Lincoln Flocks. 457 



of wheels is all split, so as to get it along the grain. 

 This wood, which principally comes from Hereford- 

 shire, Warwickshire, and Northamptonshire, is also 

 exclusively used for the frames of thrashing-machines. 

 The axle-beds are made of ash, and so are the felloes 

 of the wheels, as no wood, save the old witch-elm, 

 which is hard to get, can rival it in elasticity. Maho- 

 gany is also required for the riddles, but it is of the 

 Bay-wood kind, and perfectly free from knots, which 

 is not the case with the Honduras. We might have 

 lingered for hours as a silent watcher in the wood 

 machine-shop, where the steel arm and that of thew 

 and muscle combine in planing, and finishing, and 

 drilling holes, and other curious arts ; but it was 

 Saturday, and the dinner-bell was sounding the close 

 of the labours of the week. 



About fifty thousand Lincoln wethers are generally 

 brought out at Lincoln Fair, which is held on the 

 Friday after the last Tuesday in April. It is just the 

 time when the marshes and the rich lands of Boston 

 and Spalding want the hoggs from the turnip fields of 

 the wold and heath. The Silver Cup given by the 

 Lincolnshire Bank for the best five-score of hoggs, has 

 fallen into disuse, as the flockmasters learn the strength 

 of their neighbour's hand, and will not try. The late 

 Mr. Greetham won it for several years, and he has 



machines, for preparing the frame timbers and boards of the thrashing 

 machines before they are laid in the above-mentioned seasoning-sheds. 

 Here, also, all the wood wheels required for the engines, thrashing 

 machines, and straw elevators (from ioo to 160 per week) are made. 

 Amongst the special tools in this department we noticed a clever spoke- 

 lathe, which is prepared to turn any shape, whether round, square, or 

 oval, according to the pattern given to copy from. The refuse timber, 

 sawdust, and shavings made by the machinery in this shop drop through 

 holes in the floor, and are used for heating the steam boilers. There is 

 still the "case-hardening" to notice, by which process a surface as hard 

 as steel is produced on such of the working parts of the engines and 

 machines as are subject to wear. This consists in heating them for a 

 number of hours in a furnace surrounded by a composition, and plunging 

 them, while hot, into cold water. 



