e flail was an implement of common
use upon the barn floor. Then came the invention called the "cylinder";
this was systematically studded with "teeth" and these, in the rapid
revolutions of the cylinder, passed between corresponding teeth
systematically set in what is known as "concaves." This tooth
arrangement in revolving cylinder and in concave was as epochal in the
line of progress in threshing machines as the sickle, with its
"sections" passing or being drawn through guards, was in reaping
machines.

=The First Machine.=--The earliest of these threshing machines
containing a cylinder was run by a treadmill on which a horse was used.
It was literally a "one-horse" affair. Of course the first type of
cylinder was small and simple, and the work as a rule was poorly done.
The chaff and the straw came out together and men had to attend to each
by hand. The wheat was poorly cleaned and had to be run through a
fanning-mill several times.

=Improvements.=--Then came some improvements and enlargements in the
cylinder, and also the application of horse power by means of what was
known as "tumbling rods" and a gearing attached to the cylinder. All
this at first was on rather a small scale, only two, three, or four
horses being used. But improvements and enlargements came step by step,
until the ten and twelve horse power machine was achieved, resulting in
the large separator that would thresh out several hundred bushels of
wheat in a day. The separator had also attached to it what was called
the "straw carrier," which conveyed both the straw and the chaff to
quite a distance from the machine. But even then most of the work around
the machine was done by hand. The straw pile required the attention of
three or four men; or if the straw were "bucked," as they said, it
required a man with a horse or team hitched to a long pole. In this
latter case the straw was spread in various parts of the field and
finally burned.

=The Steam Engine.=--Then came the portable steam engine for threshing
purposes. At first, however, this had to be drawn from place to place by
teams. The power was applied to the separator by a long belt. Following
this, came the devices for cutting the bands, the self-feeder, and
finally the straw blower, as it is called, consisting of a long tube
through which the straw is blown by the powerful separator fanning-mill.
This blower can be moved in different directions, and consequently it
saves the labor of as