PRINCIPLE OF THE THRESHING-MACHINE.

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fortable in his old age, and enabled to provide for his family, by the voluntary donations of his grateful countrymen. Numerous patents have since been taken out, for inventions and improvements, by which this machine has been brought to great perfection.

The following wood-cut will make the principle of the threshing-machine quite clear. At A are fluted iron. rollers between which the unthreshed corn passes, at rather a slow rate; B is the cylinder or drum, containing four projections or beaters. These are bars of wood

E

covered with iron, and revolve rapidly. Grain, chaff, and stems, all pass over this cylinder, and are thrown forward into the second compartment, where they are acted upon and shaken by four rakes, placed on the hollow cylinder C, and moving rapidly in the direction of the arrow. Here the grain and chaff fall down through the wire meshes into a winnowing machine, and the straw is carried forward to another cylinder D, where it is again shaken by rakes, and then thrown out at the end of the machine. Sometimes this last cylinder has brushes fixed to it, which sweep back any of the corn or chaff which may have fallen into the cavity at E.

The threshing-machines commonly used in the eastern

counties, are, for the most part, such as belong to individuals who gain their livelihood by taking them from one farm to another, and working them at so much per quarter. The farmer finds horses and men, but the owner superintends and feeds the machine. In these instruments the beaters-four, five, or six in numberare placed round the drum, and strike upon the straw, which is passed along a feeding-board. The concave describes the third part of a circle, and is formed of iron ribs and open wire-work, so placed that its inner surface may be brought into near contact with the edges of the revolving beaters, and capable of being adjusted by screws, to increase or diminish the distance. The usual plan is to place it with about three-quarters of an inch space at the feeding part, and gradually to increase the distance to an inch and a quarter, or two inches, at the lower end, where the straw is delivered upon a fixed harp or riddle, through which such part of the grain as is not driven through the wired part of the concave falls, while the straw is removed by forks. The threshing part, commonly called the barn-work, occupies a space of six feet by four-and-a-half feet, and, together with the apparatus by which motion is communicated (which is made either for two, three, or four horse-power), may at pleasure be elevated upon a pair of wheels and axle, and thus removed by two horses.

There are two circumstances which greatly affect the regular action of the threshing-machine, and the cleanness of the work performed by it. These have been well described thus:-"The first is the mode of driving the horses, in which a considerable difference is felt when one man keeps the horses at a regular pace, whilst another drives them by fits and starts. The regular motion is effected by the man walking round the course in the contrary direction to the horses, in which he meets every horse twice in the course of a revolution, and which keeps the whole upon their mettle, every horse expecting to be spoken to when he meets the driver. The irregular

BEST METHOD OF WORKING.

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motion is produced by the man walking in the same direction with the horses, when the horse next him makes the greatest exertion until he outstrips the man, and then slackens his pace; then the horse that follows him, coming up to the man, exerts himself until he also passes him; and so on in succession with every horse. The man, in such a case, always walks slower than the horses; and when he gives a crack of the whip, all the horses give a start, and of course strain the machine; but immediately after, they relapse into their usual dogged walk. In such a style of driving, a willing horse is apt to get more to do, and a lazy one less, than it should, as horse-wheels are usually constructed."*

Notwithstanding the advantages of machinery, it must be confessed that the straw often gets much broken and injured this, however, would not be so frequently the case, were the machines formed with accuracy, and were the above rules, as to steadiness of driving, fully understood and followed.

UNDER the term Domestic Poultry, we understand Common Fowls, Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, and Pigeons. The different varieties of poultry are fitted to bear extremes of heat and cold, and thus they can exist in almost every climate habitable by man. This advantage has not been neglected by emigrants, who gladly cherish these useful and productive birds in different parts of the world.

The rearing of poultry is a thing less attended to in England than formerly, and for a very plain reason. At the time when small farms were common, the wives and daughters of the farmers themselves took their eggs, butter, and chickens to market, and sold them to the best advantage. The produce of the poultry-yard was gene