JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 16, 1881. ] 
497 
the case of settled fine weather in harvest much corn may be 
sometimes thrashed in the field without stacking, in which case 
the straw may be stacked or trussed for sale simultaneously with 
the thrashing, which is a great saving of time and labour, im¬ 
proving condition of the straw and chaff. Both of these in 
this country, and particularly in some districts, are valuable 
according to their condition ; but it may be remembered that 
in America the straw is valued but little, the ears of Wheat 
being clipped off in the field as the crop is standing and thrashed 
only for the sake of the grain. In Hungary and other countries 
the straw in many cases is considered of little use except for fuel 
to feed the steam engines connected with thrashing out the grain. 
In the harvest of 1879 we saw farms where the value of the straw 
was quite equal to that of the grain after being thrashed, even in 
this country. To return, however, to the construction of the ma¬ 
chines, the drums are made of wrought iron, with best tough ash 
wood beaters armed with the patent rolled steel-ribbed beater 
plates. The drums are accurately balanced. The drum can be 
made entirely of iron, but such construction is too rigid. The 
drum spindles are of steel, very strong, with long bearings, which 
run on brasses fitted with improved syphon cups. The patent 
drum protector or safety feed board is fitted to all machines 
which are made for feeding by hand. This is a necessity imposed 
by Act of Parliament dated 16th April, 1878. There is now a 
patent apparatus for self-feeding, which can be attached for use 
to machines of any size or width. Any of the machines can also 
be fitted with special drums and apparatus for thrashing Beans, 
Rape, Mustard, and Turnip seed, as well as the other varieties of 
corn and seeds. The straw shakers are an important adjunct to 
this machinery, and are worked by a single crank shaft, the straw 
being alternately tossed up vertically and moved forward hori¬ 
zontally, which is the best action for separating the grain and 
chaff from it. If desired, however, double crank shakers are 
supplied for use in those districts where the straw is required to 
be sent to market; the shakers are made to deliver it in as straight 
a condition as possible for trussing off the machine. These ma¬ 
chines are also fitted with Barley awner and smutter, consisting 
of a shaft studded with steel knives, and adjustable beaters, re¬ 
volving in a cylindrical iron casing. The corn from the awner is 
passed by an elevator into a second dressing apparatus, consisting 
of a series of riddles, through which the corn percolates while 
being acted on by a blast for carrying away the beards, chaff, and 
smut rubbed off in the awning process. On dropping through 
the last riddle the corn enters the patent adjustable rotary 
screen, by which it is sorted into three qualities, the size of the 
grains of each being determined by the adjustment of the wires 
of the screen, which is very easily effected. Thus the process of 
finishing corn, its separation, cleaning, &c., is completed, doing 
away entirely with the old-fashioned use of the various machines 
for winnowing, hummelling, screening, See., so that the separation 
of Barley from Oats, or any other mixed corn, will be delivered 
off the machine in a separated and divided sample fit for market. 
Nor need there be any complaint of the unequal mixture and 
conditions of corn, because this has always been a matter in the 
hands of the home farmer ; for by his direction any part of a 
rick or mow of corn may be thrashed separately, so that any¬ 
thing likely to interfere with the regularity of the sample and its 
condition rests entirely with the farmer himself. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour may now be employed in preparing and seeding the 
land for a Turnip crop in the morning, but in the afternoon hay may 
be stacked in the best possible condition in hot sunny weather. This 
is an old-fashioned way of proceeding, and we know that let the 
weather be ever so fine hay is not in good condition until midday. In 
all cases where a catch crop has been removed the land should not 
be ploughed unless it can be worked fine and seeded the same day. 
Hand Labour .—Women will be employed in weeding and cutting 
up Thistles and Docks, in fact all kinds of weeds except those which 
can be pulled up, or the flower buds pulled off by Koldmoor’s weed¬ 
ing machine, drawn by one horse, which is the best and only substi¬ 
tute in weeding for hand labour. The men and women too will be 
required to assist in trimming the Thorn hedges when hindered from 
more important work, but at all events quickset hedges should be 
clipped before midsummer, while the young shoots are soft and easily 
cut up to that time. In trimming banks and borders without quick- 
set plants these should always be cut up whilst green and given to 
young cattle, breeding sows in the yards, also to milch cows where 
the milk is sold ; and if they get cotton cake at the same time the 
animals will do well and make better manure than while feeding on 
roots and cake in the winter months. In those cases where there is a 
good plant of Hogvveed, coarse Grass, Milk Thistles, Parsley, (fee., 
and the first growth cut up in the beginning of May, the second 
growth will very soon be ready. A man or two should now be em¬ 
ployed purposely for cutting green fodder for all the animals of the 
farm which feed upon it, including the team horses ; the horse’s labour 
is then never delayed by the carters being obliged to cut up green 
fodder for them. Straw should now be drawn and piled up ready for 
thatching where required, and this work is very conveniently done if 
showers should hinder other work. We wish also to recommend the 
practice of teaching some of the farm labourers thatching, in order 
that the thatching may be done immediately it is required, instead of 
the bad plan of waiting the time and opportunity for a journeyman 
thatcher to come and do the work when it suits him and his helpers. 
