CHAPTER V.

AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS (_continued_).

Harvest Ended, Comes the Preparation of Grain and Fruits for Food.--Cleaning.--Separating.--Grinding.--Fanning Mills and Sir Walter Scott.--The Rudimentary Mills.--Egyptian.--Hebrew, Grecian, and Roman Methods, Prevailed until Middle of Eighteenth Century.--The Upper and Nether Mill Stone in Modern Dress.-- Modern Mills Invented at Close of Eighteenth Century.--Oliver Evans of America, 1755-1819.--Evans’ System Prevailed for Three Quarters of a Century.--New System.--Middlings.--Low Milling.-- High Milling.--Roller Mills.--Middlings Separators.--Dust Explosions and Prevention.--Vegetable Cutters.--Choppers.--Fruit Parers and Slicers.--Great Range of Mechanisms to Treat the Tenderest Pods and Smallest Seeds.--Crushing Sugar Cane.-- Pressing and Baling.--Every Product has its own Proper Machine for Picking, Pressing, Packing, or Baling.--Cotton Compress.-- Extensive and Enormous Cotton Crops of the World.--Cotton Presses of Various Kinds.--Hay and its Baling.--Bale Ties.-- Fruits and Foods.--Machines for Gathering, Packing, Preserving, etc., all Modern.--Drying and Evaporating.--Sealing.-- Transporting.--Tobacco.--Its Enormous Production.--The Interdict of James I., and of Popes, Kings, Sultans, etc.--Variety of Machines for its Treatment. 45