141 



threshed from every corner of the barn, and to separate 

 it 'distinctly from the straw; women had to attend twice 

 a day to shake the straw, and men to carry it away ; and 

 last of all, hands were collected to clean and prepare it 

 for market, after lying perhaps fourteen days on a cold 

 clay floor. Instead of all this, with the mill, and at most 

 nine hands, often with only six or seven, and from four 

 to six horses, the farmer can bring in, thresh, and partly 

 clean, on an average, twenty- four bolls in four hours, at 

 the same time, shaking and disposing of the straw ; and- 

 before the women leave the mill, it is ready for the mar- 

 ket, the door locked, and the key in his possession. 

 What a difference, instead of being a sort of slave to 

 taskers for at least nine months in the year. A baker 

 also, will give 2 s. per boll more for wheat threshed by 

 a mill, than by the flail *. 



The specific advantages resulting from this invention, 

 may be thus stated, i. The threshing and shaking are 

 so much better performed than they were by the flail, 

 and by the hand, as to justify the opinion, that there is 

 an advantage derived, equal to one boll in twenty, over 

 the old-fashioned methods f. The foul threshing^ or 

 grain left in the straw by the flail, was formerly so 

 abominable, that a respectable farmer in the Carse of 

 Gowrie, calculates, that to his certain knowledge, it was 

 equal o the expence of keeping all the work-horses on 

 his farm |, and the loss was so insufferable, that the far- 



* Communication from Mr Richard Sorrmer of Gilchris- 

 ton. 



f Communication from Mr George Farme, Braidwcod, 

 near Dalkeith, and Mr Brown of Cononsyth. 



J There is now no risk from foul-threshing, as every far- 

 mer can distinguish, in a few minutes, whether the work i 



