IN SCOTLAND.

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toned upon the arms of a cast-metal wheel. Some of thesemachines are furnished with three cutters, others with two,and sometimes one is preferred; these knives are also madeso as to cut in a sloping direction outwards from the centreof the axle, and others placed so as to cut inwards to thatcentre, which seems preferable to the former method. 1 hereis generally a crank, or bended handle, fixed upon the axleof the wheel on which the cutters are placed, and by this han-dle they are turned round ; but as the principal object is ex-pedition in cutting, and lessening of manual labour, it is there-fore obvious, that it will answer these purposes much moreeffectually, when attached to any machine which is driven ei-ther by water, wind, or cattle, as has been done in some in-stances.

3. Pot-Barley Mills .—In Scotland , prior to the use of bar-ley-mills, this grain was prepared for the pot by manual la-bour. The rough bear or barley, being put into a concaveor hollow stone, in which was dropped a small quantity ofwater, was beat by a rounded wooden mallet, until the huskwas separated from the kernel. This was evidently a verylaborious and defective process, the barley never being suffi-ciently cleared of the husk or chaff.

The making of pot-barley by machinery, as has been al-ready observed, was first introduced into North Britain fromHolland, by Mr James Meikle, about the year 1710. Theconstruction of the machine for that purpose, it seems, wasthen nearly the same as that of the corn or meal mill; ha-ving a water-wheel and two stones placed in a horizontalposition, the lower one being a common millstone laid flat up-on a strong wooden frame. The running or upper stone wasof a coarse free quality, and revolved horizontally within acircular case, or frame of wood, the circumference of whichwas covered with sheet or plate iron perforated with holes, inorder to allow dust and small seeds to pass through.

It appears that this form of the machine, and position ofthe millstones, were retained for a considerable time in ma-