On  the  Construction  of  Farm-Buildings. 
19  7 
the  middle  of  the  roads,  between  the  rows  of  stacks,  may  be  laid 
tram-ways,  along  which  a lad  can  wheel  the  sheaves  under  the  roof 
to  the  sheaf  elevator,  without  the  employment  of  carts  and  horses. 
For  greater  convenience  in  making  the  stacks  and  taking  them 
down,  they  are  sometimes  placed  in  an  excavation,  so  that  the 
bottoms  of  the  stacks  are  on  a level  with  the  surface  of  the  road. 
This  arrangement  may  be  seen  at  West  Lambrook  farm,  be- 
longing to  Lord  Portman,  under  the  able  management  of  his 
Lordship's  steward,  Mr.  Parsons,  to  whose  mechanical  genius  we 
are  also  indebted  for  the  plan  of  the  sheaf  elevator  here  described, 
and  some  other  parts  of  the  machinery.  The  railway  to  convey 
the  sheaves  to  the  machine  is  seen  in  use  at  Mr.  Morton’s  farm, 
on  Lord  Ducie’s  estate  at  Whitfield,  and  is  intended  to  be  used 
at  the  Royal  Agricultural  College,  whence  the  plan  of  the  staddles 
is  taken. 
Threshing  House  ( d ). — The  sheaves,  being  untied,  are  laid  on 
the  elevator,  which  is  composed  of  a number  of  boards  jointed 
together  at  their  edges  by  iron  staples,  which  are  caught  by  arms 
on  spindles  above  and  at  the  bottom,  and  carried  round  in  an 
endless  series.  The  untied  sheaves — being  laid  on  projections 
like  shelves,  formed  to  receive  them,  on  the  exterior  of  this  sort 
of  jointed  web — ascend,  and  are  successively  delivered  into  the 
machine  above  stairs,  which  thrashes  them,  the  corn  dropping 
down  through  the  winnowing  machine  below,  whence  it  is  again 
taken  up  by  the  corn  elevator  and  delivered  into  the  separator, 
whence  it  passes  into  four  sacks  suspended  beneath,  containing 
the  various  qualities — 1,  seeds  of  weeds  and  refuse  ; 2,  tail  corn  ; 
3 and  4,  marketable  samples.  By  means  of  the  straw-rake, 
which  consists  of  several  rows  of  wooden  teeth  fixed  on  an  endless 
web,  the  straw  is  raked  forwards  into  the  straw-barn,  being  drawn 
over  another  web  travelling  in  an  opposite  direction,  which 
carries  back  to  the  winnower  any  grains  which  may  have  escaped 
in  the  straw.  The  chaff  is  blown  forwards  by  the  winnower  into 
a chaff-house  below,  where  it  serves  for  litter,  the  dust  mixed 
with  it  rendering  it  unwholesome  for  horse  feed,  for  which  it  is 
sometimes  improperly  used. 
For  the  straw-rake  the  writer  can  refer  to  West  Lambrook 
farm,  mentioned  above  ; for  the  rest  of  the  arrangement  he  may 
instance  the  Royal  Agricultural  College  at  Cirencester.  The 
separator,  acting  on  the  same  principle  as  the  flour-dresser,  is  an 
invention  of  Mr.  Clyburn,  of  Uley. 
Straw-barn,  Granary , 8fc.  ( d , e,  p,  q)- — The  straw,  being  thus 
delivered  into  the  straw-barn,  may  be  either  raked  away  by 
women  to  the  farther  end  for  future  use,  or  be  immediately  cut 
up  into  short  chaff  for  feeding,  or  into  a longer  length  for  litter — 
the  first  falling  through  the  trapdoor  straight  into  the  bin  below 
