PREPARING FOR MARKET. 27 



vention of cylinder scrapers ; this is made of three strips 



of elastic wood, or of iron set upright, as in figure 4. 



These three teeth are fastened into a lower plank, and 



pass through a hole in a 



second inclined plank. By 



introducing wedges between 



the outer teeth and the sides 



of the hole, the teeth may 



be rendered more or less 



firm. The operator draws 



., . m m* n T -, Fig. 4. BEOOM-CORN HATCHEL. 



the brush, by small hand- 



fuls, down through the teeth, which should be brought 

 close enough together by the wedges to remove the seeds 

 without breaking the straw. 



Small crops have been threshed with a flail. The 

 brush is laid upon the barn floor, two or three stalks 

 deep, and a plank laid over the stalk portion to prevent 

 crushing, the thresher standing upon the plank while 

 swinging the flail. 



Some remove the seed by the use of a threshing ma- 

 chine. The top or concave being removed, the brush, 

 as much as can be held with both hands, is exposed to 

 the action of the drum. 



For large crops, special scraping machines are used, run 

 by horse or other power. These are essentially one or 

 two cylinders furnished with iron teeth, made to revolve 

 very rapidly. Figure 5 represents a one-cylinder ma- 

 chine ; with this the brush must be turned, in order to 

 expose both sides ; where there are two cylinders, revolv- 

 ing in opposite directions, the brush is held between them, 

 and both sides are scraped. Two feeders can work at 

 one machine. The brush as taken from the wagon is 

 laid upon a long table, and one or two boys, according to 

 the rapidity with which the feeder works, makes up the 

 brush into convenient handfuls. When cleaned, the 

 brush is thrown into a box behind the feeder, made like 



