Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/352

Rh 326 AGRICULTURE [MACHINES AND fifty quarters of grain, taking the average of wheat, barley, and oats, are thrashed, dressed, and sacked up ready for market, in a day of ten hours, with a consumption of 7^ cwt. of good coals, and a gross expenditure for wages, value of horse labour, fuel, and wear and tear of machinery, of 9d. per quarter. The exigencies of the labour market are giving a power ful stimulus to the use of labour-saving contrivances of all kinds ; and hence the recent introduction of straw elevators, to be worked either by horse-power or by the same steam- engine that is driving the thrashing-machinery. The latter plan finds most favour in England, where it has already been adopted to a considerable extent. The Royal Agricultural Society of England has done much towards ascertaining the real merits of the various thrashing-machines now in use, by the carefully conducted comparative trials to which it has subjected those which have been presented in competition for its liberal prizes. The accuracy of these trials, and the value of the recorded results, have been much enhanced by the use of an ingenious apparatus invented by Mr C. E. Amos, consulting engineer to the Society, which is figured and described at p. 479 of vol. xi. of the Society s Journal. A pencil connected with this apparatus traces a diagram upon a sheet of paper, recording every variation of the power employed during the experiment to work the machine under trial. For reasons already stated, we regard it as unfor tunate that the patronage of this great Society has hitherto been so exclusively bestowed upon portable machines. Section 20. Winnowing-Machines. We have already referred to the fanners, which, except in portable machines, are almost invariably found in com bination with thrashing-machinery, so as to deliver the grain into the corn-chamber in a comparatively clean state ; and we have also noticed the further contrivances by which, when there is a sufficient motive power at command, the complete dressing of the grain goes on simultaneously with the thrashing. The winnowers used in such cases do not differ in construction from those worked by hand. In deed, it is usual to have one at least that can be used in either way at pleasure. In these machines the separa tion of the clean from the light grain, and of both from dust, sand, and seeds of weeds, or other rubbish, is effected by directing an artificial blast of wind upon a stream of grain as it falls upon a riddle. There is thus a combination of fanning and sifting, which is used in different degrees according to the views of the mechanist. In some forms of this machine the benefit of the artificial blast is in a great measure lost through an injudicious application of it. Section 21. Corn-Bruiser and Grinding-Mill. The now frequent use of various kinds of grain in the fattening of live stock creates a necessity for machines to prepare it for this purpose, either by breaking, bruising, or grinding. A profusion of these, to be worked by hand, is everywhere to be met with. Such machines are always most economically worked by steam or water power. When that can be had, a set of rollers for bruising oats or linseed, and millstones to grind the inferior grain of the farm, form a most valuable addition to barn machinery. Section 22. Cake-Crushers. Machines for breaking linseed-cake into large pieces for cattle, or smaller ones for sheep, are now in general use. The breaking is performed by passing the cakes between serrated rollers, by which it is nipt into morsels. These are usually driven by hand ; but it is always expedient to have a pulley attached to them, and to take advantage of mechanical power when available. Section 23. Chaff-Cutters. The use of this class of machines has increased very much of late years. Fodder when cut into lengths of from half-an-inch to an inch is somewhat more easily masticated than when given to animals in its natural state; but the chief advantages of this practice are, that it prevents waste, and admits of different qualities as of hay and straw, straw and green forage, or chaff and pulped roots being so mixed that animals cannot pick out the one from amongst the other, but must eat the mixture as it is presented to them. Such cut fodder also forms an excellent vehicle in which to give meal or bruised grain, either cooked or raw, to live stock. This applies parti cularly to sheep feeding on turnips, as they then require a portion of dry food, but waste it grievously when it is not thus prepared. Chaff-cutters are constructed on a variety of plans ; but the principle most frequently adopted is that of radial knives bolted to the arm of a fly-wheel, which work across the end of a feeding-box fitted with rollers, which draw forward the straw or hay and present it in a compressed state to the action of the knives. A machine on this principle, made by Cornes of Barbridge, has gained the first premium in its class at recent meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Gillcts guillotine chaff-cutter is an exceedingly ingenious and efficient machine, performing its work with great accuracy, and without frequent sharpening of its one double-edged knife. These machines are most economically worked by the power used for thrashing. The most convenient site for them is in the upper loft of the straw-barn, where the straw can be supplied with little labour, and the chaff either shoved aside, or allowed to fall as it is cut through an opening in the floor into the apartment below, and at once conveyed to other parts of the homestead. The practice on some farms where there is a fixed steam-engine, is to thrash a stack of oats in the forenoon, and to cut up the straw, and bruise or grind the grain simultaneously, in the afternoon. Section 2 4. Turnip-Cutters. Cattle and sheep which have arrived at maturity are able to scoop turnips rapidly with their sharp, gouge-like front teeth, and so can be fattened on this kind of food without an absolute necessity of slicing it for them. Even for adult animals there is, however, an advantage in reducing turnips to pieces which they can easily take into their mouths, and at once get between their grinders with out any preliminary scooping ; but for young stock, during the period of dentition, it is indispensable to their bare subsistence. It is largely through the use of slicing- machines that certain breeds of sheep are fattened on turnips, and got ready for the butcher at fourteen months old. It seems to be admitted on all hands that Gardener s patent turnip-cutter is the best that has yet been produced for slicing roots for sheep. It is now made entirely of iron, and is an exceedingly useful machine. In cattle feeding it is not usually thought necessary to divide the roots given to them so minutely as for sheep. A simple machine, fashioned much on the principle of nut-crackers, by which, at each depression of the lever handle, one turnip is forced through a set of knives which divide it into slices each an inch thick, is very generally used in Berwickshire for this purpose. Many persons, however, prefer to have the turnips put into the cattle-troughs whole, and then to have them cut by a simple cross-bladed hand-chopper, which at each blow qiiarters the piece struck by it. The mode of housing fattening cattle largely determines whether roots can be most conveniently sliced before or after being put into the feeding-troughs.