248 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tages over the flail, as used in the Northern States and in 

 England at that time, to be, that an entire crop conld be 

 beaten out in a few days, thus securing it from the ravages of 

 the Hessian fly, which even then prevailed there, and also from 

 thieves ; and also that of having it earlier ready for market* 



Three thousand bushels of wheat could thus be made 

 ready for market in two days, which would employ five men 

 with flails a hundred days. Tread ing-floors were made of a 

 hard, M^axy earth, which by use became firm, glossy and 

 smooth. These were made from sixty to one hundred and 

 thirty feet in diameter, with a path or track at the circum- 

 ference twelve to fourteen feet wide, on which the sheaves 

 were laid, usually fenced around, sometimes with an outer 

 and inner fence. The horses were led round in ranks equi- 

 distant from each other, and in a sober trot ; thus four ranks 

 would preserve the relative position of the four arms of a 

 wheel. Somewhat the same method was practised on the 

 California coast, down to the time when the discovery of the 

 golden grains in the raceway of Col. Sutter's mill gave the 

 first start to that marvellous settling of the Western coast of 

 this country. 



As described by one who was there, and who afterwards 

 became a member of Congress and one of California's most 

 respected and respectable governors, it was thus : Col. Sut- 

 ter had a large mill for the production of flour, for consump- 

 tion along the whole coast line and for exportatitm. Tosuj)- 

 ply his mill with wheat, he had hundreds of acres sown to 

 that grain. When it ripened, — the season of ripening con- 

 tinuing, as it does there, for some weeks without rain, — he 

 would send to the mountains for part of a tribe of Indians to 

 come down and help reap it. The noble redmen would respond 

 for a small compensation, and would come on to the number 

 of fifty or a hundred. All the sickles and old swords that 

 could be found were first taken ; then sickles were extempor- 

 ized from old iron hoops, and if more were wanted, willow 

 shoots the thickness of a man's thumb were cut, pulled and 

 split ; when dry the sharp edge was sufficient to cut or break 

 the stalks of wheat. 



When cut, the grain was carried and thrown to the depth 

 of about two feet in a corral containing a half-acre or more, 



