442 
mason-work of fall or mill-race, varies from £70 
to £110; the average may be taken at £90. The 
forming of the water-course and tail-race seldom 
exceeds the cost of making a large open drain of 
the same length; but, in many cases, there is the 
additional expense of forming a reservoir for col- 
lecting and preserving the water, which, with 
the water-course and tail-race, may occupy a 
Space equal to two acres of ground. The repairs 
of a water-wheel are trifling; and it requires 
almost no superintendence while working. If 
the supply of water is abundant, it is available 
at all times, without interrupting other labour.— 
Horse-power is facile and always available; but 
the expense of it is comparatively high, and can- 
not, without difficulty, be very closely calculated. 
The expense of a horse-wheel for a Scotch ma- 
chine, including the building to cover it, cannot 
be reckoned at less than £120; and on a farm 
extending to 250 or 300 acres, a horse-mill occa- 
sions the keeping of a pair of horses more than 
|| would be necessary for labouring the farm, if 
|| steam or water-power were employed. The ex- 
pense incurred by a pair of farm horses has been 
variously estimated by eminent agriculturists, 
who have turned their attention to the subject. 
Mr. Middleton of Middlesex estimates the ex- 
pense of food, harness, shoeing, farriery, interest 
on purchase, decline in value, and insurance, at 
£157 10s. per annum; Mr. Brown of Markle, at 
£135 1s.; Mr. Kerr of Berwick, at £120; the 
General Report of Scotland, at £94 14s. 6d.; the 
West Lothian Report, at £90; and the ‘Durem. 
ton Report, at £80. The average of these vari- 
ous estimates is £112 17s. 7d.; and this may be 
assumed as the average expense incurred by 
keeping an additional pair of horses. To this is 
to be added the expense of other two pairs of 
horses for every day the mill is employed; and 
being the severest labour to which farm horses 
are ever applied, it not only wears them out 
faster, but, from overheating them, occasions 
many diseases. Add to this, that while the 
horses are engaged at the thrashing machine, 
field-labour, however urgent, must, for the time, 
be suspended. ‘The usual diameter of the horse- 
walk for a Scotch machine is 25 feet. The best 
speed for the horses is their ordinary pace, equal 
to 23 rounds of a horse-walk of 25 feet diameter, 
per minute, or about the rate of two miles per hour. 
When a spur horse-wheel is employed, the diame- 
ter is 28 feet; and when a face-wheel, the diame- 
ter is 18 feet. The face-wheel seems preferable, 
being not only easier for the horses, but admitting 
of the least complicated and most advantageous 
mode of connection with the thrashing-machine. 
Thus, with a face-wheel, the mode of connection 
is by a horizontal lying shaft, with a large spur- 
wheel inside driving the drum-pinion, while the 
rollers and rakes, by means of a pitched chain, 
receive their motion from this lying shaft, with- 
out the intervention of other shafts and wheels.— 
Steam power is available at all times, without 
" THRASHING MACHINES. 
interrupting field-labour ; and, when water power 
cannot be had, saves the expense of a pair of 
horses. With a properly constructed thrashing 
machine, a four-horse power steam-engine, on 
the high-pressure principle, is capable of doing 
as much work as can be done with a six-horse 
engine, applied to one of inferior construction ; 
and hence it may be inferred, that, for farm 
purposes, a four-horse engine may be held asa 
sufficient power. Assuming this, the expense 
will be, for the engine, £110; for the engine- 
house and chimney-stalk, about £70; and for 
making a well, from £5 to £7. The engine re- 
quires the attendance of a handy person, who 
may also act as fireman. The cost of repairs 
does not much exceed that of the horse-mill. 
The only other item is the cost of fuel. If chew- 
coal or culm can be obtained, its price, exclusive 
of carriage, may be taken at 3s. 6d. per ton; and 
ten cwt. will be the consumpt per day of ten 
hours. : 
Whatever be the moving power used, it should 
be made to act with an equal force throughout 
the whole operation of thrashing the same stack. 
An unequal application of power deceives the 
man who has the charge of supplying the mill 
with sheaves. If he have a dread of uncertainty, 
he may put in too much at one time, when the 
machine will not be able to thrash the straw 
clean of its corn; and if, on the other hand, the 
sheaves be supplied too scantily, the wind of the 
winnowing-machine may prove too powerful, and 
blow away some of the good grain among the 
chaff. To insure regularity of motion, in the 
case of horse power, it is necessary for the man 
who drives the horses to walk round in a con- 
trary direction to them, so that he may nearly 
meet each horse twice in the course of one cir- 
cuit; and, in the case of water power, which 
will gradually fail as the height of water in the 
dam sinks down, the sluice should be drawn 
farther up, so that the same depth of water may 
always flow upon the wheel. A short time’s 
experience will enable any man who has the 
charge of a thrashing-machine to acquire these 
minutiz in practice; and the neglecting to at- 
tend to them, may cause a greater loss in a waste 
of grain, or, .what is always valuable on a 
farm, in a waste of time, than may at first sight 
be credible. When any small proportion of 
grain is either taken away among the straw, or 
blown away among the chaff, whenever a stack 
is thrashed, it is not only itself lost in the form of 
grain, but may afterward appear in the shape of 
growing corn among a green crop,—the manure 
for which is seldom fermented, but is carted out 
of the courts and applied to the land; and it may | 
give rise to a very injurious fama against the 
credit of the farmer’s management. 
Hand thrashing-machines are now made, of 
various sizes and of excellent construction, by 
some of the principal agricultural implement 
manufacturers, for use on small farms; and in 
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