The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-28 00:00:00

HARVESTING CROPS INDEPENDENTLY
OF WEATHER. .

_
Mr. Robert Neilson. ft lislewood. Liverpool, writes the
following letter to 11. Tim. :
I am gratified to observe by your article of Wednes-
day last that you are giving your powerful influence in
directing the attention id agriculturists to the practi-
cahility of means for effecting this object, which is id
much public importauce in our variable climate, and
I will &A you to afford me apace in your columns to
give a brief detail of my experience in this matter,
which will be found to have anticipated to some extent
the recent trials oon this subject on a farm if under
300 acres, which I have held for some years as a tenant
of the Earl of Derby.
During the wet autumn of 1863 my friend and
brother magistrate for this county, Mr. Gossage, of
the well-known chymical and soap manufactory at
Widnes., in this neighbourhood, paid me a visit to ex-
plain and impress upon me scene ideas he had long en-
tertained as to harvesting crops so as to be independent
of weather. Mr. Gossagis's notions were that if corn
(however wet it might he) were placed in ricks in such
manner that a current of dry or he And air could be
forced through it. the supertluoua inoicure would be
speedily driven off and the coru become thoroughly
cured. He proposed to do this by means I a centri-
fugal fan driven by horse or steam power; and if the
latter were employed, to use the gases which were pro-
ductal by combustion of fuel under the boiler to yield
heated air to he applied to accelerate the drying.
After mature consideration, I was convinced the
plan was a practicable one, and, to prove it, I set up
is rick of beans in no damp a state that all my servants
thioight it could not fail of being utterly spoilt. This
tick was 20ot. by 15f t. by 20ft. high, being twice as
large as the usual size. Before forming the rick, I
placed a wooden trough or pipe Pin, square inside,
extending from tone end to the centre, alni terminating
in an aperture on the upper side Out, square. In
stacking the beans, I placed a sack (tilled with straw)
vertically over the aperture above-mentioned, and
gradually as the rick was formed, I kept raising the
sack, and forming a chimney of the same diameter,
till within about six feet off the top. I then con-
nected a centrifugal fan with the end of the
air trough, and had it driven by two men acting
on a large pulley from which the motion was con-
nected, by means of a strap, with a small pulley on the
fan shaft. I soon perceived evidence lif moisture pro-
ceeding from the rick, and, in a few days, employing
cold air, and with these insufficient means of applica-
tion, the rick of beans (which it had been preilicted
would be utterly spoilt) became thoroughly dried and
was thrashed out and consumed on the premises. I
was thus convinced that the use of artificial currents
of air either cold or, by preference, heated, would, in the
latter case particularly, render the agriculturist nearly
independent of weather in harveating his crops—and
I have acted upon this conviction when needful in my
operations ever since the wet harvest .d 1863.
This year I formed four ricks of hay, uoder wooden
covers (called Dutch barns), each 24ft. by 16ft. by 201 t.
high, with a wooden air trough running the whole
length under them, provided with slides to let on and
cut off the passage of air, and each rio.k haviog a
vertical channel formed as before described. One
rick of this hay wan mown. teddeil, and rolled together
by furise labour, put by hand into large cocks, and
on the third day from mowing, without being pre-
viously spread, was carted and stacked. Thin rick
was so out of condition that my bailiff begged me not
to let it be stacked, as it must, in his opinion, inevi-
tably take fire. I put up the three other stacks in
different stages of condition, but none thoroughly
cured. I then applied currents of cold air to the while
by means of a fan driven by a steam-engine of one
horse-power, and the hay in each stack (including the
one above specially noticed) became so thoroughly
cured that it has sold at the full market price if the
day. By them means the four ricks of hay were har-
vested with lass than one-foorth the expenditure for
manual labour usually required.
With regard to wheat, it has been customary with
me to thrash it by steam I, overimmediately on carting
it from the field, without putting it in ricks. On con-
sidering the advantages of this mode of drying I
erected an apparatua consisting of a double cylinder 8f t.
high, closed at top and bottom, formed of perforated
zioc platen, the outer cylinder being 81t. is diameter,
and the inner one 2ft., leaving an &fibular space if 3f ra,
which contained when filled upward. of WO bushels of
wheat. I applied, by means of a fan, a current or air
warmed by paesing over the steam boiler, to the inner
cylinder, and the air, after palming through the perk-
lationa, filtered through this wheat, causing it to be
brought quickly into a fit condition fir grinding.
I have stated that I commenced these operations by
the ed vice of my friend Mr. Gossage, iii 1863, and have
isontinually pursued t hem since that period. I consorter
that I have now SO thoroughly proved the praticahilty
oil advamage of these operations, that I can recom-
mend their univeted adoption by my brother agricul-
turists, in the full conviction that, by these means, we
can render ourselves, to a great extent, independent of
weather in harvesting our crops.

To Ma. Pu,cii. —Please, Sir, what is the
Height of the geaeue?iilioure truly, Siz. Feet Two.=
Amok.