farmers suppose. The costs of flail- thrashing 
and of machine-thrashing, indeed, cannot, with 
perfect accuracy, be very directly compared; for 
the flail-thrashing of long-strawed corn is accom- 
plished in the same length of time as the flail- 
thrashing of short-strawed corn, while the ma- 
chine-thrashing of corn is nearly proportionate 
in speed to the shortness- of the straw; so that 
if the cost of thrashing one crop with the ma- 
chine should be one-fourth less than with the 
flail, the cost of thrashing another crop with it 
might be one-fourth more. Yet, on the assump- 
tion that the crop is of medium character, the 
following calculation may be adopted :—“ The 
quantity of corn which a man and six women 
could take into the barn and thrash, in a short 
winter day, would not exceed 22 quarters. That 
quantity may be considered good work for that 
number of people, with an ordinary six-horse 
power thrashing-mill, propelled by an abundant. 
supply of water. The wages of six women at 8d. 
per day, and the man, being a trusty one, at 2s., 
would give 6s. for taking in and thrashing 22 
quarters of grain, or 3}d. per quarter. It would 
take four women and the same man a day in 
winter to clean completely and measure 22 quar- 
ters of grain, that is 4s. 8d., or 24d. per quarter. 
Both would give 53d. per quarter. The ma- 
chinery of the mill, with its ark, dam-sluices, and 
fore and back leads, for bringing to and taking 
away the water from the mill, could not be exe- 
cuted for less than £200 of outlay of capital, 
which, at 7 per cent. per annum for tear and 
wear of machinery, and interest of capital sunk, 
would be £14 a-year; and if the farm yielded 
only 370 quarters of grain, that would be 9d. per 
| quarter expense, which, added to the 53d., would 
give a total of 142d. per quarter of expense in 
thrashing a crop by means of a water-power 
thrashing-mill. Now the ordinary amount of 
thrashing corn by the flail is 13;d. per quarter ; 
and allowing the barn-man four women one day 
to clean the 22 quarters of grain, his own wages 
being included in the allowance, their wages will 
be 2s. 8d., or 15d. per quarter. Both will be 142d. 
per quarter. No expense of taking in the crop 
to the barn, in the case of thrashing with the 
flail, would be incurred, because, when such a 
mode is adopted, the thrashing-barn is placed 
conveniently to the stacks for the purpose. 
Hence, on the score of mere pecuniary saving, 
unless a farm were to produce more than 370 
quarters of grain, it would scarcely be worth 
while to lay out capital for the erection of a six- 
horse power thrashing- machine, propelled by 
water-power.” —| Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 
twre.| Yet the thrashing-machine, quite irre- 
spective of its immediate work, wields a great 
and valuable controlling power over the economy 
of the farm; it affords an ample supply of forage 
and litter, at the farmer’s will, for the live stock; 
it permits a superior command of labour for the 
field, in adaptation to the exigencies of weather ; 
BARN MANAGEMENT. 
and, especially, it commands the time and the 
market for the safety and the sale of grain. 
These advantages are worth far more than the 
mere costs of thrashing ; and they rise in magni- 
tude and value proportionably to the amount of 
the cereal produce of a farm. 
When the supply of unthrashed corn in the 
barn is exhausted, the contents of a rick must 
be taken in from the rick-yard. If these are re- 
moved with a cart, the ricks have been built so 
far apart from one another as to permit with 
ease the passing among them of a loaded cart; 
and the sheaves are forked from the rick to the 
cart, and again from the cart into the barn. But 
when they are otherwise removed, a more com- 
plex process is necessary. A large sheet of coarse 
linen cloth or of thin canvass is spread on the 
ground at the foot of the rick, to receive the 
sheaves as they are thrown down; part of the 
thatch of the rick, if not too wet, is spread be- 
neath to soften the fall of the sheaves; and a few 
of the sheaves are laid along the exterior sides of 
the sheet, to prevent it from being ruffled by the 
wind or trodden by the workers. The man who 
has charge of the barn-work, lifts the sheaves 
with a light fork in an opposite course to that in 
which they were built, and pitches them upon 
the sheet ; one of the barn- women loads the 
sheaves upon corn-barrows ; two or three women, 
each using a barrow, according to the extent of 
the work, and the distance to the barn, wheel 
the laden barrows up the gangway into the barn; 
and two pack the sheaves into convenient order 
for thrashing, and put aside for the earliest 
thrashing all sheaves which have become loose 
in the handling. In some instances, the old 
method of carrying the sheaves on the back is 
still practised; and in others, hand-barrows of 
canvass are used instead of corn wheel-barrows. | 
When the thrashing-machine is driven by horse- 
power, the carriage of corn from the rick to the | 
barn is advantageously effected by horse and 
cart, and may go on simultaneously with the 
thrashing ; for as three pairs of horses are re- 
quired for the mill, field horse-labour, on every 
moderately - sized farm, must be in abeyance. 
whenever the mill is at work. Under this ar- 
rangement, only four women are required; but, 
when the mill is driven by water, wind, or steam 
power, six women, with the superintending man, 
are needed; and though they cannot simultane- 
ously carry and thrash, yet they can do both, for 
one rick, in the shortest winter day. After the 
whole rick has been lifted, the shed corn upon 
the sheet is carefully collected, and all grain- 
straws upon and around the site of the rick are 
raked together and saved. Should any of the 
sheaves at either the top or the bottom of the 
rick be damaged, they are placed aside and 
thrashed separately from the rest of the corn ; for 
if, through carelessness or inadvertence, they are 
not thus treated, they will seriously deteriorate the 
sample and price of the produce at the market. 
