1 Ocr., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 341 
SCRAPING. 
In the operation of removing the seed, many methods are employed—some 
very primitive, others involving more costly mechanical appliances. The selection 
of appliances for removing the seed will, toa material extent, depend upon the 
state of the crop when harvested. If the corn has been cut in the immature 
seed stage, then the appliances best fitted for broom corn in full seed will not 
be the most useful. 
Growers of small areas or experimental plots may content themselves with 
such primitive appliances as may present themselves, such’ as a curry comb, 
saw-teeth, or a steel comb for drawing the fibre through. The most useful 
form of « primitive appliance that I have tried is the cleft stick, which is 
simple and effective for small lots. The method is to drive a stake into the 
ground, cleave the wood down the centre to sufficient distance, putthe broom- 
head in the cleft, draw it through, and at the same time with the left hand erasp 
the top of the stake to put such constriction on the cleft as is necessary to press 
the seed out. 
This operation is rapidly performed, and, as 
D 1 j 2 primitive method, is much in 
advance of any other I am acquainted with, 
and has the merit of being costless. 
The mechanical appliances best ada pted will depend upon whether the crop 
consists of ripened and fully formed seed-heads, or of heads in which little or no 
seed is matured. In the former case, an ordinary peg-drum thresher will be 
found most effective; while in the latter a saw-tooth cylinder scraper will be the 
most useful implement. 
In cleaning brush on which the seed is formed, the process of cleaning is 
somewhat easier than when only the husks of green seed are to be dealt with. 
Thus a peg-drum thresher can be cheaply made, to drive by hand or power—the 
latter for preference—by either driving nails into narrow battens, leaving about 
one inch and a-half projecting, and then fastening the strips firmly on to a 
barrel or cylinder properly centred, and worked, if for hand, by spur gear, or, 
if by power, by a simple pulley arranged to give due speed. 
Tf for treating immature brush, as is mostly the practice adopted by the 
American growers, who produce the highest-priced corn, the material must be 
scraped off by saw-teeth scrapers designed for the purpose. Of course, the peg 
drum will, to some extent, do for this class of brush; but itis a slower and harder 
task to remove the husks than if a properly constructed tooth-scraper 18 
employed. In my own case I was fortunate enough in possessing an old cotton- 
gin that in my boyhood I had often helped to feed when cotton was king in 
West Moreton. From the numerous narrow oblong saws I constructed my 
scraper, by fastening them on to strips of inch-by-ineh hardwood, and. these 
on to a drum made from a pine log about 4 feet long. When working it 
by hand I put spur gear on, but usually fixed the pulley to drive 
by pony gear. The average farmer’s ingenuity will not be heavily 
eel to construct such a machine as is needed for either of these 
machines. The rough framework necessary to suspend the barrel can be easily 
formed from a few pieces of scantling well spiked together or, for preference, 
bolted on, as the vibration has a damaging effect on nails unless clinched. The 
speed at which the machine revolves also points to a necessity of the 
construction being sound. A. strong guard and rest should be put up, so as to 
form some protection to the person holding the brush over the teeth. Some- 
times, if handling crooked brush, the material will tangle in the teeth of the 
machine. Under such circumstances, it is better to let go rather than get a 
pull over the rough spikes or teeth. 
In constructing the machine it is well to close the three sides up, either 
with bagging or boards, to prevent the dust blowing back ax much as possible 
on the workers. Working with a drum such as I have described, giving room 
for two men or boys to hold the brush on, and one lad to hand up to them, the 
