I04 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



the threshing-floor is without a roof and the cHmate 

 is hot, shelters should be built near it to which the 

 workmen may repair in the broiling noon-tide 

 heat. 



CHAPTER LII 



OF THRESHING 



1 Ears of the finest and best crop should be taken to 

 the threshing-floor and kept separate from the rest, 

 so that the farmer may have the best possible seed. 

 The ears are threshed on the threshing-floor. Some 

 do this by means of yoked beasts and a threshing 

 sleigh, which is made of a piece of wood roughened 

 underneath with stones or iron, on which either the 

 driver stands, or a large weight is placed. It is then 

 drawn by the animals harnessed to it, and shakes 

 the grains of corn from the ears. Or it is made of 

 planks of wood furnished with teeth and little 

 wheels, and is then called the '' Punic wain." A man 

 must sit on it and drive the animals which draw it, 

 as is the practice in Hither Spain and other places. 



2 With others the threshing is done by means of a 

 herd of beasts which are driven on to the threshing- 

 floor and are kept going by poles, the grains of 

 corn are thus rubbed out of the ears by their hoofs. 

 When the ears have been threshed they should be 

 tossed up from the ground with winnowing baskets ^ 



' Vallis for vannulis. ■ The vannus was a kind of basket or 

 sieve. Servius (ad Georg., i, i66, where he says Varro read 



