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THE THRESHING-MILL,

BY AN ESSEX FARMER./ To the Editor of the Commercial and Agricultural Magazine.

SIR, THE preſent ſtate of the country with regard to rural œco- I| nomics, precludes the neceſfity of all arguments in favour of machines calculated for the abridgment of human labour. Our urgent- neceſities, our waſtes, our defe@ive cultivation, demand the full aſſiſtance of every member, young and old, of that part of the population of theſe iſlands, which cân, or will be ſpared from manufa@uring and commercial employments. As little need is thcre of enlarging upon the already ſufficiently eſtabliſhed utility of that moit excellent modern invention, the TuREsHING-MACHINE, the obje& of theſe few deſultory lines, is rather to enquire into, and endeavour to remove thoſe cauſes, which have hitherto operated as an impediment to the more general uſe of an implement, of ſuch acknowledged worth and national conſequence.

In the firſt place, there is a general backwardnefſs, or rather averſion in the artificers of South Britain, to ere this machine on a ſmall ſcale, and at a low price, as is done generally in Scotland; the conſequence is, that a threſhing mill is out of the reach of the little farmer, to whom it would be perhaps, more par- ticularly uſeful than to one of the upper clafs: and farther, the wary plodding man, will not tiſk the advance of a conſiderable ſum, when he might be induced to ſpeculate upon a novel im- provement, provided the out ſet were not conſiderable.‘The implement-makers take upon them to aſſert roundly, that the ac- counts from Scotland are abſolutely falſe; that ſmall machines, of thirty or forty pounds coſt, are by no means either in frequent uſe, or ſucceſsful in that country; and that the erection ot one upon a ſmall ſcale, can neither do credit to the artificer, or real ſervice to the farmer. The only reaſon that I have ever been able to obtain, for theſe ſingular and bold aſſertions, 1s, that the machinery upon a ſmall ſcale, is extremely liable to give way, under the force commonly uſed to put it in motion, and that people are always prone to exceſs in that reſpe&X; an argument, which I muſt ſay, by no means ſatisfies me, and into the validity of which, if behoves thoſe who intereſt themſelves in the agri- cultural proſperity of the country, amongſt whom, are to be claſſed the managers of the Commercial and Agricultural Maga- zine, to inſtitute a ininute enquiry.,

But there is no kind of difficulty in obtaining a threſhing mill, which will perform to the utmoſt fatisfa@Æion, upon a corn farm of three or four hundred acres, at the expence of about two hun- dred pounds; which ſum it will aQually ſave, in Various Ways, in clean work, in prevention of frauds, in diſpatch, and ſaving

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