1st. The very great comparative ease obtained for the cattle, in this the heaviest part of their work. This, without doubt, is a real saving of labor; for it is no exaggeration to affirm, that five horses, yoked by this apparatus to a threshing machine, will perform with equal ease the labor of six horses, of equal strength and weight, yoked in the common way, each horse being independent of the rest.

2dly. A very great saving results in the tear and wear of the machine, from the regularity and uniformity of the movement. This will be acknowledged by any judge of the subject who witnesses the performance. The sudden jerks and strains that generally take place in the usual way, are found to be quite removed; the machinery moving with that kind of uniformity as if driven by water. In consequence of which, the work is better performed, and that in a very perceptible degree.

348

2640. Meikle's water threshing machine (fig. 348.), is the preferable engine when a supply of water can be obtained. The main axle or shaft (a), upon which is fixed the water-wheel (b), has placedupon its circumference cast metal segments(c), the teeth of which turn the pinion which is fastened on the axle of the threshing drum; the platform, on which the unthreshed corn is spread, joins the feeding rollers, that conduct the corn forward to the threshers; next the threshing-drum is

the straw-shaker, driven by a leathern belt, passing over a sheeve, fixed on an iron spindle, connected with the axle of the water-wheel, and the sheeve on the axle of the shaker.

2641. Meikle's threshing machine to be driven by water or by four horses (fig. 349.), is

349

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a powerful and convenient engine, as advantage may be taken of water when it is abundant, and in dry seasons horses can be applied. To this machine the improved apparatus for yoking the horses is appended, and by the simple operation of varying the positions of the pinions on the common shaft (a), which communicate with the water and horse wheel (b, c), threshing may be carried on without interruption, either with the water or the horses separately; or a small quantity of water may be applied to assist the horses at any time, when a sufficient supply of water cannot be obtained to impel the machine alone.

2642. Meikle's threshing machine to be driven either by wind or six horses, (Gray, PL XII.) is a powerful but costly erection. On large corn farms, however, it will answer to erect such machines; and there are frequent instances in Berwickshire and Northumberland, of farmers incuring that expense on the security of twenty-one years leases. The machinery of the wind power of this machine is fitted up with a small van to turn the large ones to face the wind, and with the machinery necessary to roll on or off the sails according as the wind increases or diminishes; by which means the naturally unsteady power of wind is rendered as regular as that of horses or water. The threshing part of this machine contains the usual apparatus, and also a complete set of fanners and screens for cleaning the corn. To the board upon which the unthreshed grain is spread, and introduced between the feeding rollers, succeeds the drum, with the threshers, or beaters, fixed upon the extremity of its arms; then the shaker, that receives the straw from the threshing drum, and conveys it to the second shaker, by which it is thrown down a sloping searce, either on the low floor, or upon a sparred rack, which moves on rollers, turned by the machine, and by this means is conveyed into the straw-shed, or else into the barn yard. One searce is placed below the

threshing-drum, while its circular motion throws out the straw at an opening, into the straw-shaker, which conveys it to the second shaker; at the same time, the chaff and grain pass down through a searce, or sparred rack, into the hopper, which conveys it into the fanners, by which the corn is separated from the chaff, the clean grain running out at the opening, and the chaff, or any light refuse, blown out at the end by the rapid motion of the fans, which are driven by a band or rope, from a sheeve placed upon the axle of the threshing-drum, and passing over the sheeve, fixed upon the pivot of the fans.

2643. Meikle's threshing machine to be impelled by steam is the same arrangement of interior machinery with a steam engine outside of the barn connected by a shaft in the manner of the wind and water machines.

2644. Portable threshing machines, to be fixed in any barn, or in the open field, for threshing the crops of small farms, or for other purposes of convenience, are differently contrived. Excepting the hand machine, already described (2453.), all of them work by horses, and generally with one, or at most two. The most complete have a large frame of separating beams into which the gudgeons of the larger wheels work, and which retains the whole of the machinery in place. In general, there is no fanners; but sometimes a winnowing machine is driven by a rope from the threshing machinery. Such machines are considerably more expensive, in proportion to their power, than fixed machines; they are, therefore, not much used, and indeed might often be profitably substituted by the hand machine.

