9* INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 



ly measured up into bags, to be disposed of as may best 

 suit the owner's interest. So great is the difference be- 

 tween grain threshed by the fiail and the machine, that 

 any person acquainted with the article, may go through a 

 corn-market, blindfolded, and note every bag. This I am 

 assured by several intelligent farmers cannot be questioned. 

 5. Another great advantage is, that the farmer can thresh 

 his seed-wheat when in a soft state, recently cut and taken 

 off the field, and without any injury whatever,* which, be- 

 fore the invention of mills, it was hardly possible to get ex- 

 ecuted, in the harvest time, without the greatest difficulty, 

 and at a heavy loss. He is thus also enabled to provide 

 seed-corn in the spring, which formerly was not always an 

 easy operation. When threshing for seed was done in a 

 hurry, it may easily be supposed, in how slovenly a manner 

 the operation would be performed. In the busiest time of 

 harvest also, straw can be got for covering stacks, which 

 formerly could hardly be obtained. 6. It is found that 

 strong wheat-straw, is more useful for cattle, when thresh- 

 ed in a mill, it is so much more softened than by the flail.f 

 7. If a stack of corn is brought from the field into the yard 

 too soon, and is Jjjcated, it is threshed in one day, goes to 



* On the same system corn might be threshed in hazardous seasons, 

 as soon as reaped, and either immediately kiln-dried, or frequently dress- 

 ed by fanners, attached to a threshing-mill ; and I am informed that this 

 has frequently been done by active farmers. An ingenious mechanic 

 has suggested a plan of drying corn by means of a metal cylinder inclosed 

 in a case of brick work, which would occupy but a very small space, and 

 might be put up at a small expence. The cylinder, he proposed, should 

 be put in motion by a power from the threshing-mill. The grain was to 

 be moved through it on a similar principle to the working of a screw. 

 The principal heat to be applied to the end at which the damp grain 

 entered. From two to three bolls per hour might thus be dried. 



t Communication from Mr Peter Jack of Moncur. 



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