te 
434 THRASHING. 
were subject to them, used variously the flail, 
the loose treading of horses, the loose treading 
of oxen, and the draught-power of oxen in at- 
tachment to a machine which they called tribu- 
lum. “This machine,” says Varro, “is made of 
a board rough with stones or iron, which, with a 
driver placed upon it, or a great weight, is drawn 
by yoked cattle to beat the grain from the ears; 
or it is made of a plank, with little rollers in 
place of teeth,—and this latter kind is called 
| plostellum poenicum.” 
At what period the flail was invented is not 
known. But it gradually superseded all the 
other methods throughout a large portion of the 
Roman empire; and was for many centuries the 
| chief or only thrashing implement among most 
of the European nations; and continues still to 
maintain that place in very many of the small 
farms of Britain, and to be everywhere in request 
for the thrashing of small crops and small quanti- 
ties. See the article Fuatn. The subject of modern 
thrashing machines will be discussed in the next 
article; and the comparative merits of these and 
of the flail, and also the details of labour through- 
out the modern processes of thrashing, are no- 
ticed in the article Barn-ManaGuMmEnt. 
“Jn commencing the operation of thrashing 
with any large modern thrashing-machine, the 
power should be applied at first with caution. A 
great and rapid force of water, steam, or wind, 
at first, is apt to strain some weaker part of the 
machinery; and even if all the horses start 
strongly off at first, the course-wheel may be 
heard to creak. A full velocity of the mill 
should be produced before any corn is put in. 
In preparing the sheaves, the band should be 
loosened, and laid along the sheaf to which it 
belongs; but, as time is often limited to this 
operation of loosening the bands, many people 
who are careful prefer to throw them aside and 
thrash them by themselves afterwards ; in which 
case, the corn knot is completely loosened out, 
and the thrashing is perfect. Less careful peo- 
ple, on the other hand, cut the band with a 
knife, and allow it to pass along sidewise with 
the sheaf, when the corn knots are frequently 
unthrashed, particularly when the straw is short. 
In feeding the mill, some dexterity is requisite. 
One sheaf at a time is quite sufficient for most 
| mills, and a large sheaf iseven too much. No 
more should be presented than what the mill 
can pass through without the least apparent 
retardation of its velocity. A velocity which 
permits the man who feeds to count the strokes 
of the scutchers of the drum is too slow; and it 
| impresses one with the idea that the mill is 
fatigued, and is likely to be overcome. Then 
much of the corn will escape untouched. Oats 
with long straw in a dampish state is the most 
| apt to produce this retarding effect, though the 
moving power of the mill be quite adequate to 
its task. Wheat with strong and long straw 
will produce a similar effect; but, with wheat, 
THRASHING MACHINES. 
this effect often arises from a deficiency in the 
moving power. “Damp oat-straw sometimes 
warps itself round the upper feeding roller; and 
in some mills, this warping is got rid of by re- 
versing the motion of the feeding rollers, by 
means of a bayonet which operates on their pin- 
ions, Where this device is awanting, the warped 
straw must be cut away in pieces by a large knife, 
which should be kept at hand for the purpose. 
The sheaf should be spread evenly on the feed- 
ing-in board, for should any part of it be thicker 
than the rest, the upper feeding roller will be 
elevated by it, and the thinner parts will escape 
with the corn attached to it. To give the man 
full command of the sheaf, one only should be 
upon the table at a time, and that only replaced 
by another, when the former is removed by the 
man. This arrangement is very necessary for 
the performance of good work; but it is one 
which those who loosen the sheaves very readily 
neglect, because it causes them to be more at- 
tentive to the removal of the sheaf by the man 
who feeds in, and it prevents them throwing a 
large heap of sheaves upon the table, during the 
removal of which they got leave to rest or talk. | 
Opportunity, however, for this neglect arises 
only at the outset of the thrashing process, when 
the sheaves are piled near the mill. Besides 
laying the sheaf even, the man who feeds should 
shake the straws loose in the sheaf, and draw 
them out thinner, that the drum may have ac- 
cess to every ear of corn. A screen should be 
placed between the man’s face and the rake, to 
protect it from the grain, particularly wheat, 
which is thrown by the scutchers of the drum 
with inconceivable velocity against the rake; but | 
the screen should be removable at the will of the | 
man, that he may have an opportunity of seeing 
whether any of the straw is fastened on the teeth 
of the rake, and revolves round with it. 
fine season the grain is easily separated from the 
straw, and: few or any unfilled grains occur in 
such a season. But inacold and sunless season, 
the grains separate very reluctantly from the | 
chaff. Indeed, in the case of wheat and oats, 
the grain and chaff often go together, and the | 
awn from the barley is broken through the mid- 
dle; and, in the case of all inferior or middle- 
rate or old-fashioned mills, nothing but repeated 
thrashings will completely separate the grain of | 
wheat from the chaff. Nor will any kind or | 
number of thrashings effectually break off the 
awn of barley; and to effect this purpose, a | 
hummeller is attached to some thrashing ma- 
chines.” See the articles Barn - MANAGEMENT 
and HUMMELLER. 
THRASHING MACHINES. The earliest re- 
corded attempts to construct a modern thrash- | 
ing machine, were made by the distinguished 
Jethro Tull; but they seem to have been some- 
what crude, and they were very unsuccessful. 
The next attempt was made almost immediately 
after by Mr. Michael Menzies, brother to the 
Ina | 
