1(12 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 3 



$ 



Threshing Machines. 



We give below the opiiiione and experience of two 

 respectable farmers on the subject of Threshing Ma- 

 chines ; and we add to this an account of a Threshing 

 Machine invented and used in New Hnnipsbirc, from 

 a correspondent who has n i pecuniary interest in the 

 machine, and <vho6e stalements may he relied on. 

 We regret that it is not in our power to refer to the 

 Family Visitor as he suggests, and wc much wish that 

 we were able to give a drawing of the machine. 



We have on entire sympathy in the views of Y. in 

 regard to the trouble and inconvenience of having a 

 travelling machine brought to the farm ; and we can- 

 not discover much error in the calculalion of F. 

 We are not, however, disposed to go back to the old 

 method of threshing by flail ; at least where any con- 

 Eiderable quantity of wheat is grown. 



With Y. we recommend to formers to purchase 

 among themselves a machine for their own use, and 

 to help each other; eras the current term is, "change 

 works." We are not prepared to eoy what is the 

 best machine or horse power. With Lane's patent 

 horse power, where the horse moves in a box on irun 

 rounds upon an endless chain, we were not well sat- 

 isfied. It woe not always easy to find a horse that 

 would go in it ; and we had frequent accidents both 

 to the horse and the machine. Of Pitta' machine we 

 thought well, though we should prefer to have ihu 

 two operations of threshing and cleaning the grain, 

 performed separately. Page's (of Keenc, N. H.) 

 horse-power is an improvement upon Lane's, as the 

 horse goes upon wooden " treddles." Of the two 

 machines recommended by our correspondent Y., we 

 know nothing beyond his account. A machine, in- 

 cluding horse power and threshing machine, is made 

 in Hillsdale, in the eastern part of this stole, which is 

 afforded for 75 dollars, and which, with four men and 

 a boy, and a yoke of oxen and a horse, or two horses, 

 will thresh one hundred bushels of wheat per day. 

 This is an excellent machine, easily set up and trans- 

 ported from one place to another ; but the particular 

 name by which it is designated we could not learn. 

 It is much used and approved in that neighborhood, 

 and by the farmers in the parts of Massachusetts ad- 

 joining. The machine referred to by Mr. Lyford 

 is certainly remarkable for its small cost. Wc' have 

 seen a machine for threshing capable ol being trans- 

 ported in a one horse wagon, and the cost of which 

 was comparatively snioll, by which two men, it was 

 confidently stated, could thresh fifty bushels per day. 

 We saw it in operation, and we know no reason to 

 doub i d efHciency. This was afforded at a low 

 price. 



The evil of geting out our wheat all at once, or 

 immediately i pon borvesting, does not appear to us 

 BO objectionable as to cur correspondent F. Because 

 it is threshed and cleaned, it is not necessary that it 

 ehould be marketed immediately, where a farmer has 

 proper arrangements for storing it. But it is very I'e- 

 sirable alwoys to close up such accounts as early as 

 may be, and at least to have the article in a condition 

 to take advantage of a demand as soon as it exists 

 The objection that the nse of threshing machines de- 

 prives the poor of employment, is of that kind, which 

 would at once put a stop to the use of any and every 

 l.-bor saving machine whatever. 



For tlie New Genesee Farmer 

 Threshing Machines. 

 Mr. Colman — Having for many years been inter- 

 ested in Hie Foundry business, my attention was ne- 

 cessarily brought to the various inventions for thresh- 

 ing grain : and since I have commenced farming. I 

 have become convinced that the system now obtaining 

 generally throughsut the country, is radically wrong. 

 The system I speak of is the employment of traveling 

 machines, whoso owners travel the country and thresh 



uta ceitain price per bushel. It is attcndid with so 

 mony dilEculties, troubles and vexations, that itshould 

 be exploded in all the wheat growing regions. 



Permit me to enumeratesome of which, that in my 

 brief experience, appear like a fearful catalogue. 



When you are ready to have your grain threshed 

 you are dependant on the pleasure, engagements and 

 location of somemnchlnc, which travels in your dis- 

 trict of country, and which, like bad weather, comes 

 when it gets ready ; or when your turn comes, or 

 when it has finished all of its large ami piofitnblejnbs. 

 \Vhen ihe machine arrives, as their interest is to per- 

 form the work in the least possible time, you must be 

 prepared with from 12 to 14 hand.!, the machine must 

 bo driven with at least six horses, and such a hurri- 

 cane of hurry and confusion commences, that it is im- 

 possible to do justice to your work. To expedite 

 business, the machine is left to run so open between 

 the cylinder and concave, that the groin is passed 

 through in cart loads, and is not half threshed ; and 

 it is impossible to clear anf dispose of the straw in a 

 clean and proper manner. 



It some port of the machine fails, as is not an un- 

 common occurrence, your whole army of hired men 

 and teams are idle on your bonds until it is rejaired, 

 overrunning your garden, orchard and melon patch 

 OS they ore generally a wild set, and what is wo 

 will rarely work without a plentiful supply of \hefirc 

 water, unless they know you are conscientiously 

 pledged against this pernicious practice. 



If you have a lot of oats, spring wheat, or barley, 

 that cannot be threshed on the same floor, at the same 

 time, it is evident thot ihe flying d agon cannot wait 

 for the cleaning "up of the floor, and they cannot af- 

 ford to come back again without the lot to be threshed 

 is sufficient to pay lor the trouble and labor of moving 

 and setting up the mochine; consequently, you must 

 hammer it out with the flail, which, in these lobor 

 saving times, is not to be thought of. 



