and forth. This 

 made elegant music — whackity, whackity, whack, whack, 

 whackity-whack — and seemed to make the work go easier. 

 The straw was then taken off and the grain thrown to one side 

 to be cleaned up, which was done by means of a fanning-mill, 

 if there was one; if not, by the more ancient implement, a grain 

 fan or "corn fan." In the still more ancient times of Oman 

 the Jebusite, grain was winnowed by being thrown up and falling 

 through the wind. The invention and use of the fanning-mill 

 is said to have been strongly condemned by early Christians be- 

 cause it presumed to create wind, the prerogative of the 

 Almighty. I have the original corn fan which father's people 

 used in those early days. It is a great, wide willow basket, 

 shaped like a broad scoop-shovel. 



Thrashing with the flail meant an all-winter's job, and was 

 wasteful of grain. When I was a very small boy, Paddy Martin, 

 or some one else, was at work in our barn from fall to spring. 

 The introduction of thrashing machines in England caused ex- 

 tensive labor riots, because of the wrong they were supposed to 

 do to the man with the flail. 



Grain was also thrashed with horses and colts by spreading 

 down the floorings, putting the horses on the floor and driving 

 them round and round on grain to be thrashed, first one way, 



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