Steam Power and Thrashiiif/ Machines. 
161 
corn in marketable order. Ajrain, the tops and bottoms of stacks 
are frequently more damp than the middle ; the qualitij of the 
corn in the stack also frequently varies. Under such circum- 
stances it is impossible to obtain an average sample unless the 
whole is turned into a heap and mixed by subsequent dressing 
or dressings. There is also an objection to the complexity of 
most of those machines which are professedly intended to dress 
and sack up the corn for market. There is always a liability to 
something going wrong, and however slight the damage or dis- 
order which takes place, the waste of time and labour incidental 
to frequent short stoppages may be greater than that caused by a 
long interruption at distant intervals. So liable indeed are some 
of those complicated machines to get out of order somewhere or 
other, that in one instance I have known a whole winter to pass 
over, including many days of thrashing, without the work being 
kept on regularly for ecen one day free from some vexatious 
stoppage ! Few machines are so very bad as this ; but many 
give great trouble. Moveable double-dressing machines are also 
less serviceable than single blowers, on account of their increased 
weight. Some compact 6 horse-power single-dressing thrashing- 
machines weigh only 45 cwt., whilst some of those huge do-every- 
thing machines weigh 3^ tons. There are people to be found 
who stick so pertinaciously to any favourite of their adoption, 
that they will contend that steam power is cheaper than hand 
labour for dressing corn, or indeed any purpose. This corn- 
dressing is, however, rather a nice operation, and requires more 
care and discrimination than mere power. A double-dressing 
machine as a fixture is much to be preferred to portable machines, 
although it is only rarely that an equal sample can be obtained, 
especially of wheat, from the machine, without a due mixture of 
the whole bulk. 
A fixed thrashing-machine placed on a loft 8 feet high admits 
of double-dressing the corn, without the necessity of elevators, re- 
volving screen, or such-like complicated machinery ; and although 
a further hand-dressing may still be necessary, this is much easier 
done well than when only a single dressing has been effected by 
power, or a mere separation of the chaff and corn made. 
On the great bulk of arable farms, where steam-cultivation is 
not in progress or contemplated, a fixed steam-engine is compara- 
tively much better than a moveable power. First, the cost of a 
fixture is less than that of a moveable engine, in the proportion 
of 3 to 4, according to the prices of the leading makers. A fixed 
engine costs about 25/. per horse-power, whilst a portable engine 
costs about 33/. The price of a fixed thrashing-machine, as com- 
pared with a moveable one, is as 1 to 2 ; fixed thrashing-machines 
being made by several firms at 8/. per horse-power, whilst portable 
VOL. XXIII. M 
