the Indian corn was soft, the block and pestle did very well for
making meal for johnny-cake and mush; but were rather slow when the corn
became hard.

"The sweep was sometimes used to lessen the toil of pounding grain into
meal. This was a pole of some springy, elastic wood, thirty feet long
or more; the butt end was placed under the side of a house, or a large
stump; this pole was supported by two forks, placed about one-third
of its length from the butt end, so as to elevate the small end about
fifteen feet from the ground; to this was attached, by a large mortise
a piece of sapling about five or six inches in diameter, and eight or
ten feet long. The lower end of this was shaped so as to answer for a
pestle. A pin of wood was put through it, at a proper height, so that
two persons could work at the sweep at once. This simple machine very
much lessened the labor and expedited the work.

"I remember that when a boy I put up an excellent sweep at my father's.
It was made of a sugar-tree sapling. It was kept going almost constantly
from morning till night by our neighbors for a period of several weeks."

In the Greenbriar country, where they had a number of saltpeter caves,
the first settlers made plenty of excellent gunpowder by the means of
those sweeps and mortars.

"A machine, still more simple than the mortar and pestle, was used for
making meal while the corn was too soft to be beaten. It was called a
grater. This was a half-circular piece of tin, perforated with a punch
from the concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block of wood. The
ears of corn were rubbed on the rough edge of the holes, while the meal
fell through them on the board or block, to which the grater was nailed,
which, being in a slanting direction, discharged the meal into a cloth
or bowl placed for its reception. This, to be sure, was a slow way of
making meal; but necessity has no law.

"The hand-mill was better than the mortar and grater. It was made of
two circular stones, the lowest of which was called the bed-stone,
the upper one the runner. These were placed in a hoop, with a spout for
discharging the meal. A staff was let into a hole in the upper surface
of the runner, near the outer edge, and its upper end through a hole in
a board fastened to a joist above, so that two persons could be employed
in turning the mill at the same time. The grain was put into the opening
in the runner by hand. The mills are still in use in Palestine