2645. Weir's portable two horse power threshing machine is one of the best in England. The corn is threshed on Meikle's skutching principle, and is sometimes fed by fluted rollers, and sometimes introduced through a hopper directly over the drum, a mode which is found not to break the straw so much as the common mode.

2646. Lester's portable threshing machine received the straw without the intervention of rollers, and separated the corn entirely by rubbing. It was an ingenious, but very imperfect machine, and never came into use.

2647. Forrest of Shifnal's portable threshing machines have been employed in several parts of Warwickshire, Shropshire, and adjoining counties. It combines the rubbing and skutching methods, but does not perform either perfectly. Meikle's machines, in fact, can alone be depended on, for completely separating the grain from the straw; though some others may render the straw less ineligible for thatch, or for gratifying the present taste in litter of the London grooms.

350

2648. The smut machine(fig.350. )is the invention of Hall late of Ewel, in Surrey, now of the Prairie in the United States. It resembles that used for dressing flour, and consists of a cylinder perforated with small holes, in the inside of which are a number of brushes, which are driven round with great rapidity. The wheat infected with smut is put into the cylinder, by a hopper (a), and the constant friction occasioned by the rapid inotion of the brushes (b), effectually separates the smutty grain, which is driven out by the holes of the cylinder. Hall finds that it requires much more power to clean wheat by this machine, than to dress flour. A machine on this construction, might be a very useful appendage to every threshing machine, for the purpose of effectually cleaning all wheat intended for seed, or such wheat, meant for the market, as had a great proportion of smut in it. (Stevenson's Surrey, p. 141.) 2649. To take the awns from barley where a threshing machine is used, a notched spar lined on one side, with plate iron, and just the length of the rollers, is fixed by a screw bolt at each end to the inside of the cover of the drum, about the middle of it, so as the edge of the notched stick is about one-eighth of an inch from the arms of the drum as it goes round. Two minutes are sufficient to put it on, when its operation is wanted, which is, when putting through the barley the second time; and it is as easily taken off. It rubs off the awns completely.

Jeet

SECT. IX. Mechanical and other fixed Apparatus, for the Preparation of Food for Cattle, and grinding Manure.

2650. The principal food preparing contrivances, are the steamer, boiler, roaster, breaker or bruiser, and grinder.

2651. An apparatus for steaming food for cattle, the editor of The Farmer's Magazine observes, should be considered a necessary appendage to every arable and dairy farm, of a moderate size. The advantage of preparing different sorts of roots, as well as even

grain, chaff, and hay, by means of steaming apparatus, for the nourishment of cattle, begins now to be generally understood. It has been long known that many sorts of roots, and particularly the potatoe, become much more valuable by undergoing this sort of preparation. And it is equally well known that when thus prepared they have been employed alone as a substitute for hay, and with cut chaff both for hay and corn, in the feeding of horses, as well as other animals. To a farmer who keeps many horses or cattle, or even swine or poultry, the practice of boiling their food in steam is so great a saving, and an advantage, that it deserves the most particular attention. Though potatoes have often been given raw to both horses and cattle, they are found to be infinitely preferable when cooked by steam, as they are rendered thereby much drier, and more nutritive, and better than when boiled in water; this has been long since shown by the experiments of Wakefield, of Liverpool, who in order to ascertain it, fed some of his horses on steamed and some on raw potatoes, and soon found the horses on the steamed potatoes had greatly the advantage in every respect. Those on the steamed potatoes looked perfectly smooth and sleek, while the others were quite rough. Eccleston also found them useful instead of corn; and the extensive and accurate trials of Curwen, have placed the utility and advantage of them in this way beyond all dispute. Curwen has found that in their preparation in this way the waste of the potatoe is about one-eighteenth part, and that straw when given along with them answers equally well as hay, as the horses keep their condition and do their work equally well.

2652. A steaming apparatus on a grand scale has been erected at Workington, by Curwen, of which an accurate ground plan and section with a copious description, are given in The Complete Farmer. (Art. Steaming Apparatus.) Though very extensive, it is less perfect than some others which we shall describe..