We referred last week to matters connected with making and stacking 
the hay, such as Clover, Saintfoin, &c.; but with regard to park and 
upland pasture hay it is a different matter altogether, especially if 
the summer continues dry and the bottom grass very short. In very 
hot sunshine if the hay is tedded the short undergrowth dries up in a 
little time, and the horse rake will not touch the short grass, and 
much is lost altogether, whereas if it is left in swathe the long and 
short grass dries together in a mass, and can be carted to rick with- , 
out loss, as it makes very quickly by once turning in swathe and with¬ 
out any tedding. Some men will be employed in hoeing Mangolds, 
Potatoes, dec. ; and where the Mangold seed had been dibbled, or in 
fact whenever it is very thick in the rows, women should be employed 
in singling behind hoers, as it can be done with much more regu¬ 
larity by hand than by the hoe. The horse-hoeing should be con¬ 
tinued let the weather be ever so dry, as frequent hoeing is found 
to expedite the growth of the plants. If the Mangold plants make 
slow growth give the land about 1£ cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre, 
sown broadcast if the weather should be dry. Cattle Carrots should 
be freed from weeds immediately they are strong enough to bear the 
hoe ; and in case the Red Intermediate sort forms part of the produce, 
and there is a probable sale for them in the locality as food for the 
people, they may be left doubly thick in the lines and pay well for 
selling. In the event of gaps and loss of plant in the Mangolds, 
Cabbage, or Kohl ltabi, plants should be planted, but they must be 
set at the back of the spade, and the land opened deeply to admit 
strong plants and to reach the moisture of the subsoil ; because if 
the ground is dry, and especially if it is hard, spade-planting is the 
only successful mode of saving the plants. 
Live Stoci.—Of all the animals of the farm swine are generally 
much neglected, but like other animals they will pay for care in 
selecting, and we recommend sorts adapted for producing pork or 
bacon as the case may be. In fact it is a question of early ma¬ 
turity almost entirely, for those which will make the most growth 
and yield most weight for age in general give at the same time the 
best mixed proportions of lean and fat, the importance of which is 
great either in bacon or pork. The question of size is easily met by 
early slaughter if pork of light weight is required. The cross-bred 
animals between the large Yorkshire white and the Berkshire are 
best adapted for general purposes, these being good breeders as to 
number and fatten readily. In mating the animals we prefer the 
Berkshire sow and the white Yorkshire male, but the sow should 
not be put to the boar until nine or ten months old. Sheep have 
in many cases been short of grass and green fodder; the weather, 
however, on the whole having been dry they have not done badly. 
It is important to notice that the lambs now sent fat to the London 
market and reared from long-woolled ewes, including Leicesters and 
and Cotswold, do not take so well with the butchers, especially the 
twin lambs, being hollow and loose in the coat. It is therefore recom¬ 
mended that a horned Dorset or Somerset ram be selected for service 
in those flocks which are intended to produce lambs for fattening. 
We have sent horned ewes into the midland counties for the purpose 
of breeding horned tups for service in the long-woolled flocks, the 
result of which has been highly approved. In a short time the sale of 
rams for service in the various down flocks will commence, and for 
mating with the off-going ewes of the flock we recommend the use 
of rams of another description from that of the ewes, keeping, how¬ 
ever, steadily in view the object of early maturity both as to fatten¬ 
ing and weight for age. Thus we would use Oxford down tups with 
Hampshire down ewes ; and Hampshire down tups with Dorset and 
Somerset cross-bred stock, as well as with horned ewes themselves, 
at least as regards the off-going part of the flocks. 
Flies and Horses. —The incessant torment which flies inflict 
upon horses during such hot weather as we recently endured may 
not have occurred to the minds of many. Though a minor misery 
