INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 93 



the straw, a farmer's whole attention would be taken up 

 by barn-work, otherwise the work would be imperfectly 

 executed ; whilst much pilfering would go on, unless he 

 was constantly on the watch.* At a threshing-machine, 

 any thing of that kind can rarely happen, so many people 

 being employed together when the machine is at work* 

 constantly under the eye of the master, or of some con- 

 fidential servant; and when the work is finished, every 

 door is instantly locked. 4. One important advantage 

 attending the threshing-machine, worked by any power, 

 is the superior value of the grain; as the speedy way in 

 which the work is executed, prevents that waste and 

 damp, which was produced from the long continuance of 

 the corn among the chaflj thereby rendering it not so fit 

 for meeting the market, and of inferior quality to the 

 consumer.f Hence, as Mr John Shirreff well observes, 

 the corn, instead of lying during one, two, or even three 

 weeks, amidst the chaff and other rubbish, in the corner of 

 a barn, till it becomes quite raw to the touch, and musty 

 to the smell, or, if the floor is damp, sometimes in part 

 springs, grain, when threshed by the machine, is instant- 

 aneously separated from both straw and chaff, as well as 

 every other extraneous substance, and can be immediate- 



* The doors of the barns formerly were almost constantly open. 



f Communication by Mr James Cuthbertson. Mr Peter Jack of 

 Moncur observes, that when grain was threshed by the flail, it lay for 

 ten or twelve days on the floor. The first part of the grain lying on the 

 floor so long, became damp and swelled, that though put to a proper 

 granary, yet it soon became musty, from the damp that it carried from 

 the cold floor, and on that account never had the fine flavour in flour, 

 that meal of all kinds now has, never being suffered to lie on the barn 

 floor. North country oats and meal, often lose a market in the south, 

 on account of the musty taste it is so apt to imbibe from damp floors. 



