or THRESHING, in agriculture, the art of beating the corn out of the ears.

There are two ways of separating corn from the ear; the first by beating it with a flail, which is properly what is called thrashing. The other method, still practised in several countries, is to make mules, or horses, trample on it, backwards and forwards; this is properly what the ancients called tritura and trituration. The Hebrews used oxen therein, and sometimes yoked four together for this purpose. Another way among the ancients was with a kind of hedge, made of boards joined together, and loaded with stones or iron, upon which a man was mounted, and the whole drawn over the corn by horses: this instrument was called traha, or tribula.

THRAVE of corn, twenty-four sheaves, or four shocks of six sheaves to the shock; though, in some countries, they only reckon twelve shocks to the thrave.