106 Ears of Corn not threshed but burned. 



when compared to the extent of the land under 

 tillage. 



What sort of machine the van was, among the 

 Romans or Normans, it is not easy at this day 

 to determine. Tradition shows they did not 

 thresh, but burn the ears of the corn to get at 

 the grain. This operation was also resorted to 

 in Scotland, and was performed in the following 

 manner. A woman, sitting down, took a hand- 

 ful of corn, by the stems, in her left hand, and 

 set the ears on fire ; while with a stick she held 

 in her right, she beat out the grain as soon as 

 the husks were burnt, so that the corn might 

 be threshed dressed winnowed ground, and 

 baked in an hour after it was reaped. The meal 

 thus produced was called Highland graddan ; 

 and by the tenth and eleventh of Charles the 

 First, it was enacted, that no person shall burn 

 corn or grain in the straw, on pain of imprison- 

 ment in the common jail for ten days, without 

 bail or mainprize. Giraldus Cambrensis men- 

 tions the mills of Locherin and St. Phechin, or 

 Fechin : the former would grind nothing on 

 Sundays, nor that which had been stolen. These 

 seem to have been water mills, erected by the 

 monks : querns were more generally used, and 

 seem to have been amply sufficient for grinding 

 whatever wheat might be produced in Ireland 



