358 Of Thrashing Grain. 



the expense must have greatly reduced the profit of the far- 

 mer, and the value of land (*). But the waste of grain 

 from that imperfect mode of thrashing, and the pilfering 

 which often attended it, was yet more vexatious ; and the 

 labourers could not always be prevailed upon, to thrash the 

 corn wholly out of the straw, even when they knew that their 

 oivn families were in danger of suffering from the want of 

 bread (* 01 ). Nor is that to be wondered at. Few men are 

 dexterous at handling a flail ; and labourers in general, 

 would rather work without doors, even in wet weather, than 

 subject themselves to the severe, dusty, and unwholesome 

 toils of a barn( ioi ). 



In the western districts of England, they are desirous of 

 extracting the grain, with as little injury as possible to the 

 straw. For that purpose, the ears are cut off, and thrashed 

 separately from the straw ( a 3 ), which is converted into a 

 species of reed for thatching, or used for litter (* 4 ). 



SECT. XXI. Of Dressing, or Winnowing Grain. 



THE old imperfect modes of dressing grain, either by the 

 action of wind operating between two doors of a barn, or by 

 conveying the corn to the summit of some adjoining emi- 

 nence, where it was winnowed by a natural breeze, are now 

 laid aside. The idea of a winnowing machine, for the pur- 

 pose of raising wind artificially, is supposed to have origi- 

 nated in China, and was there applied to the dressing of 

 rice. It was thence brought into Flolland, and attached to 

 mills for making pot or pearl barley. Its introduction into 

 Scotland, above a century ago, is attributed to the patriotism 

 of Andrew Fletcher of Salton, and the ingenuity of James 

 Meikle, whose son was the inventor of the thrashing-mill. 

 But its construction on a larger scale, so as to render it ap- 

 plicable to all sorts of grain, is said to be owing to a person 

 named Rogers, a farmer near Hawick, in Roxburghshire, 

 who, about the year 1733, commenced a manufacture of 

 them, which he and his descendants carried on to a consi- 

 derable extent (* 5 ). It is impossible to calculate, to what 

 inconveniences and losses the farmers must have been sub- 

 jected, before their difficulties were removed by this most 

 useful invention ( 2o6 ). 



The thrashing-mills erected, have, almost in every case, 

 ii set of fanners attached to them ; and those on the largest 



