hopper. This latter construction is the better one, the oppor tunity to riddling being placed between the two cleanings, and the grain being fit to be measured into the sacks from the second machine. In both cases, however, a hand winnowing machine cannot altogether be dispensed with in the barn, as there are many small jobs to be occasionally done in it with the machine, for which it would not be worth while to set on the mill-power. The second winnowing machine is certainly a saving, but the same remark applies to it as to the buckets, that a greater than an ordinary power is requisite to drive it with the thrashing-mill; and it may be a question whether the saving will compensate for the additional outlay. Of the two, the buckets and the second winnowing-machine, the greater saving will undoubtedly be effected on the latter.

Grain is taken to the market in two modes. One by sample, —that is, a small quantity is taken in the hand by the seller, to show to the buyers in the market, and when the agreement as to price is made, the sample is left with the buyer, that he may judge of the stock when it is delivered to him, that it is of similar quality to the sample. The other mode is by stock,-that is, the grain is taken to the market by carts in sacks, and sold, delivered, and paid for at the same time. The selling of grain by stock is the fairest way between buyer and seller, as the buyer cannot be deceived in the quality of the grain which he buys, and it precludes the temptation to fraud, on the part of the seller, by attempting to pass off an inferior article to the sample. It is, however, attended with considerable inconvenience to the seller, in as far as he has lost a day's work of his horses and men, if he is obliged to take his grain home again, and he is subjected to extraordinary expense in lodging the grain in a granary till a future market-day. The farmer, in this mode of selling, is more at the mercy of the buyer than in that of selling by sample. By far the greatest quantity of grain is sold in our markets by sample; but to render the sample a fair one, it should be taken out of the sack's mouth. A sample drawn out of a stack, and blown clean, or a picked one, is not a fair one; but the buyer, who is much in the power of the seller, in the case of sales by sample, has a check on him by a reference to the weight as well as the price. There is a very good method

of transacting the business between the farmer and the corndealer in some parts of Scotland, and that is, when the corn is delivered, a regular printed receipt is given by the person who is appointed by the buyer to receive the grain, stating the quantity received of the particular kind of grain, its price, its weight, and the amount in value of the whole quantity delivered at that time. This receipt is shewn by the farmer next market-day to the corn-dealer, who puts his name upon it, and converts it into an order on a bank, where it is cashed, on the farmer indorsing his name on the back of it.

On comparing the expense of thrashing grain by the mill and the flail, the advantage at first sight would be declared for the mill, and truly; but the saving is not so great as might have been anticipated. The quantity of corn which a man and six women could take into the barn and thrash, in a short winterday, would not exceed 22 quarters. That quantity may be considered good work for that number of people. It may here be observed, that the quantity thrashed by the mill should not be estimated so much by the number of quarters of grain that have been thrashed, as by the quantity of straw; for it is the quantity of straw alone which retards the operation of the mill, whatever may be the quantity of corn which that straw may yield. Suppose the same quantity of straw would yield as much again corn in one year as it would in another, the time consumed in thrashing it by the mill would be the same. So that calculating by the grain the cost of men thrashing, it may cost as much again in one year as it would do in another. But taking a prolific gift of corn, with abundance of straw, the quantity of work above stated is as much as could be performed by that number of people with an ordinary six-horse power thrashing-mill, propelled by an abundant supply of water. The wages of six women, at 8d. per day, and the man, being a trusty one, at 2s., would give 6s. for taking in and thrashing 22 quarters of grain, or 31d. per quarter. It would take four women and the same man a day in winter to clean completely and measure 22 quarters of grain, that is 4s. 8d., or 24d. per quarter. Both would give 54d. per quarter. The machinery of the mill, with its ark, dam-sluices, and fore and back leads, for bringing to and taking away the water from the mill, could

not be executed for less than L. 200 of outlay of capital, which, at 7 per cent. per annum for tear and wear of machinery, and interest of capital sunk, and which is not too great an allowance, would be L. 14 a-year; and if the farm yielded only 370 quarters of grain, that would be 9d. per quarter expense, which, added to the 5 d., would give a total of 14 d. per quarter of expense, in thrashing a crop by means of a water-power thrashing-mill. Now the ordinary amount of thrashing corn by the flail is 134d. per quarter; and allowing the barn-man four women one day to clean the 22 quarters of grain, his own wages being included in the allowance, their wages will be 2s. 8d., or lad. the quarter. Both will be 14 d. per quarter. No expense of taking in the crop to the barn, in the case of thrashing with the flail, would be incurred; because, when such a mode is adopted of separating the crop from the straw, the thrashing-barn is placed conveniently to the stacks for the purpose. Hence on the score of mere pecuniary saving, unless a farm were to produce more than 370 quarters of grain, it would scarcely be worth while to lay out capital for the erection of a six-horse-power thrashing-machine propelled by water-power. But still the farmer enjoys many advantages with the thrashing machine. By it he commands the time and the market for the safety and the sale of his grain, and straw, when he chooses, for his live-stock; and these, of themselves, are advantages which would sink all the possible expenses of thrashing his crop into insignificance; and these advantages arise to a greater proportionable degree the more the mill can be employed in thrashing the greater quantity of produce raised on the farm.

