80 INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 



It is not intended, in this place, to give any description 

 of the nature of the machinery ; but it may be proper short- 

 ly to lay before the reader, 1. An account of the different 

 powers used in driving the machine ; 2. A short view of 

 the advantages resulting from the invention ; and, 3. Some 

 hints regarding the improvements of which it is susceptible. 



Threshing-mills are driven, 1. By horses; 2. By oxen; 

 3. By wind; 4. By wind or horses; 5. By water; 6. By 

 water or horses; or, 7. By steam. Some small machines 

 of this sort are driven by manual labour, which have of 

 late been improved, but in general it is to be observed, 

 that unless machines are of a strong and powerful construc- 

 tion, they are constantly going wrong, and require perpe- 

 tual reparation.* 



1 . Where a command of water cannot be obtained, which 

 is certainly the least expensive power that can be employed, 

 horses are commonly made use of; and when the farms are 

 of a moderate size, and where the horses are rarely employ- 

 ed in that labour, some farmers are of opinion, that the ex- 

 ercise they receive is not prejudicial to their health. In- 

 deed, as they are principally worked in bad weather, when 

 other business out of doors could not be attempted, they 

 consider the threshing by horses as attended with little or 

 no expence ; but where the crop is large, and in particular 



* Mr Neil Ballingal states, that the advantage of a mill, strong and well 

 constructed, well managed, and with fanners, is of the greatest import- 

 ance. But a slight mill, constantly breaking, and with no fanners, no 

 farmer would accept of as a present. At the same time, it is remarked by 

 Mr Stewart of Hillside, that in moderate-sized farms in his neighbourhood, 

 where the principal crop is oats, u smaller kind of threshing-mill, without 

 fanners, will suffice, as the farmers find time in the evenings of winter 

 and spring, to dress the corn by hand-fanners. 



