TALUE OF THEASHIXG MACIIIXES. 187 



S. E. Todd makes the following statement relative to 

 the saving of labor effected by these machines : " I have 

 thrashed a great deal of grain of all kinds, with my own 

 Fig. 211^^^ flail; and I have talked with 



others who have been accustomed 

 to thrash their grain with flails, 

 and I have come to the conclusion 

 thr.t the following figures rep- 

 resent a fair average as to the 

 quantity of grain that an ordinary 

 laborer will be able to thrash and 

 clean in a day, viz. : Seven bushels 

 An Old Flail. of wheat, eighteen bushels of oats, 



fifteen bushels of barley, eight bushels of rye, and twenty 

 bushels of buckwheat. In order to make this more intelligi- 

 ble, it will be necessary to double the number of bushels 

 that one man is able to thrash, as two men will be requir- 

 ed to clean the grain with a fanning mill. 



"In order to labor economically and advantageously 

 with a thrashing machine, two horses, at least, and three 

 men are necessary. In most instances four or five men 

 will be required, which will make a force equal to fifteen 

 men with flails. Such a gang of hands, and two good 

 horses, with such a thrasher and cleaner as Harder's, are 

 capable of thrashing and cleaning of the same kind of 

 grain to which allusion has been made, one hundred and 

 seventy bushels of wheat, threO hundred and twenty-five 

 of oats, two hundred and twenty of barley, one hundred 

 and eighty of rye, and two hundred and sixty of buck- 

 wheat. Some manufacturers of thrashing machines fix 

 the average day's work higher than these figures. In 

 some instances, I will acknowledge that a span of horses 

 and five men can do much more than the amount repre- 

 sented by the foregoing figures ; yet I am satisfied that in 

 the majority of instances they will not thrash and clean a 

 jrreater number of bushels than I have indicated. But, 