2653. An economical steaming and washing machine has been described by Grey, in his Implements of Husbandry, &c. The parts of this machine are few and simple; the potatoes are washed and emptied into a large chest to drip; and when a sufficient quantity is washed, this chest, by a motion of the crane, empties itself into a steamingbox, placed almost immediately over the boiler; by which means a large quantity of potatoes or other materials are steamed at once. The chief advantage attending the use of this simple steaming apparatus, he says, consists in saving manual labor, lifting on and off the tubs for holding the potatoes, or other materials to be steamed; also the expense of erection and repairs of leaden or copper pipes, turn-cocks, &c. Its superiority over one with a number of steaming tubs, especially in a large operation, will be at once perceived by those who have paid attention to the subject. The steaming boiler may be made of any approved form, and of a size proportioned to the steaming-box, with a furnace of that construction which affords the greatest quantity of heat to the boiler, with the smallest waste of fuel. The steaming-box may be made either of cast metal plates, enclosed in a wooden franie, or of stout planks, well joined, and firmly fixed together. It has been found by experience, that a box, eight feet in length, five feet wide, and three feet deep, will serve for cooking, in the space of one hour, with the attendance of one person, a sufficient quantity of potatoes to feed fifty ordinary horses, allowing each horse thirty-twopounds weight per day. The boiler and steaming-box, however, ought to be made of a size in proportion to the number of cattle to be fed, or the quantity of materials to be steamed; both boiler and steaming-box may be made of any form and proportion that will best answer the intended purpose, with the least expense.

2654. A steaming machine on a simple and economical plan (fig. 351.), consists of a boiler and wooden chest or box placed over or near it. The box may be of any size, and so placed as to be supplied and emptied by wheel or hand barrows in the easiest manner, either by the end or top, or both, being made to open. If the box is made 8 feet by 5, and 3 deep, it will hold as many potatoes as will feed 50 cows for 24 hours, and these may be steamed in an hour. (F. Mag. vol. xviii. p. 74.)

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351

2655. Boilers or boiling machines are only had recourse to in the case of very small establishments. By means of fixed boilers, or boilers suspended by cranes, on the Lodi dairy principles (270), roots may be boiled, and chaff, weak corn, and other barn refuse, rendered more palateable and nutritive to cattle. Hay tea also may be made, which is a salutary and nutritive drink for horses or cattle when unwell, or for calving cows. Food for swine and poultry may also be prepared in this way: or water boiled and salted to half prepare chaff and culmiferous messes for animals.

2656. A baking or roasting oven has been recommended for preparing the potatoe by Pierrepont (Comm. Board of Ag. vol. iv.), which he states to be attended with superior advantages; but as, independently of other considerations, the use of such an oven must

be limited to potatoes, a steaming machine, which will prepare any sort of food, is undoubtedly preferable for general purposes. Many speculative plans of this sort, however ingenious, chiefly deserve notice as beacons to be avoided, or to prevent their being invented and described a second time.

CHAP. III.

Edifices in use in Agriculture.

2657. A variety of buildings are necessary for carrying on the business of field culture; the nature and construction of which must obviously be different, according to the kind of farm for which they are intended. Suitable buildings, the editor of The Farmer's Magazine observes, are scarcely less necessary to the husbandman than implements and machinery; and might, without much impropriety, be classed along with them, and considered as one great stationary machine, operating more or less on every branch of labor and produce. There is nothing which marks more decidedly the state of agriculture in any district, than the plan and execution of these buildings.

2658. In erecting a farmery, the first thing that deserves notice is its situation, both in regard to the other parts of the farm, and the convenience of the buildings themselves. In general, it must be of importance on arable farms, that the buildings should be set down at nearly an equal distance from the extremities; or so situate, that the access from all the different fields should be easy, and the distance from those most remote, no greater than the size of the farm renders unavoidable. The advantages of such a position in saving labor, are too obvious to require illustration; and yet this matter is not nearly so much attended to as its importance deserves. In some cases, however, it is adviseable to depart from this general rule; of which one of the most obvious is, where the command of water for a threshing-mill, and other purposes, can be better secured in another quarter of the farm.

