Editing Threshing machine (section)

{{Short description|Agricultural machine}}
[[Image:Threshing Machine In Action.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A threshing machine in operation]]
A '''threshing machine''' or a '''thresher''' is a piece of [[agricultural machinery|farm equipment]] that separates [[grain]] seed from the [[plant stem|stalks]] and [[husk]]s. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, [[threshing]] was done by hand with [[Flail (tool)|flail]]s: such hand threshing was very laborious and time-consuming, taking about one-quarter of agricultural labour by the 18th century.<ref>
{{cite book |title      = ''A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World''
 |last       = Nazzir
 |first      = Wellons
 |year       = 2008
 |publisher  = [[Cesar Tarrant MIddle School]]
 |isbn       = 978-0-691-12135-2
 |page       = [https://archive.org/details/farewelltoalmsbr00clar/page/286 286]
 |url-access = registration
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/farewelltoalmsbr00clar/page/286
}}
</ref> [[Mechanization]] of this process removed a substantial amount of drudgery from farm labour. The first threshing machine was invented circa 1786 by the Scottish engineer [[Andrew Meikle]], and the subsequent adoption of such machines was one of the earlier examples of the [[mechanised agriculture|mechanization of agriculture]]. During the 19th century, threshers and mechanical [[reaper]]s and [[reaper-binder]]s gradually became widespread and made grain production much less laborious.

Separate reaper-binders and threshers have largely been replaced by machines that combine all of their functions, that is [[combine harvester]]s or combines. However, the simpler machines remain important as [[appropriate technology]] in low-[[financial capital|capital]] farming contexts, both in [[developing country|developing countries]] and in developed countries on small farms that strive for especially high levels of [[self-sufficiency]]. For example, [[threshers, pedal powered|pedal-powered threshers]] are a low-cost option, and some [[Amish]] sects use horse-drawn binders and old-style threshers.

As the verb ''[[wikt:thresh#Verb|thresh]]'' is [[cognate]] with the verb ''[[wikt:thrash#Verb|thrash]]'' (and [[synonym]]ous in the grain-beating [[word sense|sense]]), the names '''thrashing machine''' and '''thrasher''' are (less common) [[free variation|alternate forms]].