Book V. MIXED OPERATIONS BY MANUAL LABOR. 463 



thresh together, which is sometimes the case, there must be frequent Interruptions, and a consequent loss 

 of time. The flail or tool by which this sort of business is performed should be well adapted to the 

 size and strength of the person who makes use of it, as when disproportionately heavy in that part which 

 acts upon the grain, it much sooner fatigues the laborer, without any advantage being gained in the 

 beating out of the grain. The best method of attaching the dilFerent parts of the implement together is 

 probably by means of caps and thongs of good tough leather. Iron is however sometimes employed. Irr 

 threshing most sorts of corn, but particularly wheat, the operators should wear thin light shoes, in order 

 to avoid bruising the grains as much as possible. In the execution of the woj-k, when the corn is bound 

 into sheaves, it is usual for the threshers to begin at the ear-ends, and proceed regularly to the others, 

 then turning the sheaves in a quick manner by means of the flail, to proceed in the same way with the 

 other side, thus finishing the work. 



2964. The quantify of corn that a laborer will thresh with the flail in any given period of time, must 

 depend on the nature of the grain, the freeness with which it threshes, and the exertions of the laborer ; 

 in general it may be of wheat, from one to one and an half quarter, of barley from one and a half to 

 two quarters ; and of oats mostly about two in the day. The exertions of laborers in this sort of work in 

 the northern districts of the kingdom are however much greater than in those of the south ; of course a 

 much larger proportion of labor must be performed. In some places it is the practice to thresh by the 

 measure of grain, as the bushel, quarter, &c., while in others it is done by the threave of twenty-four 

 sheaves, and in some by the day. In whatever way the agricultor has this sort of business performed, 

 there is always much necessity for his constant inspection, in order to prevent the frauds and impositions 

 that are to frequently practised upon him by the persons engaged in the execution of it. 



2965. The practice of whipping out grain is resorted to in some districts with wheat 

 when the straw is tnuch wanted for thatch. The gperator takes a handful and strikes the 

 ears repeatedly against a stone, the edge of a board, or the face of a strong wattled hurdle, 

 till the corn is separated. 



2966. Bippling is the operation of separating the boles or seed pods of flax and hemp 

 by striking in the manner of whipping, or more commonly by drawing them through an 

 implement of the comlb kind, constructed with several upright triangular prongs set near 

 together in a strong piece of wood. 



2967. Hedging and ditching, the operation of making and mending fences and open 

 water-courses of the different kinds already enumerated, consists of the combined 

 application of digging, shovelling, cutting, clipping, and faggoting, described in this 

 and the two foregoing Sections. 



2968. Faggoting is a term applied to the dressing or binding of the prunings or 

 superfluous branches and spray of hedges. The bundles are made of different sizes in 

 different parts of the country, and in the same place according to the purpose to which 

 they are to be applied. They are tied with willow, hazel, or some other pliable wood 

 twisted before application. 



2969- Stacking wood for fuel, occurs in the practice of common agriculture when 

 hedges and pollard trees or tree-roots are stocked or dug up. The wood, whether roots 

 or trunk, is cut into lengths of from eighteen inches to two feet with a saw, then split 

 with iron wedges into pieces of not more than one and a half, or two inches in diameter, 

 and built into an oblong stack generally three feet broad and high, and six feet long. 



2970. Stacking wood for burning, stewing for tar, or pyrolignous acid, charring, and 

 similar purposes, is peculiar to forest culture, and will be treated of in the proper place. 

 (See Part III. or Index.) 



2971. Paring and burning is the process of paring off the surface of lands in a 

 state of grass, in order to prepare them for arable culture by means of fire. In the 

 method of performing the process, there is some slight difference in the practice of 

 different districts, and an attention to the nature of the lands is as necessary as in other 

 cases of husbandry. It would seem that some soils, as those of the more clayey and 

 heavy kinds, would be most benefited by having the fire to come as much as possible 

 into contact with the whole of the superficial parts of them, without being carried too 

 far, as by that means they may be rendered more proper for the reception of the roots of 

 vegetables after being slightly ploughed, as well as more suitable for supplying nourish- 

 ment to them ; while in others, as those of the more light and thin description, it might 

 be most advantageous merely to consume the thin paring of sward after being piled up 

 for the purpose ; without permitting the fire to exert its influence upon the mould or soil 

 immediately below, as in this way there would not probably be so much danger of 

 injuring the staple by destroying the vegetable matters contained in such soils. Of 

 course, in the first of these modes of burning the sward, the sods or parings should be 

 piled up as little as possible into heaps, the advantage of a suitable season being taken 

 to apply the fire to them in the state in which they lie, or are set at first after being cut 

 up, or after a few only have been placed together, as happens in some instances where 

 they are, immediately after being cut, set on edge to dry, and placed in serpentine 

 directions, in order to prevent them from falling over ; but in the latter cases they should 

 be formed or built up into little circular heaps or piles, somewhat in the form and size of 

 the little cocks made in hay-fields, the sods being placed the grass-side downwards, in 

 order to admit air : but the openings both at the bottoms and tops, after they have been 

 fully set on fire by some combustible substance, such as straw, &;c. are to be closed up, 

 as well as those in other parts covered by an addition of sods ; so as that the combustion 

 may proceed in a slow, smothering manner, such as is practised in the making of char- 



