at the Derby Meetincf, 1843. 
485 
travelling steam-ernrine is also employed to give motion to 
draining and other apparatus, which may only require to be put 
into occasional activity. Incidentally to this subject it may be of 
consequence to observe that the Judges have ascertained that the 
Yorkshire Fire Office will insure at 3 per cent, where these 
engines are used ; their usual charge being 2 per cent. It is be- 
lieved that other Offices effect assurances at the same rate. It is 
the opinion of the Judges, from the attention they have given to 
the furnace and boiler arrangements of these engines, that little 
or no danger is to be apprehended from their use ; and that, by 
proper representation and inspection, all the fire-offices would 
speedily release the farmer from a tax which bears heavily upon 
him and the machine-maker. At the same time it behoves the 
employer to satisfy himself that the engineer adopts the best 
known precautions against the issue of sparks or flame. Coke 
is a better and safer fuel for these engines than coal ; it is also 
cheaper wherever it can be procured at only one-fourth higher 
price than coal, weight for weight. 
Threshinrf- Machines. — Two of these machines were selected 
for trial, and taken out to Mr. White's farm. One of them, con- 
structed by Mr. Cambridge, was driven by his own travelling 
steam-engine, exerting probably at the time a power of about 
three horses. The performance of both threshing-machine and 
engine was satisfactory to the Judges, and creditable to their 
maker. It will not be expected that the Judges can assign the 
cost of threshing by steam from such short experiments as they 
are able at any time to superintend. The yield is so dependent 
on the condition and quality of the straw and corn to be threshed, 
that no rule of produce can be safely quoted in terms of the power 
and time expended. The average rate of hire, which includes 
that of the threshing-machine, has been already cited, to which 
will have to be added the cost of fuel, a variable but small item 
per quarter, and that of the assistant hands. On obtaining these 
facts from the makers, the farmer will be able to determine the 
economy of steam-threshing in his own locality, compared with the 
flail or the horse-engine. 
A wheat threshing-machine by Messrs. Ransome was distin- 
guished by some novelties which deserve notice. It was driven 
by the horse-engine previously referred to as having the con- 
necting shaft over head. Its chief characteristics consist in an 
arrangement of the beaters, so that they are fed with the straw 
and ears in a horizontal instead of a vertical direction, by which 
means the straw is delivered flat, straight, and unbroken. Thus, 
the straw after being threshed issues in a state ready for imme- 
diate tying up. The machine is also furnished with a contrivance 
for conveying and shaking the straw. The Judges cannot but 
