INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 91 



hands were collected to bring in the stack, and to build it 

 into one end of the barn, as would, with the advantage of 

 a mill, bring in, thresh, and clean the one half of it, in, 

 the same time ; next, the tasker, (or thresher who worked 

 by tasked work), had to take it from the heap, (as it is 

 called), to lay it on the floor, to shake it well, and then to 

 thresh it; and when each floor is threshed, he must put 

 the straw out of his way ; twice every day at least, he had 

 to gather what corn he had threshed from every corner of 

 the barn, and to separate it distinctly from the straw ; wo- 

 men 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 dispo- 

 sing of the straw ; and in the course of a few hours, the 

 grain may be ready for the market, 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, in general, give 2s. per boll 

 more for wheat threshed by a mil), than by the flail.* 



The specific advantages resulting from this invention 

 may be thus stated: 1. 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 quantity of grain left in 



* Communication from Mr Richard Somner of Gilchriston. 

 f Communication from Mr George Farme, Braiclwood, near Dalkeith, 

 and Mr Brown of Cononsyth, 



