Year: 1861

To build barns enough to house all
! the grain raised in the Nerth- west


would strip Michigan, Illinoise and


Owa of timber, and to pound it out by


fails, would employ an army of men.


Still while lumber is chep as it now is,


it pays. The freshly threshed straw


as thrown from the barn, where it has


been housed from the weather, is as


Palatable to cattle, and if cut. al The


right time, as nouriShing as mosf Of


our hay. Thousands If our caslle


could be win'ered ia this way, on a.


straw and chdG thar So .on


oClIl We cannot build oarus e,r


hard times. Lucky are We if csn


keep the buildings we now aaye.-


Must our substance then be eaten up


by these voracious, hydra headed


monsters, the eight and ten horse and


ten men threshing machines. My idea


IS, that the most practicable remedy


for these evils is il kind of c0lnpro


mise between the two systems; in the


use of some machine cheaper, simpler


lighter, requiring not more than two


horses to run it, and say three men,
one that would thresh perhaps 100
bushels day, leaving it in the chaff to
be subsequently cleaned, and upon a
movable floor which could be taken
to the different stacks as needed l
have heard somewhat similar machines
described, as being in use in the East
in barns, but no doubt it could be mod


fed and improved to be better adap-
ted 10 our country. The power must
not be the elevated tread, as that, to
horses unused to it, is injurious, and
is invariably disliked. The advantage
Of such a machine would be, in its en-
abling farmer to do his own thresh-
ing, at such times as he chooses, with
out extra help, and in such quantities
that his straw could be fresh thresh-
ed all winter. and available for food


Butmy object in writing is not on
lv TO express my views on the coStli
ness of large threshing machines, but
to carry the idea still further, viz. that
there is no machine in general use by |
farmers, that does not increase the
cost ofthe work it performs. If there
is any what is it? Is it the reaper ?
Let us see what reaping costs. You
have IA hundred acres Of grain to cut
and buy a reaper, and as it is best
policy to have the best machine, it
would cost on the average about one
hundred and fifty dollars. And be-
cause it is best policy to have good
machine, it may be considered to be
too far worn out to be proftably used
in FIVE years. We have then


For wear per year $50 %


Interest Is 90


Repairs, OIL &c. 10 20


10 davs work, 2 men 80 90


10 horses 20 90


I see no unfairness in these calcu-
ilatons, nor do l think that reapers
cut on an average more than 100 acres
yearly, or last more than FIVE years,
in profitable running order; yet here
we have an annual cost Of $105 to a
dollar and five cents to
the acre cut. Now in olden times
told, grading was done for fifty cents
an acre, and as three acres day is
not a very hard days work, do net
see why it cannot be done now for
that price. To cradle the whole grain
crop of the West seems aboluJely IN
possible, and l am not recommending
the entire disuse of the reaper for
that reason, but merely suggest that
it is the most expensive way of Sc
curing grain in farms of small size,
and that these high priced machines
are not so Indispensable as
as is thought by some. There are but
few farms that have been long settled
among us, upon which enough has not
been expended for machinery, to build
the necessary barns and comfortable
yet few of these farms
have barns, while the wrecks of cost
Iv machines are strewn from one end
Of the country to the other.


Machines, for farming on the prai-
ries, are indispensable because labor
is so scarce in our busy season, that
work would have to go undone if We
depended on hand labor to accomplish
it, but my own impression is, that the
use of these costly machines is to be
avoided where hand labor can be sub
Correspondent Prairie Ear
NOR 0