it forms a very effective and convenient mode of producing the desired motions. When straw is cut while the thrashing-machine is at work, it becomes the duty of one of the persons employed in removing the straw from the thrashing-machine, to fork up a quantity, as required, to the platform of the straw-cutter, where a person is stationed to feed that machine.

(1883.) The corn-bruiser, when taken in connection with the straw-cutter, cannot be more conveniently placed than in the position marked i, in fig. 319. (1761.). It is placed over a hopper inserted in the floor, fitted with a spout that descends to a convenient height from the floor of the corn-barn; and here the bags are hooked on to receive the bruised grain as it descends from the rollers of the corn-bruiser.

(1884.) The pinion and shaft, with its pulley, described (1882.), for driving the straw-cutter, carries also a pulley for the corn-bruiser; or, as the speed of the two machines may be alike, a drum-pulley, placed on the shaft, will serve for both.

(1885.) It will be always desirable that the straw-cutter and corn-bruiser may be worked together, independent of the thrashing-machine. To accomplish this, it becomes necessary to have the means of disengaging the drum-pinion from the spur-wheel; and to do this, the simplest mode perhaps is to fit the drum-pinion upon its shaft with a feather or slide-rib, and to slide it out or in of geer with a fork-lever, acting in a collar attached to the pinion. If the geering of the feeding-rollers is constructed on the principle laid down in fig. 322, Plate XX, they are also easily disengaged, as described in (1765.); and the shakers likewise can be disengaged by withdrawing the intermediate wheel k, in fig. 319, Plate XIX, upon its stud, till it is free of the wheels on either side.

(1886.) By means of these disengagements, the operation of cutting and bruising can be carried on without incurring any unnecessary tear and wear of those parts of the thrashing-machine that move at high velocities, or that would otherwise be kept in action unnecessarily. On this part of the subject, I may remark that now, when we come to perform different processes by mechanical agency in connection with thrashing, by one first mover, we find all thrashingmachines defective of the means of disengagement. It is true that, in thrashing alone, all the branches of the process must go on together, and, therefore, disengagements cannot be admitted; or the only disengagement that can be made, with safety to the machine, would be the feeding-rollers; the effect of which would be to produce a cessation of all the branches of the process of thrashing, although all the machinery were kept in motion, except the rollers and their geering. It would nevertheless be advantageous, for various reasons, that the entire machine could be easily and instantaneously disengaged from the first mover, such as in case of accidents occurring, or the like; and this could be done effectively by means of friction-straps. But it is the introduction of processes differing from and independent of each other, and which may require to be carried on either simultaneously or separately, that will ultimately demand convenient means of engaging and disengaging the different departments of these machine-labours, though, owing to the entire neglect of such appliances in the original construction, the difficulty and expense of applying these conveniences to old machines are considerably increased.

(1887.) The driving the hummeller has been already adverted to and described as far as seemed requisite; but there are other operations to which a power may be applied. Amongst these churning, on some farms, is an import

ant one, and its details will be taken up in due season; at present, however, the application of the power to that process may be considered. In very few cases would it be advisable to attach a churning-machine to a steam-power whose primary object was thrashing, unless it were constructed for the latter upon a small scale. Various reasons occur for this exception, and the most striking is, that, as churning is chiefly required in that season when thrashing is least frequent, the steam would be required much more frequently for the churn than for the thrashing-machine; but as the churn can never require more than one horse-power, there would be a waste of expense in raising the steam for probably a four or a six-horse engine to perform the work of one horse, which, with any view to economy, can never be recommended, unless coal be very cheap in the locality. It has been shewn (1841.) that the consumpt of coal for a sixhorse non-condensing engine is about one cwt. per hour, and as the churning process seldom exceeds two hours in duration, the expense of raising the steam would be large in proportion to that required for the actual operation. But in a situation where the extent of grain-bearing land is small compared to pasture for dairy purposes, and where water-power might be unattainable, and coal at a moderate price, then a steam-engine of two or three horse-power could be advantageously adapted to serve all purposes. Water-power, however, will be always most advantageously applied to churning, for with that element employed as a power, it can be dealt out in any required amount. Horse-power, if admissible at all, may be allowed to the churn, and, with due attention to the means of disengagement pointed out in (1886.), the horse-wheel of the thrashing-machine may be applied to the purpose; for were the entire thrashing-machinery disengaged from the power, one horse might be capable of moving even a six-horse-wheel, and thereby work the churn. In adapting a churn to power of any kind, the arrangement of the parts must depend entirely on local circumstances; but the speed, for a vertical churn, may be about 60 strokes per minute, and for a box-churn, whether horizontal or vertical, the plunger should make about 60 revolutions per minute.