2659. The form most generally approved for a set of offices, is that of a square, or rather a rectangular parallelogram; the houses being arranged on the north, east, and west sides, and the south side fenced by a stone wall, to which low buildings, for calves, pigs, poultry, &c. are sometimes attached. The space thus inclosed is usually alloted to young cattle these have access to the sheds on one or two sides, and are kept separate according to their size or age, by one or more partition-walls. The farmer's dwelling-house stands at a short distance from the offices, and frequently commands a view of the inside of the square; and cottages for servants and laborers are placed on some convenient spot, not far from the other buildings.

2660. The different buildings required for the occupation of land are chiefly those devoted to live stock, as the stable, cow-house, cattle sheds, &c.; those used as repositories or for conducting operations, as the cart-shed, barn, &c.; and human habitations or cottages and farm-houses. After noticing the separate construction of these edifices, we shall exemplify their combination in different descriptions of farmeries.

air.

SECT. I. Buildings for Live Stock.

No

2661. Buildings for agricultural live stock are the stable, cow-house, cattle houses and cattle sheds, sheep houses, pig-styes, poultry houses, rabbitry, pigeonry, and bee-house. 2662. The stable is an important building in most farmeries; it is in general placed in the west side of the square, with its doors and windows opening to the east. thing conduces more to the health of horses than the having a good and wholesome The situation of the stable should always be on a firm, dry, and hard ground, that in winter the horse may go out and come in clean; and where possible, be built somewhat on an ascent, that the urine and other liquid matters may be easily conveyed away by means of drains for the purpose. As there is no animal that delights more in cleanliness than the horse, or that more dislikes bad smells, care should be taken that there be no hen-roost, hog-styes, or necessary houses near the place where the stable is to be built. The swallowing of feathers, which is very apt to happen, when hen-roosts are near, often proves injurious to horses. The walls of a stable ought to be of brick rather than stone, and should be made of a moderate thickness, two bricks or a brick and a half at least, or the walls may be built hollow, not only for economy, but for the sake of warmth in the winter, and to keep out the heat in the summer. The windows should be proportioned in number to the extent, and made on the east or north side of the building, that the north wind may be let in to cool the stables in the summer, and the rising sun all the year round, especially in winter. They should either be sashed or have large casements for the sake of letting in air enough; and there should always be close wooden shutters,

turning on bolts, that the light may be shut out at pleasure. Many pave the whole stable with stone, but that part which the horse is to lie on is often boarded with oak planks, which should be laid as even as possible, and cross-wise rather than length-wise; and there should be several holes bored through them to receive the urine and carry it off underneath the floor by gutters into one common receptacle. The ground behind should be raised to a level with the planks, and be paved with small pebbles. There are mostly two rings placed on each side of the manger, or stall, for the reins of the horse's halter to run through, and a logger is to be fixed to the ends of these, sufficient to poise them perpendicularly, but not so heavy as to tire the horse, or to hinder him from eating; the best place for him to eat his corn in, is a drawer or locker, which need not be large, so that it may be taken out at pleasure to clean it, by which means the common dirtiness of a fixed manger may be avoided. Many people are against having a rack in their stables; they give the horse his hay in a trough bin, formed of boards with an open bottom.

2663. A lofty stable is recommended by White (Treatise on Veter. Med. p. 1.), fifteen or twenty but never less than twelve feet high, with an opening in the ceiling for ventilation. The floor he prefers is brick or limestone, inclining not more from the manger to the gutter than an inch in a yard. Some litter, he says, should always be allowed for a horse to stale upon, which should be swept away as often as is necessary. This, with a pail or two of water, thrown upon the floor, and swept off while the horse is at exercise, will keep the stable perfectly clean, and free from offensive smells.

