Oil Farm - Bu ildiiujs . 
7 
Tn so far, then, it \y()u1(.1 have the efl'cct ol" substiluling a superior 
class of operatives to that which had been dismissed by the change. 
Besides which, when the machine is at work some hands are 
wanted to cart the unthreshed corn to the barn, if the stack be 
distant, or to wheel it in on canvass barrows, as the seed-crops 
are collected in Holland, if it be near. Several women and boys 
are employed to loosen the sheaves and hand them to the man at 
the feeding- board, while others are busied in piling up the straw 
and dressing and measuring the corn ; and thus, although quite 
different in kind, much occupation is given to various classes of 
people, who, otherwise, might not have the opportunity of doing 
much for the relief of their families. One comfort, too, for the 
farmer attends this mode of proceeding : when the threshing is 
done, and the corn dressed up, the machine is at rest probably 
for some days, and his barn is locked up ; whereas, with half a dozen 
barns, occupied by men threshing daily with flails, his property is 
always exposed to pilfering and depredation. Besides, a good 
machine enables the farmer to thresh a quantity of grain at once, 
to meet a call upon him for money, to take advantage of a good 
price, or to provide seed ; and gives him the means of employing 
people in the time of frost and snow, so as to have them at liberty 
for field-labour when wanted. Another objection to the threshing- 
machine, which I have heard of, is that it bruises the straw too 
much. There may be something in this, where straw is to be sold 
in the London market, or used for thatching houses, which use of 
it cannot be too soon abolished as an extravagant and wasteful 
practice — at least, so long as the slate quarries of Wales and 
Westmoreland afford in such abundance a covering at once light, 
durable, and economical — but, for food, or litter in cattle-sheds, 
this can be no objection : while, on the other hand, implements 
for chopping straw or hay may be worked by being attached to 
the threshing-machine, with less expense than in any other way.* 
It is probable that the straw of the northern counties does not 
break under the operation of the threshing-machine so much as 
that of the south, because the custom does not prevail here of 
allowing the corn to stand uncut until it becomes dead ripe and 
sunburnt — a custom which is of very doubtful expediency, as grain 
makes better seed, and is found to yield more meal, when cut be- 
fore it attains its last stage of ripeness, and the straw is unques- 
tionably better for all purposes. Besides, it does not injure the 
working of the threshing-machine, instead of having both rollers 
fluted, to make the upper one solid and smooth, by which means 
the stravt" is less broken. The upper roller is so easily changed. 
* The erection of a steam-engine affords a good oppoitnnity for con- 
s-lructing an appai'atus for steaming potatoes and other food for cattle. 