(1888.) The Circular Saw, as an auxiliary on an extensive farm, is a machine that should always be at hand, especially if a water or steam power is employed. Its position will, in general, be most conveniently appropriated adjacent to the steam-engine, or if water is the power, one roof will generally cover both the water-wheel and the saw-mill. In taking off the power for a saw, from the steam-engine, the most direct method is to convert the fly-wheel into a large pulley, either by affixing a wooden segmental ring to the arms of the wheel, or if the rim of the fly has a square edge, to apply a belt directly upon it, and from this it is easy to raise a motion suitable for the saw by pulleys and belts. The rate of a saw, for the purposes here in view, need not exceed 600 revolutions per minute, the saw being about 30 or 32 inches diameter. If the power is water, it is then taken off in the same manner, as described (1857.), by placing another and similar pinion on the wheel, as near as may be convenient, to that which drives the thrashing-machine, fig. 343, Plate XXV, the shaft of the pinion being supported on a movable bridge-tree, for the convenience of disengagement, the velocity is then raised to the required pitch by pulleys and belts as before.

(1889.) Under the present agrarian system, there are but few other operations to which mechanical power could be advantageously applied-owing to the circumstance that the power, if steam is employed, is only occasionally in opera

tion; and even though water were the power, it is seldom procurable in such quantity as to warrant its constant or daily application for the minor purposes to which mechanical power may be applied. If power, however, could be made available at all times without incurring too much expense, the operation of slicing turnips, washing potatoes, twisting straw ropes, breaking oil-cake, besides other occasional but routine operations, might be all effected by means of it. And there is another process which has often occurred to me as one worthy of consideration, but which, if found deserving of attention, would rank higher than the minor processes named above. I allude to the manufacture of manure from straw, and to expedite the process of decomposition of that article in the cattle-courts. I am persuaded that chopping the straw, by a machine, into lengths of 2 to 4 inches, would not only expedite the conversion, but would render the quality of the manure better and more manageable in the course of distribution in the field.

(1890.) Regarding, further, the extension of the agency of steam, when it has been established on the farm in the shape of a steam-engine, a question has frequently occurred, would it be economical to apply the boiler of the engine to the purpose of raising steam for a cooking apparatus for the stable and byre? To such a question, I have invariably answered in the negative, as applicable to the present system. But the question may be viewed in two ways. First, if thrashing is the sole purpose of the engine, or that it is never required to be in operation except when thrashing is going on, it would not, under such circumstances, be economical to use the boiler for steaming food; by reason of the quantity of fuel that it would consume, beyond that required for a small boiler proportioned to the steaming apparatus. Second, if the business of the farm was of such extent, and so arranged that the steam-engine would be required during some portion of every day, in this case the engine-boiler, by being a very small degree larger than usual, could not only serve the engine, but would supply the steaming apparatus at the same time, without increasing sensibly the consumpt of fuel, and the expense of the separate small boiler for the steaming apparatus would be saved. Under this second view, then, there would be economy in using the engine boiler for steaming, but only, be it observed, in conjunction with other mechanical operations that would in the aggregate give employment during some portion of the day to the full, or a large proportion, of the power; and it may safely be asserted, that the full advantages of steam on the farm will not be realized, until such arrangements as are here pointed at, have been developed.

(1891.) There is one other process to which power may be, I have no doubt, advantageously employed, but which is yet but little understood, that is, the home manufacture of pure oil-cake. The extensive adulteration of the common linseed oil-cake invites agriculturists strongly to adopt a home manufacture of that article; not to say a pure linseed cake, but such a portion of the seed as, when bruised, to set free its oleaginous matter, might be mixed up with bruised grain and cut straw, in the proportion that would yield the most nutritious food to animals (1484.). A mode of preparing nutritious food, based upon this principle, would certainly be more economical than the present oil-cake, and more especially, than the method proposed and acted upon by some feeders, who purchase the manufactured oil, and mix up straw with it (1482.).

