6 
On Fa rm - B id /din tjs. 
the offer with wonder, and rejoctil with derision. I imagine, too, 
that a tenant on an equal scale in the south would find a strong 
temptation thrown in his way to abandon his eight or ten flails, and 
to adopt the system of the north, if his landlord were to propose 
to him that, instead of the expense being incurred of building a 
great many barns, he should hold with one adapted to a threshing- 
machine, and should have all the money that would thus be saved 
to lay out in any improvement such as his farm might particularly 
require — whether furrow-draining, subsoil-ploughing, embanking, 
irrigating, or manuring; any of which would probably soon repay 
the outlay, with interest — whereas the other is a constant drain in 
the shape of repairs. 
I am not certain that I am acquainted with all the arguments 
that may be adduced in favour of the flail practice by those who 
retain it ; but such as I know I shall remark upon. A very strong 
one, however, on the other side may here be mentioned, and it is 
of sufficient power, if well founded, to overturn all the others ; 
which is, that the extra quantity of grain obtained by the thresh- 
ing of a powerful machine over that by flails is equal, with fair 
prices, to repay the entire expense of the operation. I have heard 
it said by occupiers of land in the south of England, that if they 
were to adopt our plan they should not know how to dispose of 
their threshersj who are not dexterous workmen in other branches, 
and might be thrown on the parish. This reason appears to me 
to be extremely futile and ridiculous ; for I have never yet seen 
the farm of tolerable extent on which a few extra hands could 
not be employed during the winter months to advantage, in ope- 
rations where great dexterity is not required, such as draining, 
scouring ditches, improving fences, making compost, repairing or 
levelling roads, &c. &c., in which, without being turned to the 
jiarish workhouse, such men could be occupied until they should 
find something more to their minds elsewhere, and become ab- 
sorbed in the mass of the working population. Besides, the 
introducti(m of machinery does not diminish the requisite number 
of hands to be employed, although it alters their character and 
occupation. I know nothing better calculated to preserve the 
vacant mind in a state of stationary vacuity than the sober same- 
ness of the flail's evolutions from morn to night, and from week 
to week ; but the man who wields the flail by mere animal 
strength must undergo much cultivation, and be greatly elevated 
in mind and acquirements, ere he can become the machine-maker, 
to calculate its motions and adjust its parts; and even the farm- 
servant in whose charge the machine is placed, after a short train- 
ing by the millwright, is called upon to exercise a superior degree 
of intelligence and attention in equalizing the steam, if that power 
be used, and in regulating the operations in any circumstances. 
