330 f-Fcar and Tear of Agricnltural Steam-Engines. 
His seven-horse single-blast machine has cost : — 
£. s. d. 
1854. Straps, &c 0 12 9 
1855. Brasses and straps, repairs 4 3 0 
1856. Shaker-brackets, straps, brasses, &c 411 0 
1857. Machines overhauled and general repairs, renewal of 
brasses, &c 1011 0 
1858. New drum and concave, general repairs, painting, and 
wearing parts renewed 27 5 0 
1859. Straps, &c 12 6 
1860. New brasses and straps, repairs by carpenter, <S:c. .. 6 17 0 
1861. Machine overhauled, new wearing parts, &c. .. .. 9 18 G 
8Z. 2s. Id. per annum for eight years. £65 0 9 
The average of our returns is from 8/. to 13Z. a year for an 
eight-horse-power single-blast machine working two days a week. 
Besides the items given there is the cost of driving-straps and 
of waterproof covers for both engine and machine. The cost of all 
these depends entirely on the care taken and on the amount of 
exposure to wet. Either a cloth or a strap doubled up wet will soon 
be spoiled. We have known a good strap, costing 5/., last three 
years with pretty constant work, but a neighbouring letter-out of 
machines estimates his expenses in driving-stiaps for one machine 
at 4Z. a year, and in waterproof covers at '11. 
Finishing machines, constructed with a double, or often a 
treble blast, have such numerous bearings and driving-straps, 
and are so complicated, that the cost of their repairs has been in 
some cases enormous. Considering the extra power, or the slower 
feeding, which they require, and that corn can be finished by 
hand for \d. per quarter, we doubt whether their employment 
is generally economical. 
At all events they require to be simplified, and improvements 
such as those of Messrs. Garrett and Son, who obtain a blast of 
air by a fan fixed to the drum spindle, deserve notice and encou- 
ragement. Mr. J. C. Willsher has also, with the same object, 
lately patented an arrangement for driving the shakers and 
cavings-screen, either with or without a riddle-box and corn- 
screen, from one crank spindle and with one strap. Messrs. 
Clayton and Shuttleworth have also introduced a new elevator, 
consisting of spades or scoops fixed on the same spindle as the 
blower, which by revolving rapidly throws the corn up into the 
second dresser and awns the barley, or chobs the wheat, so as to 
dispense with the straps of the former elevator and barley-awner. 
Messrs. Ransome's adjustable rotary screen, though ingenious, 
can hardly be classed among those novelties which tend to sim- 
plify the machine. 
A survey of the vast amount of ingenuity which has been 
directed by different makers to the working parts of the machine 
