THRESHING-MACHINE. 



cutter, as well as a corn grinding-mill with ftones, for farm 

 life, attached, and wrought or not, at pleafure. 



It is perhaps only in places fituated in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of a colliery, and where, from the cheapnefs of fuel, 

 they are capable of being worked at a very trifling expence, 

 that fteam can be had recourfe to as the moving power of 

 tliefe machines. See Stkam, and SrEAM-Engine. 



With regard to fmall machines, it is faid in the Eait 

 Lothian Agricultural Report, that they have been intro- 

 duced there, upon a reduced fcale, at a price fo low as 

 40/. : that thefe fmall machines, having little work to do, 

 and that little being, in general, done flovvly, anfwer the 

 purpofe tolerably well ; but though cheaper in the firft in- 

 ilance, they are, in the end, more expenfive than larger ones, 

 a certain degree of ftrength being abfolutely requifite to 

 do the work perfeftly. If the parts of the machine are 

 below that degree of ilrength, the work is either ill done, 

 or the machine is deftroyed, by being exerted above what it 

 is able to bear. 



The writer of the Eflex Agricultural Survey too Itates, 

 that in that diilricl at prefent many are made by Balls of 

 Norfolk, the price fifty guineas, and do their work very 

 clean and well for all forts of corn, but do not drefs. They 

 liave been apphed to white clover, and have done it to the 

 fatisfaftion of the growers, by palling it through twice or 

 thrice. In one eredled by Mr. Vaizey, which is worked by 

 horfes, one man feeds, two fupply, a boy drives, and two 

 men clear away the ftraw. He has threfhed lixty quarters 

 of wheat with it in eighteen hours. It coft 52/. 10^., and 

 10/. putting up; the (bed added about 20/., two win- 

 nowing macliines 15/. ip.; in all, complete, about lOo/. 

 But in this a greater number of horfes are ufed than are 

 noticed above. The owner has no fault to find with its 

 performance, but is very well fatisfied with it. He has 

 applied it to cobbing white clover with great fuccefs ; by 

 pafling it thrice through the mill, he got from three jags, 

 feven bufliels of clean feed in four hours. And one built 

 by Dickfon of Ipfwich, for Mr. Sanxter, goes with two or 

 four horfes, and coft fifty guineas. It is fuppofed that it 

 will threfh twenty quarters of wheat per diem. But it is 

 now fifty-five guineas, put up and ready to work. Two 

 horfes work it, without hard labour. The laft year's 

 wheat, which was very badly threfhed at 7^-. per quarter, 

 was done by this machine perfeftly well. Alfo at Little 

 Wakering, Dr. Afplin has a machine which the writer faw 

 working with one horfe, which moved with great eafe, driven 

 by a little girl ; one man and two boys work it, and it does 

 three quarters of wheat in a day. The writer examined the 

 ilraw ior about a quarter of an hour, and did not find a 

 Cngle kernel in it. The price is fixty guineas. The con- 

 ftruftion in this machine varies from the others he has feen, 

 iu the wheels which communicate the motion. The doftor 

 threfhes only wheat with it, though it will do for all forts 

 of grain. He thinks it anfwers greatly, and is perfeftly 

 fatisfied with it. It was made by Turbot, Bankfide, Weft- 

 minller, but they are now made by Jones, Clement's-Lane, 

 Clare-market, London. 



There are many other perfons who put up thefe machines 

 at an equally reafonable rate, and fo as to work witli much 

 perfeflion. 



Where machines of tliis fort coft about one hifndred 

 guineas, the annual expence m iiitereft of capital and re- 

 pairs cannot be more than from 10/. to 12/. at moft, 

 except in the expences of teams and tlie labour of the pcr- 

 ions employed in the execution of the bufinefs and work 

 ;!bout them. 



The expenfive machines which have rollers for rubbing 



out the grain inftead of beaters, are thought in general t(» 

 perform the bufinefs in the moft perfeft manner, though 

 they require more power to work tliem. 



It is, however, thought by fome to be utterly impoflible 

 to build threftiing-machines which will do juftice to the 

 owners for any fucli fum as 50/., or thereabouts, as their 

 durabihty and fuccefs depend materially on tlieir firm- 

 nefs, ftrength, folidity, and other circumilances of the fame 

 nature, which are by no lueans attainable for any fuch 

 money. Yet many of thefe fmall machines of one or two 

 horfe power, are iaid to perform their work well, and at 

 the rate of fix quarters of wheat, and the relative propor- 

 tions of other forts of grain, in the courfe of the day. They 

 are ftated to be made in feveral different diftrifts, at the 

 prices of from thirty to fifty guineas, fo as to threfti well at 

 nearly the above rate, and to have, in fome inftanccs, other 

 additions, fuch as chaff-cutters, &c. made to them. In 

 particular cafes, they are thought not to break the wheat- 

 ftraw fo much as tlie flail ; and though wheat and beans are 

 moftly well threftied by them, barley is under the neceffity 

 of being often twice paffed through fuch machines, as feen 

 above. They do not drefs in general ; but fometimes head 

 feed clover in a pretty perfeft manner, as noticed already. 



Small threftiing-machines have likewife been conftrufted 

 fo as to be wrought by hand, in fome diftrifts, both in the 

 northern and iouthern parts of the kingdom, and been af- 

 ferted by fome to perform their work in a clean and fatis- 

 faftory manner ; but from their moftly wanting that de- 

 gree of velocity, in being wrought in this manner, which 

 is eflential to good work ot this kind, they have not yet be- 

 come in any way general. Indeed, in fome diftrifts in the 

 fouth, the working of them by the hand not being found to 

 fucceed well in aclual praftice, the ufual feeding rollers 

 have been applied with the horfe-tackle, at the additional 

 charge of about 20/., which has enabled them, it is faid, 

 to do the work properly, and in an eafy manner, even by 

 the power of one horfe. Where the teeth of the iron 

 wheels in fuch machines have been found too fine for the in- 

 creafed force made ufe of in this way, vertical wooden 

 wheels and pinions have been put in their place, which have 

 contributed to the ilrength and preferved the fimplicity of 

 the machinery. 



Threfhing-machines have now been known, and in fome 

 meafure employed, in the northern parts of this country for 

 more than half a century, and are at prefent very general in 

 thofe that are any way improved ; but in the more fouthern 

 diftrifts, they have only been attended to, in any confider- 

 able degree, for the fpace of the laft thirty or forty years, 

 yet their ufe and application are faft becoming general 

 among the more extenfive farmers whofe farms ai-e of the 

 arable kind. In ftiort, it is not improbable but that in a 

 little time the machine will be the moft prevalent method of 

 threftiiiig out corn. And it has been fuggefted, that panfh 

 machines of this nature, in centrical fituations, would per- 

 haps not be lefs ufeful or convenient than paulli mills, while, at 

 the fame time, they might be eafily fo regulated as to be 

 rendered of great general benefit to the community, as well 

 as advantageous in the way of private fpeculadon to indi- 

 viduals. Something of this fort is faid to be already the 

 cafe in fome diftrifts of the North, and would, it is beheved, 

 be defirable in all, for the convenience and accommodation of 

 the fmall farmer ; as the fame conveyance that brought the 

 corn to be threftied, might take back the ftraw and grain, 

 and in this way little wafte of labour or time be fuftained, 

 while the faving would be confiderable and certain. 



It may be noticed alfo, that in all cafes where threftiing- 

 machines are made ufe of, tjiey fiiould be well fuitcd to the 



4 D ? estcnt 



