CHAP. VIII. STEAM ENGINES. 755 



CHAPTER VIII. 



STEAM ENGINES THRESHING MACHINES CORN-DRESSING MACHINES 

 MILLS BRUISING MACHINES. 



QTEAM ENGINES. The flail is now so rarely used that it may be 

 said that practically all corn is threshed by machinery. Modern 

 farm-buildings are not adapted to the use of the flail, but it is not alto- 

 gether a bad plan to employ it occasionally, and we know first-rate farmers 

 who still call it into requisition to some extent on their farms. This is 

 not done because of cheapness, for the cost is greater than when the steam 

 threshing machine is used ; but it finds work for men in winter when 

 it would be very difficult to employ them, and it induces them to stay 

 on the farm all the year round, and thus ensures a supply of labour in 

 the busier seasons. The straw undoubtedly makes better fodder, and 

 animals greatly prefer it, whilst some crops, such as peas, are less 

 broken, and are therefore better for seeding purposes than when put 

 through the threshing machine. Still, very little corn is now threshed 

 by the flail ; and, with the perfection which threshing machines have 

 reached, the flail will probably entirely disappear with the generation 

 which at present uses it. 



Although on the majority of farms it is most convenient to use motors 

 or portable engines, yet when there is sufficient work, fixed machines are 

 employed with advantage. Fig. 322 represents a very powerful engine, 

 made by Messrs. Eansomes, Sims & Jefferies. 



As many farms do not provide sufficient work for a large engine, it 

 is found cheaper to hire for the threshing. But as there are various 

 other classes of work which can be done very economically by a moderate- 

 sized engine, a small vertical engine and boiler, such as is shown in 

 fig. 323, made by Messrs. Hindley, of Bourton, is found very useful for 

 preparing food either by grinding, pulping, or chaff-cutting, and for 

 supplying steam for cooking, cheese-making, and other work of common 

 occurrence on the farm. 



It is to be observed that all the leading agricultural engineers now 

 turn out engines of very high class, and have enormously reduced the 

 consumption of fuel. Fig. 324 represents a portable engine of very high 

 repute, manufactured by Messrs. Marshall, Sons & Co., of Gainsborough. 

 It is made with one or two cylinders, and many recent improvements 

 are embodied in its construction. The same may be said of the engine 

 of Messrs. Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, of Ipswich, mentioned above, 

 and of their excellent locomotive agricultural engine shown in fig. 325. 



Nowadays farmers are not at all disposed to cart threshing machines 

 and portable engines about from farm to farm, and consequently those 



