213 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



undoubted fact that the latter implement, in the hands 

 of good threshers, is perfect in its way, and may be 

 made thoroughly to clear the grain, without damage to 

 the corn or .to the straw ; but it is, in the first place, 

 very difficult to get the work done in the best manner, 

 and even when so done, it is so slow a process as to be 

 utterly incompetent to meet at all times the farmer's 

 wants and convenience. What was said in 1 714 remains 

 tolerably correct now. A good thresher then declared, 

 that five or six bushels of wheat was a very good day's 

 threshing ; and, in case the corn was clung and yielded 

 ill, sometimes three bushels was as much as could be 

 threshed in a day. On account of these difficulties, 

 there were frequent attempts made to shorten the 

 labour by the construction of some machine that should 

 answer the purpose of many flails. In the year 1732, 

 Michael Menzies, of East Lothian, invented and patented 

 a machine for threshing grain. The Society of Im- 

 provers in Scotland appointed a Committee to inspect 

 the operations of this machine, and report upon its 

 merits. This Committee gave it as their opinion " that 

 the machine would be of great use to farmers, both in 

 threshing the grain clean from the straw, and in saving 

 a great deal of labour ; for one man would be sufficient 

 to manage a machine which would do the work of six." 

 This seems to be the only record of this early machine, 

 and we are not aware of the principles on which it was 

 constructed. Other machines failed in their object be- 

 cause they were found either to break the ears of corn 

 without clearing them, or else to grind the whole to 

 powder. It was not till the close of the century that a 

 considerable advance was made. In 1785, Andrew 

 Meikle, also of East Lothian, first invented a machine 

 in which the corn was introduced between two rollers, 

 and threshed out by four beaters fixed upon a revolv- 

 ing drum, each striking, as it revolved, the corn held 

 between the rollers. This was found to answer well ; so 

 that, although changes and improvements have been 