I have given you the banc of this proclice, now for 

 the antidote. Every former should own his own ma- 

 chine, or let two or three join in the ownership. In 

 my humble opinion, the great desideratum would be 

 a two horse poioer. Why— because every farmer has 

 two horses, but every one liae not four, and every far- 

 mer has men and boys enough about him to work it. 

 Then, sir, he con with his own machine, his own 

 team, his own hands, and at his own convenient time 

 do his work to his own satisfaction. 



The machinery is consequently light and portable, 

 so that if he bos a small lot of spring wheat, late oots, 

 peas or barley, for which he has no convenient place 

 to house them in, why he can bring his machine to 

 the born and dispose of them at once ; or if he wants 

 some seed wheal, and has not time to get out his 

 whole crop, or if oats ore high priced as they often 

 are just before the new crop comes to market, why he 

 can rattle out his whole crop in one day. Can he rea- 

 lize ony of these conveniences from the travelling 

 machines ? 



The machine being a light afl^oir. it con cosily be 

 brought into the wood yard, a buz saw rigged to it for 

 cutting the winter's wood, or be ottoched to a straw 

 cutter, grindstone, root cutter, or grain crusher. 



Such a machine, with six men and boys and two 

 horses, will conveniently thresh from 75 to 100 bush- 

 els of wheat in a day, and should cost about 100 dol- 

 lars. It should be simple ond compact in its construc- 

 tion ; the thresher should not occupy more spoce thon 

 an ordinary grindstone with its frome, and the length 

 of the cylinder from 20 to 94 inches and 16 inches in 

 diameter. The length of the cylinder regidates the 

 amount of power or the number of horses required to 

 drive it. 



used successfully with two horses, if the length o 

 cylinder is reduced. 



The only machines that I am acquainted with tho 

 comes within these requirements, are one mode b; 

 Acklcy of Rochester, ond one by Douglass of Sknnc 

 Oleics, who is the original inventor of the spike wa 

 chine ; both macbinus hnvc the strength to stand th 

 power of four horses ; but from their lightness an' 

 compactness of form, arc peculiarly adapted to th 

 two horse thresher. The Ackley machine costs 

 little more than the olLer, and is of the best workman 

 ship, 'i hey are both on the svn and planet irhei 

 principle, and work with great ease ond safety. Y. 



Friknd Colman- -I wish to say a few woids lo th|li' 

 farmers, through the medium of the 'Farmer,' upo 



the use of threshing machines. Much has been sai iii> 

 and mony have supposed that threshing machine |»li 

 have been a great benefit to farmers ; that they bav 

 not, it is my intention to show. First, threshinjiin 

 inaehines hove bscn a great dieadvrntnge to loborin 

 people. In mony places poor people now hove no cm 

 ploymcnt in the winter months, ond to farmers them 

 selves it is of no advantage. The majority of former 

 do not calculate to roisc over oOO bushels ol whet 

 annually. This may be set down as an overog, 

 quantity. To thresh this amount, including the sel 

 ling up oi;d taking down the machine, takes at leai 

 two days, with from four to six horses ond ten hands 

 Two of the horses ond two hands, are usually foun 

 with the machine. The hire of ihe oilier horses, tc 

 gcther with the owners of them, two days, iiioy b 

 set down at §3, pay of the other seven hands iw 

 days at 75 cents per day, $5,25, odd lo this the us^ 

 of the mochine, at five cents per bushel, (the usun 

 price) on 300 bushels, ,f 15, making .f23,25. I wi 

 now estimate the cost of threshing 300 bushels b 

 hand. A common thresher will, during Ihe winte 

 months, thresh eight bushels per day. This, at fifi 

 cer.ts per doy, the proboble price of lobor during th 

 winter months, will be l5;b",75. Lcov.ng a balanc 

 of .$4,50 in favor of ihrething by hand. A sli. 

 greater objection to them is, that it erables farmers t 

 ihieeh their wheat all at once and send it to mai- 

 ket, thus filling the market beyond the demanfl- 

 and depressing the prices. Such hos been the cob 

 for the lost few years, consequently the price of whe» 

 baa been low and little demand for it. 



Yours, &c. F. 



Greece, -V. V , 1841. 



Mr. II. Cor.MAN — At your request I now give yo 

 description of Hibbotd's Horse Power and Thresh 

 ing Machine. 



The horse power consists of a light whe. I, UEiiall' 

 4 feet in diameter, connected with asboli7J feet longi 

 or long enough to permit a horse to pass under it, hov 

 ing an iron gudgeon in each end. The shaft is Be 

 up, varying from perpendiculor to 20 degrees, to ac 

 commodote the bond running from the wheel to th^ 

 thresher, which moy be set higher or lower than ihi 

 wheel, as the case moy require. The wheel is neai 

 the top end of the shaft. The gudgeon at the top enc 

 of the shaft, runs in a box at the junction of tw( 

 braces made of light poles, and hoving their opposit: 

 ends, when the power is in operation, fastened witl 

 screws to the posts of the barn doors, or any othei 

 posts or timbers sel np for the occasion. The lower 

 gudgeon runs in a box in a small sill mode fast to the 

 ground. On the same shoft ond 2i feet from the 

 lower end, is ploced a pully deeply grooved, 16 inches 

 diameter in the bottom of the groove. Thirty five! 

 yords from the foot of the shaft there is placed a pully | 

 horizontally on an iron spindle placed in the ground, 

 (a common iron bar usually answers the purpose,) 

 braced at the top. The power is then put in operation 



Tk 



liil 



Almost any of the horse powers now in use moy be I by placing n band round these t^o pulliee drawn euf- 