The implements used in the barn are few and simple. Riddles are made both of wires and stripes of ash. We prefer the wooden ones, because the width of the ashen withs prevents the grain passing so quickly through them as in the wire ones, and of course time is allowed to bring the refuse to a skimming on the top. The most convenient shape of the bushel for supplying the grain into the sacks, and for stability, is when it is of a little larger diameter at the bottom than at the top, with a couple of handles, one on each side, placed about two-thirds from the bottom. The lighter the bushel is made the better, provided it is hooped with iron on all those parts

A flat strike is more conve

which are most exposed to use. nient than a round one, as the act of striking across the mouth of the bushel in a zig-zag motion arranges more smoothly the grain of corn than passing it directly across. Shovels made of wood, of one piece of plane-tree, with broad mouths, a little turned up on each side, and handled like a common spade, suit the work of the corn-barn and granary admirably. A hummeller to use by the hand, to break off the awns of the riddlings of barley, will be found useful. It is a square-shaped instrument, made of plate-iron, set on edge, subdivided like the chequers of a backgammon board, with an iron shank, and cross-head of wood. Wechts made of broad slips of ash are light and handy. They should each contain at least half a bushel of grain, that two fills of them may fill the bushel at once. A sieve of the same materials cannot be wanted in a corn-barn. A broad light sort of hand-hoe, made of wood, with a very short handle, for hoeing the grain into the wechts, instead of using the hands, will be found to be a useful, though an unpretending, implement. Neat management of barn-work, and the presentation of clean corn at market, are strong indications of good farming.

ON A PROBABLE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF THE FLUCTUATION IN THE PRICES OF GRAIN.

(To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.)

THAT great fluctuations in the price of grain is an evil to the agriculture of this country, he at least who is embarked in agriculture will not be disposed to deny. They embarrass all the transactions of the farmer. They at one time excite in him a hope which cannot be realised, and at another superinduce a despondency of mind which unfits him for the proper management of his farm. They first flatter the poor tenant with the delusive prospect of his newly taken farm possessing the power to yield a high rent, and then render him fretful when his landlord will not listen to his own ideas of the extent of its reduction. They encourage the rich one to speculate in his own grain, and allure his capital gradually out of his grasp. All

these evils the farmers have felt severely since the termination of the war. The fruits of these evils may be seen in the country in the inferior cultivation of the inferior soils; and if the inferior soils, through comparative neglect, yield less winter food for live-stock than formerly, the consequence will be either a reduced number of live-stock in the country, or an encroachment on the richer soils for the production of their food, but which should have yielded the more valuable food of man.

Fluctuation in the price of grain can only benefit the speculators in grain, and if the laws of the country favour their propensities, means will be used by them to produce those fluctuations to a much greater extent than the natural variations of supply and demand in the market can justify. While these speculating agents can influence our home corn-markets with a commodity which is obtained from abroad, our wonder may cease at the feverish state in which our farmers so often find our grain markets. It is quite impossible for them to foretel the rate of price in our corn-markets for the space of a single week. They may one week find a brisk demand for a particular kind of grain; in the next no demand for it may exist. A few samples of one kind may be demanded one week, and while the farmer has fulfilled his intention of thrashing a stack or two of the kind in demand for next market-day, he may there find such a brisk demand again for another kind, as though enough of it could not be raised in the country to supply it. All the transactions in grain in the country acquire their camelion hues from the state of the previous grain-market in London. A few great speculators there can give the tone to all the corn-markets in the empire. This state of things is not conducive to the welfare of the country. What may be the best means which could be adopted to prevent the proverbially precarious nature of these markets, it may be difficult to devise; but I think the farmers have at least one means and only one in their power, to stay so great a plague in the country. These fluctuations are assuredly no benefit to them. Let them then look seriously to the only means which I think is in their own power; but should my conjecture be erroneous, the attention which I may have drawn from them to the subject, will at least do them no harm; on the contrary, it may be the immediate cause of their