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to the manifest loss of the person who practises it. One ortwo per cent, of bad grain left in the stock, will lessen the pricefrom five to ten per cent, according as the market happens tobe dull or brisk ; and the imperfect grain, if dressed out, mayeither be sold separately, or used at home. In fact, grain cannever be sold to advantage unless it is properly dressed.
In the course of dressing, all the small seeds of weeds areseparated from the grain, by means of a sloping screen orharp, made of iron wires with small intervals, which consti-tutes a portion of the winnowing machine; or they are after-wards separated by means of sieves, or small meshed riddles,which allow the small seeds to pass through, but retain thegrain. It is a proper precaution, to prevent all chance ofthese returning to the land, to give them to the farm poultry,and on no account to allow them to go to the dunghill. Whenthere is any sand among the grain, it is separated by meansof the rees, or by sieves which have still smaller meshes.
The hands required ibr dressing by means of the fanners, aretwo men find three women. The quantity of grain dressed bythese hands in a day must vary, according to the state in whichit is before dressing, and consequently according to the num-ber of times it may require to be put through the winnowingmachine. It may run, therefore, from 200 to 300 bushels;and, as the wages of the people employed may amount to se-ven shillings, the expence of dressing and measuring up formarket may run from somewhat more than a farthing to lessthan a halfpenny for each bushel, according to circumstances.
The winnowing machine has been already described inChapter V., along with the other implements employed inhusbandry. The sieves and rees, mentioned as implementsused in dressing, are finer species of riddles, for separatingsmall seeds and sand from the grain. While the grain ispassing through the riddles, small pieces of straw', and clolccsand capes , or grain to which the chad’ adheres, are thrownto the top, by means of the circular motion of the riddles,and are skimmed off’ by hand. The winnow ing machine.