98 INSTRUMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. 



vised ; and that it ought to be accounted the greatest im- 

 provement that has been introduced into Great Britain du- 

 ring the present age ? 



It is to be lamented, however, that the process of thresh- 

 ing by the mill cannot be carried on to the same advantage, 

 unless where the ears are regularly exposed to the stroke 

 of the beaters ; reaping by the sickle, therefore., is much to 

 be preferred ; at the same time, if the grain is passed twice 

 through the mill, it will be threshed effectually, in what- 

 ever mode it may be reaped, though at an additional ex- 

 pence. 



Improvements in the Threshing-milL It is probable that 

 several improvements will still be made on this machine.* 

 Amongst these, diminishing the size of the drum is cer- 

 tainly amongst the most important. The drum should not 

 exceed from two feet eight inches to three feet, or three 

 feet and a quarter in diameter. Mr Sked, mill-wright at 

 Dunbar, has made a machine of six-horse power, with a 

 drum of only three feet and a half long, and three feet and 

 a quarter diameter. This machine, which has a large outer 



* Mr Robert Kerr states, that Mr Dun, a very ingenious mill-wright, 

 at Coldstream, in Berwickshire, has made many useful improvements on 

 threshing-mills, in particular on those which go by wind ; more espe- 

 cially by causing the machinery to regulate the sails in proportion to the 

 wind and work, in a most effective manner, with no trouble whatever to 

 the people who feed the mill. He has likewise adapted a series of 

 buckets, resembling the chain-pump, which continually return all ill- 

 threshed grain, particularly ill-dressed barley, to the threshing stage ; and 

 has, besides, added an ingeniously-devised shaker, beyond the rake, for 

 clearing all the loose grain from among the straw. On the whole, the 

 machines erected by Mr Dun have been carried to very great perfection ; 

 always supposing, however, that they possess sufficient moving power of 

 water or wind ; for they are rather too much loaded to be driven with 

 any tolerable ease by horses. 



