A Solution Suggested. 39 



of the shrunken grain, dirt and weed seeds out, so that the 

 grain can be delivered to the farmer practically clean; not 

 perhaps to the extent that a specially built fanning mill would, 

 but sufficiently clean so that the crops of the country and the 

 land can ultimately be practically cleared of those foul g^fowths 

 by the farmer exercising reasonable care to prevent these .seeds 

 from getting back into the soil. And if farmers ' would 

 insist upon thershermen so cleaning their grain they would 

 aid very materially in accomplishing just what your Depart- 

 ment desires. - :' .- 



"This is accomplished simply by permitting the threshed 

 grain before being delivered from the. machine -to pass over 

 a sieve of proper mesh for the removal of these foreign items." 



This opinion is supported by similar statements from practically 

 all of the manufacturers of the threshing machines in common use in 

 Western Canada. A few of these statements fpUow : — 



1. "As a matter of fact under normal conditions the 

 modern threshing machine, if properly handled, is capable 

 of cleaning grain very well without having a special cleaning 

 attachment, but this requires skill and care in the adjustment 

 of the sieves and the fans and not crowding the separator to 

 its fullest capacity, which the average thresher does not like 

 to do, neither does the farmer because he wants the thresher 

 to finish his job and get off the premises at the earliest possible 

 moment." 



2. "We have for some years been doing just what you 

 asked for in supplying an attachment to our separators, 

 which are shipped to the Argentine Republic, where I under,^ 

 stand they have no elevators in which to clean the grain, but 

 it is taken direct from the fields to the railways in bags and 

 subsequently delivered on bo^rd vessels at the ports of ship- 

 ment to Europe." 



3. "The. machines as constructed at present can clean 

 the grain if they really have to, it cohsists of the way they are 

 operated." 



A. "We are aware of this and have been furnishing our 

 machines with a screen in the bottom of the shoes of the 

 separators where the grain travels over and the bulk of the 

 seed is separated from the grain and comes out by itself." 



6. "All the threshing machines that we -make are fitted 

 with a screen for taking the weed seeds out of the grain. In 

 a number of cases we have found that the threshers have closed 

 up this screen and are not using it. The screen consists of 

 a 3*2 inch perforated piece of zinc and will take out virtually all 

 weed seeds that will pass through this size perforation. A 

 larger perforation than this would allow small grains of wheat 

 to go through. The machines are arranged to close off this 

 screen when threshing flax, as a considerable amount of the 

 small flaxseed will pass through this perforation." 



