OR Agricultural Implements. 



629 



most machines bruise the grain and destroy its power to g-ermi- 

 nate. The assertion that making barley could be threshed by 

 machine would, in many parts of England, simply be disbelieved. 

 Yet where the best machines are used, the maltsters no longer 

 object to barley so threshed ; so that it is most important to test 

 all threshing-machines with barley. Enough^ however, has been 

 now demonstrated to convince farmers that they should no longer 

 buv blindly the threshing-machine which comes nearest to hand, 

 buying thereby double or perhaps treble labour for the same or 

 worse work, and leaving their barley, which is, probablv, half their 

 corn-crop, to the tedious work of the flail, though the labourers 

 themselves begin to regard that work as too irksome. 



There remains only in this class of machinery to apply the test 

 of economy, and compare the cost of threshing by iHail, bv horse, 

 and by steam. In the two former cases the rick must first be 

 removed into the barn by eight men, a boy, and two horses — I take 

 the numbers as they have been employed on my ov,n farm, be- 

 cause it is difficult to ascertain such figures, and the comparison 



will at least be a fair one : — 



s. d, 



8 men, at 15. 4f/ 10 8 



1 boy 0 10 



2 horses 6 0 



Cost of barning . . 17 6 



The price of threshing wheat by flail varies, with the vield and 

 the district, from 25. ^d. to 4^. a quarter. Three shillings then 

 will not be an unfair average. If the rick hold forty quarters, \^e 

 must add bd. for barning, and the cost will be 85. hd. per quarier. 



In threshing with the unimproved machines, I find on inquiry 

 that neither mv neighbours nor myself have hitherto got out more 

 on an average than 13 quarters a-day. The supposed rick would 

 take, therefore, three days to thresh : — 





£. 



s. 



d. 



5 men, at \s. 4d. 



. . 'o 



6 



8 



4 women, at Sd. . 



. . 0 



0 



8 



i bov 





0 



6 





0 



12 



0 





1 



2 



0 









3 



3 clays' threshing . 



. . 3 



6 



0 







17 



6 





£4 



3 



G 



The old 

 a quarter. 



system of horse-machines has cost us, therefore, 2^. 

 But improvement has been carried further: for 



