The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-07-24
THREsHING DAY.

Ah me, how many threshing days do I
remember-some sad ones and some pleas
ant ones. Sometimes the crop proved
almost failure, and sometimes it turned
out better than we expected, and the
good wife rejoiced and gave the thresh-
ers and all hands the best the house could
furnish. In my younger days we were
threshing more or less all winter. Now
ten-horse power steam thresher does the
whole work sometimes in one long day
and always in two days. 1t is a trying
time. The hopes and fears of a whole
year are brought to the test. 1t is busy
time for the farmer, and if he is not care
full he will be likely to overtask himself.
If he is wise nothing but absolute neces-
sity should induce him to "cut bands" or
take away the grain, or build the stack,
or undertake any work that will confne
him to one spot. He can always find
plenty to do. Sometimes the men who
are pitching the grain to the machine
may come across lot of rakings, and
little help may encourage them. Some
times the man who is carrying away the
grain will find the granary checked up,
and the farmer, by the vigorous use of
scoopshovel, will make all right again in o
few minutes. Sometimes the wind may
bother the men on the stack, and few
words of encouragement and sympathy,
with little assistance, will put new
spirit into them.
The essential points to look after are:
1st. The granary. 1t may need few
strips of tin to make it rat and mouse
proof. Recollect, also, that you have
not only to get the grain into it, but also
to get it out again-and it sometimes
happens that it is necessary to get it out
sooner than you expect. Should it get
warm it will be necessary Immediately to
turn it or spread it out on the barn floor,
or run it through tanning mill. I'd.
See that the machine threshes clean. If
not, lower the concave. See that no
grain is carried over with the chaff.
Occasionally the threshers have visitor
who wants to feed the machine, and he
crowds in the sheaves, and the sieves
cannot properly clean the grain, and
more or less of it passes over on to the
straw carrier. Sd. Look to the straw
stack. This is an important matter to
those of us who feed out the straw. The
great secret of making stack rain-proof
is to keep the middle full and well trodden
down from the start, so that
when it settles, the outside will sink
down lower than the inside. When you
begin to build the roof, the part that
needs the most care is Immediately under
the straw carrier. The chaff is apt to
accumulate there, and when the machine
is removed there will be depression in
the stack at this point that will let in the
rain. Take special pains to put some
layers of long straw under the straw
carrier. Many of our straw carriers are
not long enough, and if it is necessary
for a man to throw the straw up on the
roof of the stack, drive some long poles
into the stack and place an old door on
them for the man to stand on. If this is
not done, the place where he stand will
be hole difficult to fill up so that twill
shed the water. The farmer, if he is
wise, will frequently be on the straw
stack during the day and help to tread it
down in the middle, but for his own
safety and for the good of the stack he
will not venture too near the outside.
4th. Look out for fire from the en-
gine, but in point of fact there is more
danger from tobacco smokers than from
the engine.-American Agriculturist.