1804. Another matter is, that the grain be well shaken down into the sack while it is measured, so as to fill up the corners, and make the whole sack firm. It is much easier for men to carry a well filled sack to a distance, and especially up several stairs to a granary, than one that is loosely filled in. The filled sack can be commanded like a pack of goods; in a slack one, the grain is apt to shift its berthage, to use a nautical phrase, and to change the centre of gravity of the load.

1805. The corn is measured up direct from the fanners in this way :-The steward drives the fans, one woman fills the hopper, another puts the winnowed grain into a large wecht, and fills the bushel at once, strikes the bushel and empties it, while the other two women hold the sacks, one of whom wheels them away with the sack-barrow as filled. There is one objection to this mode of filling the bushel, that the tremor of the floor, occasioned by the working of the fanner, is apt to shake down the corn in it more than in the way described above. In measuring up corn for horses, or seed-corn of any kind, or the corn to be given to the men as part of their wages, it may be measured up in any circumstances; and as only oats can be measured after one winnowing-it is only that species of grain which is measured up direct from the fanner.

1806. Corn is now invariably measured by the imperial bushel, fig. 168. It is of Fig. 168.

THE IMPERIAL BUSHEL OF A CONVENIENT FORM.

cooper-work, made of oak and hooped with iron; and, according to the Weights and Measures Act, must be stamped by competent authority before it can be legally used; and, having been declared the standard measure of capacity in the country for dry measure, it forms the basis

of all contracts dependent on measures of capacity when otherwise indefinitely expressed (5th Geo. IV., c. 74, sec. 15.) The bushel must contain just 2218.19 cubic inches, though its form may vary. The form represented in the figure I consider most convenient, being somewhat broader at the base than at the top, and furnished with 2 fixed handles. It is not too broad for the mouth of an ordinary half-quarter sack, nor too deep to compress the grain too much; and its 2 handles are placed pretty high, so that it may be carried full without the risk of capsizing. Some bushels are made inconveniently broad for a sack, for the sake of being shallow, that the corn may not be compressed in them. I have seen others spread out so much in the mouth as to render them unsteady. Some have no handles at all, and are obliged to be lifted by the arms; whilst others have only one handle for the person who overturns the bushel to lay hold of, and that sometimes a jointed one, and there being no handle on the other side for the sack to pass under, the sack is apt to slip over the mouth of the bushel while it is being emptied; and others have the handles too low to be of any service to the sack to pass under in the act of the bushel being emptied. These different structures of bushels become essential conveniences or inconveniences when much corn has to be measured up in a short time; and when convenience is studied in them, they contribute much to ease labour. I felt this forcibly one short day in winter, when I had to measure up 125 bolls of oats. equal to 750 bushels, with the old firlot of 1 bushel, of a convenient form, overturning it 500 times, and wheeling away every boll with a sack-barrow to different parts of the barn.

1807. In connexion with the bushel is the strike for sweeping off the superfluous corn above the edge of the bushel. It is usually made of two forms; the one a flat piece of wood, like a in fig. 169; the other of the form of a roller, like b. The Weights and Measures Act prescribes that the strike shall be of a round form, of a piece of light wood, 2 inches in diameter; but he who put the notion into the heads of those who drew up the act, that this is the best form of strike, must have had little experience of using one. If the ob

ject is to separate one stratum of grains of corn from another-and this is the only object of using a strike—the sharp edge of Fig. 169.

b

THE FLAT AND CYLINDER CORN-STRIKES.

the flat strike is evidently best fitted for the purpose. A cylinder, when passed with a uniform motion over a bushel, though not rolling, must push down some of the grain that is in front of it, under it; and, if it is rolled across the bushel, it must press down still more grain, in the manner of a roller passing over friable land, and, of course, make the bushel hold more grain than it would naturally do. I would advise all sellers of grain to use the flat strike, whatever purchasers may wish them to do. On striking wheat, the strike is drawn straight across the bushel, the grains being nearly round, and yielding easily to the forward motion of the strike; but in the case of barley and oats, pease and beans, the strike should be moved across the bushel in a zig-zag manner, because, those grains being long or rough, a straight motion is apt to tear away some of them even to be below the level of the edge of the bushel. The strike should be made of wood in the best seasoned state, and of that kind which is least likely to lose its straightness of edge, while it should be light to carry in the hand, and hard to resist blows. Perhaps plane-tree may afford the nearest approach to all these properties.

