440 



SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part II. 



work which supports it (/) may be of either, or of both of these metals. (Farm. Mag. 

 vol. xiii.) 



404 



406 



405 



2798. To take the awns from barley where a threshing machine is used, a notched spar, 

 lined on one side with plate iron, and just the length of the rollers, is fixed by a screw 

 bolt at each end of the inside of the cover of the drum, about the middle of it, so 

 that the edge of the notched stick is about one eighth of an inch from the arms of the 

 drum as it goes round. Two minutes are sufficient to jiut it on, when its operation is 

 wanted, which is, when putting through the barley the second time j and it is as easily 

 taken off. It rubs off the awns completely. 



2799. A cheap method of hummelling barley, where a threshing machine is in use, con- 

 sists in having a second cover for the drum lined with tin, having small holes perforated 

 in it in the manner of a grater, and the rough side externally. The grain being sepa- 

 rated from the straw in the ordinary way, 

 the grated cover is to be substituted for the 

 common one, and the grain passed through 

 a second time. This mode is said to succeed 

 as well as any other. {Farm. Mag. vol. xiii. 

 p. 443.) 



2800. Hand hummelling machines {figs. 

 405. and 406.) are in use in Lincolnshire 

 and other parts of England, where barley 

 is much cultivated, and where threshing 

 machines are little in use. {Gard. Mag. , 

 vol. V.) 



Sect. IX. Mechanical and other fixed Apparatus, for the Preparation of Food for Cattle, 

 and for grinding Manure. 



2801 . The principal food-jyreparing contrivances are, the steamer, boiler, roaster, breaker 

 or bruiser, and grinder. 



2802. An apparatus for steaming food for cattle, the editor of The Farmer's Magazine 

 observes, should be considered a necessary appendage to every arable and dairy farm of 

 a moderate size. The advantage of preparing different sorts of roots, as well as even 

 grain, chaff, and hay, by means of steaming apparatus, for the nourishment of cattle, 

 begins now to be generally understood. It has been long known that many sorts of r^ts, 

 and particularly the potato, become much more valuable by undergoing this sort of pre- 

 paration ; and it is equally well known that when thus prepared they have been employed 

 alone as a substitute for hay, and with cut chaflfi both for hay and corn, in the feeding of 

 horses, as well as of other animals. To a farmer who keeps many horses or cattle, or 

 even swine or poultry, the practice of boiling their food in steam is so great a saving and 

 advantage, that it deserves the most particular attention. Though potatoes have often been 

 given raw to both horses and cattle, they are found to be infinitely preferable when cooked 

 by -steam, as they are rendered therel)y much drier and more nutritive, and better than 

 when boiled in water ; this has been long since shown by the experiments of Wakefield of 

 Liverpool, who, in order to ascertain it, fed some of his horses on steamed and some on 

 raw potatoes, and soon found the horses fed on the steamed potatoes had greatly the advan- 

 ttige in every respect. Those on the steamed potatoes looked perfectly smooth and sleek. 