964. The depth of a stable should never be less than twenty feet, nor the height less than twelve. The width of a stall should not be less than six feet clear. But when there is sufficient room, it is a much better plan to allow each horse a space of ten or twelve feet, where he may be loose and exercise himself a little. This will be an effectual means of avoiding swollen heels, and a great relief to horses that are worked hard. With respect to the rack and manger, White prefers the former on the ground rising three feet high, eighteen inches deep from front to back, and four feet long. The manger, eighteen inches deep, eighteen inches from front to back, and five feet in length. The rack he prefers being closed in front, though some farmers prefer it open, alleging that horses when lying down will thus be enabled to eat if they choose. A close-fronted rack, however, is better adapted for saving hay. The back part of the rack should be an inclined plane made of wood; should be gradually sloped towards the front; and should terminate about two feet down. Such a rack will hold more hay than ever ought to be put before one horse. The advantages of this rack are numerous in the first place, the hay is easily put into it, and renders a hay-loft over the stable unnecessary; which ought to be an inducement to the builder to make the stable as lofty as it ought to be, and render the ventilation unnecessary. All the hay that is put into this manger will be eaten, but in the common rack it is well known that a large portion of the hay is often pulled down upon the litter, and trodden upon, whereby a considerable quantity is often wasted. It prevents the hay seeds or dust from falling upon the horse, or into his eyes; and what is of considerable importance, though seldom attended to, there will be an inducement to the horse-keeper to give the horse hay in small quantities at a time, and frequently, from the little trouble which attends putting it into the rack. The saving in hay that may be effected by the use of this rack is so apparent, that it need not be dwelt upon. A great saving also may be made in oats by so fastening the horse's head during the time of feeding that he cannot throw any of them out of the manger. This kind of rack and manger, from being boarded up in front, will effectually prevent the litter from being kept constantly under the horse's head and eyes, by which he is compelled to breathe the vapors which arise from it. It will also prevent him from getting his head under the manger, as sometimes happens, by which means, not unfrequently, the poll evil is produced. The length of the halter should be only four feet from the head stall to the ring through which it passes: this will admit of his lying down with ease, and that is all which is required. The ring should be placed close to that side where the manger is, and not in the centre of the stall. The side of the stall should be sufficiently high and deep to prevent horses from biting and kicking each other. When the common rack and manger are preferred, the rack staves should be perpendicular, and brought nearly down to the manger, and this may easily be done without the necessity of a hay-loft, and the manger may be made deep and wide as described.

2005. The window of the stable should be at the south-east end, and the door at the opposite end. The window should be as high as the ceiling will admit of, and in size proportioned to that of the stable. In one of twelve feet high, it need not come down more than four feet, and it will then be eight feet from the ground, and out of the way of being broken. The frame of the window should be moveable upon a pivot in the centre, and opened by means of a cord running over a pulley in the ceiling, and fastened by means of another cord. With a window of this kind, in a stable of three or four horses, no other ventilation will be required: a person never need be solicitous about finding openings for the air to enter, where there is sufficient room above, and means for it to escape. A stable thus constructed will be found condacive to the health and comfort of horses, and will afford an inducement to the horse-keeper to attend to every little circumstance which may contribute to cleanliness. He will not allow the smallest bit of dung to remain swept up at one end of the stable, as it commonly is. The pails should be kept outside, and not standing about the stable, as they commonly are. If it is necessary to take off the chill from water, it is much better, and more easily done, by the addition of a little hot water, than by suffering it to stand in the stable; and while the horses are at exercise, the litter should be all turned out to dry, and the brick floor well washed or swept out. A little fresh straw may then be placed for the horses to stale upon. Litter thus dried during the day will serve again as well as fresh straw for the bottom of the bed, and be perfectly free from smell. The litter necessary to be kept under a horse that he may stale with comfort, and without splashing himself, is not considerable, and may be changed once a day. A great saving may be made in litter by turning it out, and drying it as described; and if a shed were built adjoining a stable, it might be done at all times, and might serve also to exercise and clean a horse in wet weather.

2006 Neither dogs, fowls, nor goats, should ever be permitted to enter a stable ; and dung should be kept at a distance from it. A good contrivance in cleaning horses, is, to have two straps, one on each side the stall, about one yard from the head of it. By these the horse may be fastened during the time he is cleaned, by which he will be effectually prevented from biting the manger or the horse-keeper; and being kept back in the stall, the man will be better able to clean the front of his fore-legs, chest, and neck, and be able to move round him This is better than strapping him to the rack.

2667. Farm stables in Scotland, the editor of The Farmer's Magazine observes, "arc constructed in such a manner, that all the horses stand in a line with their heads towards the same side-wall, instead of standing in two lines, fronting opposite walls, as for