WEST DEVONSHIRE. 1S3 



from the aftlon of the flail ; but for the 

 purpofe of Htter alfo ; it being found to kfl 

 or wear much longer, in this capacity, than 

 foftly bruifed ftraw ; which may be faid to 

 be already on the road of decay, and to have 

 pafTed the firft ftage toward the dunghill. 



Women fometimes aflift their hufbands 

 in the work of thralliing wheat, in this 

 manner ; as in beating it over the ca/k, or 

 in raking out the loofe flraw, as v/ell as in 

 making up the reed*. 



In thra/liing barley and oats, the 

 opened fheaves are piled on one lide of the 

 floor, and drawn over, heads -and- tails, to 

 the other ; the thrafliers of the Weftern, as 

 well as of the Northern extremity of the 

 Kingdom^ keeping ftroke , — and, here, this 

 N 4 animating 



* In one ihftance, I faw a frame, for beating the ears 

 over, inftead of a cafk ; the conftru6tion fomewhat re- 

 fembling that of a very wide, fhort, crooked ladder, fup- 

 ported nearly horizontally, v.-ith its convex fide upward j 

 the crofs bars being fet edgev/ay, and a few inches from 

 each other \ and with an angular piece of wood running 

 lengthway through the middle of tlie frame, and rifmg 

 above the crofs bars, — to feparate, and fpread with greater 

 eafe, the ears of the corn j and thereby to render the ftrokes 

 the more effedive. 