(1892.) The steam-engine boiler, if in daily operation, may also be applied to the purposes of heating such of the premises as require that aid, and especially to the moderate drying of grain, when a damp season demands such pre

cautions. This latter process might be easily accomplished, by setting apart a small chamber, in which a convolution of steam-pipes should be laid under a wire-cloth, or other metallic floor; or, when a moderate heat only is required, the pipe might be simply laid round the chamber, above a common floor, and frequent turning of the grain resorted to. Other purposes might be pointed out, to which this agent may be applied in the farm-steading; but the present observations are made, more with a view to direct attention to the subject, than to dictate particular methods of accomplishing the object; and having thus digressed from the objects of the barn to the various objects of the power chiefly employed there, I now return to notice one or two articles of the barn not coming under mechanical agency.

(1893.) The Weighing-machine is an important article of the barn furniture, and various forms of it are resorted to. The common beam and scales is the most correct of all the instruments of the class; but it is defective, as being less convenient for the purposes of the barn, than several others that are partially employed. Steelyards of various forms are also used; but in all steelyards there are grounds for doubting their accuracy, in consequence of the operator not seeing the true counterpoise of the substance weighed, but only its representative, bearing an actual weight greatly smaller than the substance, but in the inverse proportion to it that the longer arm of the steelyard on which it is appended bears to the shorter arm. Many of these steelyards, from their compactness, are, however, greatly to be commended; and, when well constructed, and properly adjusted, will be found to answer the purpose of weighing such bulky articles as grain with sufficient accuracy. Their cheapness also, when compared with some other instruments on the beam and scale principle, holds out a great inducement for their adoption.

(1894.) A weighing-machine, on the balance principle, which combines every convenience for the setting on and removal of the bags of grain, with accuracy and neatness of construction, is exhibited in fig. 356. This machine is constructed chiefly of cast-iron, the frame-work a is connected by cross stretcher bolts b, and is supported in front on the wheels cc, while the back parts are supported on the feet d. The folding handles e, one on each side, turn on a joint pin at e, and become levers by which the machine can be moved about like a wheelbarrow. The beam, parts of which are seen at ƒƒ, is double, and also formed of cast-iron, with steel centres, the two bars forming the beam-stand 12 inches apart, and are connected by a diagonal truss. The one end of the double beam supports a crosshead suspended on the end centres of the beam, and to which is attached the pillar g, to the lower end of which is attached the shelf-plate or scale h, upon which the principal weights ii are placed. The crosshead carries also the top shelf or scale k, upon which the smaller weights are placed, and a dead-plate l is fixed on the frame-work on which the small weights stand ready for use. The opposite ends of the beam carry a frame m, only partially seen, to the lower end of which the shelf n is jointed, and upon this shelf the bag o, about to be weighed, is shewn in the figure. To the upper end of the frame m there is also attached, by a strong bracket not seen in the figure, the shelf or scale p, and upon this scale the bag may be placed and weighed with equal accuracy, while it is supported by the light frame q q. The object of the top and bottom weighing shelves is to suit the placement, or the removal of the bag, either from or to a man's back by the top shelf, or from or

to the load-barrow by the lower shelf. When the machine is not in use, the lower shelf is folded up against the back of the frame, and the light frame or back folds down over the lower shelf, reducing the machine to a very compact state. In weighing with this machine, from its being on the principle of the balance, the amount of weights required is equal to the absolute weight of the body that is being weighed, and the true weight is determined when the

scales or shelves k and p coincide in one level line with the dead-plate . In constructing this machine, the bottom of the pillar g, and of the frame m, are provided with a horizontal connecting-rod, which preserves their parallelism, and, consequently, the correct indications of the beam. Weighing-machines are constructed, on the same principle, with wooden frame-work, which renders them lighter and cheaper; but from the changeable nature of the material, as