CHAPTER X 

 THRESHING MACHINERY 



280. Development. In the oldest of writings mention 

 is made of the crude devices by which grain in the 

 ancient times was separated from the straw. Although 

 mention of mechanical devices was made at a very early 

 time, the two methods which came into extended use 

 were treading with animals and beating the grains from 

 the ears with a flail. The flail was nothing more nor less 

 than a short club usually connected to a handle with a 

 piece of leather. This long handle enabled the operator 

 to remain in an upright position and strike the un- 

 threshed grain upon the floor a sharp blow. After the 

 grain was threshed from the head or ear, the straw was 

 carefully raked away and the grain separated from the 

 chaff by throwing it into the air and letting the wind 

 blow out the chaff, or by fanning while pouring from a 

 vessel in a thin stream. Later a fanning mill was in- 

 vented to separate the grain from the chaff. 



Flailing was the common method of threshing grain 

 as late as 1850. In regard to the amount of grain 

 threshed in a day with a flail, S. E. Todd makes the fol- 

 lowing statement in Thomas's book on Farm Machin- 

 ery : "I have threshed a great deal of grain of all kinds 

 with my own flail, and a fair average quantity of grain 

 that an ordinary laborer will be able to thresh and clean 

 in a day is 7 bushels of wheat, 18 bushels of oats, 15 

 bushels of barley, 8 bushels of rye, or 20 bushels of 

 buckwheat." 



