18.2
And would you cut near the top or close to the ground? If the stalk is short, I should cut low down, so that the straw may be more useful; but if it is long, I think it would be right to cut in the middle, in order that the threshers and winnowers may not spend needless trouble on what they don’t want. I imagine that the stubble may be burnt with advantage to the land, or thrown on the manure heap to increase its bulk.
18.3
Do you notice, Socrates, that you stand convicted of knowing just what I know about reaping too? Yes, it seems so; and I want to know besides whether I understand threshing as well. Then you know this much, that draught animals are used in threshing?
18.4
Yes, of course I do; and that the term draught animals includes oxen, mules and horses. Then do you not think that all the beasts know is how to trample on the corn as they are driven? Why, what more should draught animals know?
18.5
And who sees that they tread out the right corn, and that the threshing is level, Socrates? The threshers, clearly. By continually turning the untrodden corn and throwing it under the animal’s feet they will, of course, keep it level on the floor and take least time over the work. So far, then, your knowledge is quite as good as mine.
18.6
Will not our next task be to clean the corn by winnowing, Ischomachus? Yes, Socrates; and tell me, do you know that if you start on the windward side of the floor, you will find the husks carried right across the floor? It must be so.
18.7
Is it not likely, then, that some will fall on the grain? Yes, it is a long way for the husks to be blown, right over the grain to the empty part of the floor. But what if you start winnowing against the wind? Clearly the chaff will at once fall in the right place.
