408
often, in peculiarly favourable circumstances, quite ready tobe measured up into sacks for market. In general, however,and more especially on middle sized farms, where less power-ful threshing-machines are employed, the grain has still to gothrough some part of the dressing or winnowing process, asshall be described in this section a little more in detail thanmay perhaps seem to be necessary, because the Scotch pro-cess differs malerially from that which is followed in the mid-land districts of England. In doing this it is necessary againto attend to the threshing-machine, as a part at least of theprocess is carried on by a winnowing machine connected withthe threshing-mill.
After having been beaten out from the ear by the first se-ries of gearing in the threshing-machine, and separated fromthe straw by the second series, as already described, the grainand chaff pass through a grated hopper into the winnowing*machine connected with the threshing apparatus, hy whichthe chaff is blown out into a separate chamber, called the chaff-hole, whilst the grain is delivered into the clean corn-roomthrough two separate apertures. One of these delivers thebest grain, and the other a secondary or inferior description.
In large and powerful machines, the grain is subjected to asecond winnowing machine, after passing through the first,and the separation of the two qualities delivered at the twoapertures is much more perfect. In some machines, a seriesof revolving buckets, resembling a chain pump, continuallycarry up all the secondary grain to the threshing stage;whence it passes again and again through the two winnowingmachines. In this case, a woman in the clean corn-room, hasonly to riddle the more perfect grain very carefully into a se-parate corner, returning all that she thinks less perfect to thesecondary aperture, whence it goes up with the rest to bewinnowed repeatedly. But it seems proper in this section tobestow attention on the circumstances connected with theless powerful and most common threshing-machines, whichhave only one winnowing machine attached to them.