40 On Threshing out Wheat by a Roller. 



ter, who made the assertion, never saw wheat trodden 

 out with a roller. Properly managed, in good weather, 

 and on a good yard, treading with a roller will disengage 

 every grain in good wheat. It is true, if the wheat is 

 small, and has not well filled and ripened, and especially 

 if it has been cut rather green, it will be very tough, and 

 a few heads will retain the wheat, but it must be very 

 ordinary, and not worth the labour of and process to se- 

 parate it. Wheat which has grown on land producing 

 from 6 to 20 bushels, or more, to the acre, I sincerely 

 believe will not retain one half of one per cent. It is well 

 known that good wheat threshes easily, and clear, com- 

 pared to such as is small and shrivelled. And so it is in 

 treading, with this difference, that the roller and feet of 

 the horses act proportionally more expeditiously, and 

 more effectually than the flail ; and I really suspect, as 

 completely as the Scotch machine, merely in separating 

 the wheat from the straw. Many people lose much by 

 treading (and so they do by threshing), but it is owing to 

 their own slovenly management. 



4. " The great damage which the grain must receive, 

 i: when treading, by the dung, &c. of the horses du- 

 " ring the process," has been opposed to this mode of get- 

 ting out wheat. There is certainly some justice in the 

 objection ; but, for all, the injury is not perceptible. I 

 never observed in trodden grain any damage worthy of 

 complaint. In the winter, the dung is hard and of little 

 moment. In the summer the horses may be confined 

 a day or two in the stable ; and fed on dry food, which 

 will harden their dung, and put them in excellent condi- 

 tion for treading ; and they will perform the work with 

 better spirits, than when taken with a full belly from grass, 