1808. Wheat and oats require no other dressing than what may be given by the fanner; but it is otherwise, at times, with barley. When barley has not been thoroughly ripened, the awns are apt to be broken off at too great a distance from the grain, by the thrashing-machine; and as the part left must be got rid of before the grain can be said to be dressed, means

are used for that purpose by the hummeller, which may be driven by the same power as the thrashing-machine, or used by the hand.

1809. The hummelling of barley is a process that, in many cases, is essential to the marketable condition of that grain, and it is effected in many different ways. In some cases the thrashing-machine itself is made the hummeller, by employing an iron fluted cover to the drum; in others, without this addition, the barley is shut up in the drum-case for a few minutes while the drum is revolving, as recommended by the late Rev. Dr Farquharson, Alford.* Another method is with a conical receiver, within which a spindle, carrying a number of cross arms, is made to revolve, and the grain passes through this machine, lying nearly in a horizontal position, before entering the fanner. This form of the hummeller was made public by Messrs Grant, Grantown, Banffshire,† and, with some modifications, which are, however, very important ones, and give a new character to the machine,-a bummeller similar to it is now the most approved form, the case being made cylindrical, and its position vertical. its position vertical. Instead, also, of the grain passing loosely through the cylinder, an essential characteristic of the improved machine is, that the cylinder shall be always full of grain.

1810. The cylinder hummeller consists of a cylindrical case of wire-cloth, having an upright iron spindle revolving within it, armed with a number of flat thin blades of iron, kept in revolution at a high velocity. The grain is admitted through a hopper at top, keeping the cylinder always full, and is discharged through a small orifice at bottom, the degree of hummelling depending upon the area of this orifice. Fig. 170 is an elevation of this hummeller. The sole frame a a rests on the floor of the corn-barn (see k fig. 130;) bb are two strong posts rising from the former, and secured to the beams of the floor above; c is a bridge-tree which supports the foot of the spindle h; two rings of wood d d, are supported by the uprights f. It is lined with wire-cloth, of 10 or 12 meshes in the inch, and placed

THE ELEVATION OF THE CYLINDER HUMMELLER.

thin shield on the spindle, over the opening. The spindle supports the blades, which are in 2 rows, 5 and 4 in a row, riveted into the spindle; or the blades may be cruciform, with an eye in the centre, through which the shaft passes. The hopper k may be either formed round the spindle, or it may stand at one side; and it may be furnished with a slider to regulate the feed, though this is virtually done by the contraction or enlargement of the orifice below. To save space, fig. 170 is represented broken off; but m is a bridge-piece bolted upon the posts b, to support the head of the spindle, and also the end of the horizontal shaft; the spindle h and shaft carry the mitre

wheels o that give motion to the spindle. The spindle requires to have a velocity of 300 to 400 per minute, and the motion may be conveyed in various ways, suited to the general arrangements of the machinery. In the present case, it is brought at once from the great spur-wheel by a pinion of the same size as that of the drum; and its shaft is supported on a bracket at the one end, while the other has a bearing in the wall that separates the barn from the engine-house.

1811. The Hand-hummeller.-In the smaller class of farms, hand-hummellers are pretty generally used, and are of various forms, but all retaining one principle of construction and of effect. They are round, square, and oblong; but in all three forms, they consist of a number of parallel bars of iron, placed in a frame of one of the forms above-named. Fig. 171 Fig. 171. is a square hummeller in perspective. It consists of a square frame of iron, 12 inches each way, 2 inches in depth, and inch thick. Bars of similar dimensions are riveted into the sides of the frame, and crossing each other, forming compartments of from 1 to 2 inches square. A branched iron stem is riveted to the frame

THE HAND-HUMMELLER.

below and at top, and forms a socket into which a wooden helve is fixed, having a crosshead by which it is held in the hand. Such hummellers are frequently made with parallel bars only, in which case they are less expensive but much less effective. It is used with a mincing motion on a thin layer of barley on the floor.

