of the ground, to form a solid foundation for the upright support c, 18 inches in height, and 8 inches square, to stand upon, and on the top of this is placed a flat rounded stone or bonnet d, of at least 2 inches in thickness. The upright stone is bedded in lime, both with the found stone and bonnet. All the tops of these stone supports must be on the same level. Upon these are placed on edge the scantlings a a, to the outer end of which are fastened with strong nails the bearers e e, also 9 inches in depth and 2 inches in thickness. The spaces between the scantlings a are filled up with fillets of wood, ff, nailed upon them. If the wood of the frameword were previously preserved by Kyan's or Burnett's process, it would last perhaps twenty years, even if made of any kind of home timber, such as larch or Scots fir. There should be a wide gateway into the stack-yard, and where the corn is taken on carts to the upper barn to be thrashed, the same gateway may answer both purposes; but where there is a gangway to the upper barn, the gate may be placed in the most convenient side of the stack-yard. Where carts are solely used for taking in the corn to the upper barn, the rows of stacks should be built so widely asunder as to permit a loaded cart to pass at least between every two rows of stacks, so that any particular stack may be accessible at pleasure. When a gangway is used, this width of the arrangement of the stacks is not necessary, the usual breadth of 3 feet between the stacks permitting the passage of corn-barrows, or of back-loads of sheaves. Thus, where a gangway is used, the stack-yard may have a smaller area to contain the same bulk of grain. Stack-stools, or stathels, or staddels, as they are variously called, are sometimes made of cast-iron; which, though neat and efficient, are expensive and liable to be broken by accidental concussion from carts. Malleable iron stathels would remove the objection of liability to fracture, but would not remove that of expense. Stacks on stathels are represented in Plate I. in the stack-yard S. It has been recommended to divide the frame of the stathels into two parts, so that they might be put under cover when not in use in the stack-yard. Were the stathels made removable, they would be more convenient in two pieces than in one; but the propriety of removing them is questionable, when it is accompanied with the necessity of removing the supports also; for it is clear that the supports could not be left standing in the stack-yard with the slightest chance of remaining in that position for any length of time, and the found-stones upon which they stand would be liable to be broken; and obliged to be put up every year, which would be intolerable trouble. act as fulcra, over which the long arm of the couple, while subsiding, with the load of slates new put upon it, would act as a lever, and cause its points to rise, and thereby start the nails from the wall-plates, to the imminent risk of pushing out the tops of the walls, and sinking the top of the roof. Besides the tops of the walls, rats and mice breed under ground, and find access into apartments through the floor. To prevent lodgment in those places also, it will be proper to lay the strongest flagging and causewaying upon a bed of mortar spread over a body of 9 inches of small broken stones, around the walls of every apartment on the ground-floor where any food for them may chance to fall, such as in the stables, byres, boiling-house, calves' house, implement-house, hay-house, pig-sties, and hen-house. The corn-barn has already been provided for against the attacks of vermin; but it will not be so easy to prevent their lodgment in the floors of the straw-barn and hammels, where no causewaying is usually employed. The principal means of prevention in those places are, in the first place, to make the foundation of the walls deep, not less than two feet, and then fill up the interior space between the walls with a substantial masonry of stone and lime mixed with broken glass; or perhaps a thick body of small broken stones would be sufficient, as rats cannot burrow in them as in the ground. 1687. Rats and mice being very destructive and dirty vermin in steadings, and particularly so to grain in granaries, means should be used in the construction of steadings to prevent their lodgment in any particular part. Many expedients have been tried to destroy them in granaries, such as putting up a smooth triangular board across each corner, near the top of the wall. The vermin come down any part of the walls to the corn at their leisure, but when disturbed run to the corners, up which they easily ascend, but are prevented gaining the top of the wall by the triangular boards, and on falling down either on the corn or the floor, are there easily destroyed. But preventive means, in this case, are much better than destructive, inasmuch as the granaries should always be kept free of them, and the grain will then only be sweet and clean. The great means of prevention is, to deprive vermin of convenient places to breed in above ground, and this may be accomplished in all farmsteads by building up the tops of all the walls, and beamfilling between the legs of the couples with stone and mortar-taking care to keep the mortar from contact with the timber. 1688. Arrangement of the machinery. These places form the favourite breeding--A plan of the ground-floor of the cornground of vermin in farmsteads, and should therefore be occupied with substantial stone and mortar. The top of every wall, whether of stables, cow-houses, hammels, and other houses, should be treated in this manner; for, if one place be left them to breed in, the young fry will find access to the granaries in some way. The tops of the walls of old as well as of new farmsteads should be treated in this manner, either from the inside, or, if necessary, by removing the slates or tiles until the alteration is effected. Precaution is necessary in making beam-fillings, especially in new buildings, to leave a little space open under every couple face, to allow room for subsidence or the bending of the couples after the slates are put on. Were the couples, when bare, pinned firmly up with stone and lime, the hard points would barn, with portions of the adjacent apartments, is shown on a large scale in fig. 133; a is the corn-barn, t the chaff-house, sa part of the straw-barn, y the engine-house, and ≈ the boiler-house. In this arrangement a is the position of the first fanners, that of the elevator from the secondsspout, and c that from the clean-spout, when these are used: d is the position for the second fanner, supplied by the elevator c, when such is not driven by hand, and is attached to the machinery. In the engine-housey, e isthe position of the steamengine, f the main shaft, carrying the flywheel, and which is put in motion by the action of the engine upon the crank. The main shaft carries also, in the usual construction, a spur-wheel g; but