204 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



must be reckoned as its chief disadvantage ; for it is 

 often of great importance to the farmer to get his wheat 

 threshed out quickly, either to meet a certain state of 

 the market, or to suit his own particular convenience. 

 In such a case he usually resorts to machinery ; for 

 there are no means of hurrying forward the operations 

 of the flail, and to wait for its slow and tedious action 

 might frustrate all his plans. But in ordinary circum- 

 stances the flail, for reasons already stated, is too advan- 

 tageous to be laid aside. 



The flail consists of two parts, called the hand-staff, 

 or helve, and the supple, or beater. The helve is a 

 light rod of ash, about five feet loug, wielded by the 



thresher in his operations, and slightly increasing in 

 thickness at its lower end, where a hole is bored for the 

 reception of the thongs of leather which bind the beater 

 to it. The beater is also of ash, and is usually a cylin- 

 drical rod, thickened at the extreme end, the diameter 

 being from an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half ; 

 it is furnished with two projecting ears, situated near 

 the end at which it is to be attached to the helve. By 

 a particular mode of adjustment, which must be seen to 

 be understood, a strap of leather is laced with a thong 

 of leather to this end of the beater, so as to form a loop 

 standing about an inch beyond the end of the beater. 

 Another thong of leather, of considerable strength, is 