1812. To make sacks stand so as each may be taken away with ease from a number, they should be set, the first one

loins, and his right hand upon his right knee, to await in this position the assistance that is to be given him. Two people assist in raising the sack, by standing face to face, one on each side of it, bowing down so as to clasp hands across the sack near its bottom, as from g to h, below the carrier's head, and thrusting the fingers of the other hands into the corners g and h, which yield and go inwards, and thereby afford a firm hold. Each lifter then presses his shoulder against the edge of the sack, and with a combined exertion upwards, which the carrier seconds by raising his body up, the bottom of the sack is raised uppermost, and the tied mouth downmost, resting against the back of the carrier. The lifters now leaving hold, the carrier keeps the sack steady on his back, with his left arm across its mouth. Another plan is, for the carrier to lay hold of the top of the shoulder of the sack with both his hands, his arms crossing each other. His two assistants do as directed before; and while they lift the sack between them, the carrier quickly turns his back round to the sack and receives it there, retaining a firm hold of the parts he had at first. A third plan is for the assistants to raise the sack upon another one, and then the carrier brings his back down against the side of the sack, laying hold of its shoulders over his own shoulders, and rising up straight with it on his back. The last plan requires most strength from the carrier, he having to rise up with the load; the second most from the lifters, they having to lift the load up; and in the first both parties are nearly equally concerned.

1814. The more upright a man walks with a loaded sack on his back, with a short firm step, the less will the load feel oppressive to him.

1815. A filled sack is kneed forward by placing both knees against the side of the sack, and, while embracing it with both arms, and grasping hold of it with both hands, lifting it from the ground, and pushing it forward a space with the knees, and thus from space to space, or around a pivot.

1816. In regard to loading a cart with filled sacks, the general principle is to place all the mouths of the sacks within

the body of the cart, so that should any of the tyings give way, the corn will not be spilled upon the ground. One mode of loading a cart, a double-horse load, is represented in Plate III., which is supposed to be a loaded cart on its way to a market town. Two sacks are laid flat on the bottom of the cart, with the mouths next the horse. Two are placed on the front, with their bottoms outwards. Two are placed on the tail-board with their bottoms outwards, and the mouths of all the four are within the cart. These last four sacks are placed on their edges, with the corners just over the edge of the front and back of the cart. Other two sacks are placed together on edge above these four, and one behind, flat, with all their mouths pointing inwards. Nine or ten old bolls, that is, 54 or 60 bushels, used to be carried by two horses, according to the distance to be travelled; but now that half-quarter sacks are in use, and the single-horse cart is most generally employed, the loads have assumed a different form, according to the length of the journey, and as the horses are to be loaded or return empty from the market town. About 36 bushels of wheat, 40 of barley, and 56 of oats, each quantity making about 1 ton weight, is considered a good load for a double cart in the country; and a single one will take a proportionate quantity of these numbers, according to the circumstances in which the farm is situated in reference to the place where the grain is to be delivered; but 15 cwts. make a good load for a single horse. The carters in towns take much heavier loads of corn than those in the country. I may mention that the sacks, as represented in the cart in Plate III., seem too large and full for corn; they rather have the appearance of being filled with rye-grass seed.

1817. The sacks for corn require to be attended to, to keep them in serviceable condition. They are usually made of a sort of canvass, called sacking, and according to the quality of the tow of which the sacking is made, and the mode in which it is manufactured, whether tweeled or plain, the price of sacks varies from 1s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. each. Every sackful of corn, before it is put into the cart, is tied at the mouth with a piece of cord, a soft cord answering the purpose best. The ties are either attached to the seam of the sack it