this member is subject to variation, according to the position of the engine-house and THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE GROUND-FLOOR OF THE BARNS. main spur-wheel i, the last giving motion to the drum-pinion, as will be more distinctly shown in another figure. The lasting advantage of having the straw-barn placed in the most central position to the whole steading, induces the trifling addition of the intermediate wheels g and h, for the purpose of carrying the motive power from the main shaft to the shaft of the great spur-wheel i; and this arises from the present arrangement not admitting of the steam-engine being advanced so far towards the straw-barn as that its main shaft might lie nearly opposite to the drum of the thrashing-machine. In cases, again, where the corn and the straw barns lie in one line of range-or even although their position may be at right angles, as here laid down, but their relation being such as to admit of the main shaft coming nearly opposite to the drum-the intermediate wheels become unnecessary, and the great spur-wheel i is then placed upon the main shaft f itself. It is of small importance which of these methods of taking up the power be adopted, the additional wheels adding but a small increase to the expense, and a little to the resistance; but the lasting advantages of the position of the straw-barn much more than balance these. Cases frequently occur also, where only one intermediate wheel is required; and in others, it has been judged by some engineers more appropriate and expedient to dispense with all these wheels, and to substitute a large pulley in the place of the wheel g. In these cases, a pulley of proportionate dimensions is placed upon the drum shaft, and the motion conveyed through a belt. The only subsidiary machine that is usually placed on this floor is the hummeller, at . The door from the corn-barn into the engine-house is at m; that to one of the granaries at p; and r is the window of the corn-barn. 1689. The engine-house y is for the steam-engine e, when one is used. It is 18 feet in length and 8 feet in width, and the granary floor above forms its roof. It has a window looking into the large court I, and a door with steps into the boiler and furnace-house z, which house is 24 feet in length and 8 feet in width, and has an arched opening at the left or end door. The boiler is seen at w. The chimneystalk o is 6 feet square at the base, and rises tapering to a height of not less than 50 feet. If wind or horses are preferred as the moving power, the windmill-tower or horse-course would be erected on the site of the boiler-house z. THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE UPPER FLOOR placement of the foundation beams b and c, is the position occupied by the thrashing-machine. The foundation-beams are, in the present case, framed into beams d and e, represented by the dotted lines; the space a varies in length, according to the circumstance of the arrangement of the machinery, from 12 to 16 feet, and in width, according to the power by which the machine is intended to be worked, from 3 to 4 feet; ƒƒƒƒ mark the places of the posts which form the frame-work of the drum, and begg those of the shakers. The space ffhb is appropriated to the gearing or driving apparatus of the machine, corresponding to the space occupied by the spur-wheels ghi in fig. 133. Of the subordinate machines that occasionally have, but which always should have place in this floor of the barn, I may point out the position i as one very appropriate for the cornbruiser; and, on the other hand, in the strawbarns, the position k is equally appropriate for the straw-cutter. The door for taking in the corn from the stack-yard is seen at m. 1691. The arrangements mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs are subject to considerable variety, arising from local circumstances in the relative positions of the beams, the power, and other accessories; but of these relations the experienced mill-wright will always be able to form that arrangement of the parts of his machinery that will bring out the most beneficial results; while the inexperienced will find, in the arrangements here laid down, data founded on experience and extended observation. It may be observed that the foundation-beams b and c, fig. 134, should be of the best Memel timber, or of oak, ash, or beech, where hard woods are plentiful. 1692. Details of the Thrashing-machine. In describing the thrashingmachine, it is necessary to begin with the frame-work, and in that which supports the main-shaft. This, it invariably falls out, has its bearing for one point in the wall that separates the barn from the locality of the power, whatever that may be. For this purpose, when the altitude of the position of the shaft has been determined, an opening of 2 feet square is formed in the wall, the sill of which should be of one solid stone, laid at the proper level, and upon which the pillow-block of the shaft is bedded. If intermediate wheels are employed, another and similar opening must be formed for the bearing of the shaft of the great spur-wheel. Such other shafts, also, as may require to be extended to the wall of separation, should have bearings in recesses, formed in the wall at the respective positions, such as for the extension of the shafts of the drum and of the feeding-rollers, which, in general, may be arranged in one recess. The sills fig. 136, a longitudinal section. In these figures, a a mark portions of the barn-wall, bb the ground-floor line, and cc the foundation-beams. The letter d marks the different parts of the frame-work of the case of the machine. The position and form of the feeding-board is marked by the letter e; and as this appendage is not required of great strength, it is usually of a temporary construction, and sometimes even portable. The two sides of the frame-work d require to be tied by means of cross-rails, which are most conveniently fixed upon the top-rails of the frame-work by bolting. 1693. The openings in the two sides of the framing are filled in with panels, neatly fitted and strengthened with crossbars at each end of the panels. Those panels that fill up the frame on the gear ing side of the machine, may be permanently fixed in their respective places; but all those on the other side must be made easily movable, for giving access to the different parts of the interior, for the purpose of cleaning. In the panels that close up the drum-case, it has been recommended to leave an opening of 6 inches diameter round the shaft, for the purpose of admitting a current of air, which, it is supposed, might prevent the winding of straw round the shaft and ends of the drum. When the construction is good in other respects, it does not appear that this precaution is necessary. 1694. As to the gearings of the thrashing-machine, enough of them to let you understand their use may be described in a few words, by referring to figs. 135 and |