“The stone being well hung, proceed to grind, and when all things are ready, draw as much water as is judged to be sufficient; then observe the motion of the stone, by the noise of the damsel, and feel the meal; if it be too coarse, and the motion too slow, give less feed and it will grind finer, and the motion will be quicker; if it yet grind too coarse, lower the stones; then, if the motion be too slow, draw a little more water; but if the meal feel to be ground, and the motion right, raise the stones a little, and give the motion right, raise the stones a little, and give a little more feed. If the motion and feed be too great, and the meal be ground too low, shut off part of the water. But if the motion be too slow, and the feed too small, draw more water.”
I doubt very much that the venerable Mr. Evans would have relished “the noise of the damsel” if he had observed George one sunny afternoon pick up a luscious creature of the female sex, heave her over his shoulder and transport her into the depths of the mill, all in plain sight of the general public. It seems that it was a little too muddy for this fair lady to walk to the mill, but the following week, however, the same damsel was there and took the same ride on George’s shoulders into the mill.
We could not and did not observe either the motion or the noise of the damsel, which probably is just as well.
The damsel referred to by Evans, however, is nothing more or less than a square wooden shaft which turns against a shoe suspended under the spout of the hopper to regulate the flow of grain into the stones themselves.
There is, of course, a definite rhythm to the clatter created by the damsel, and this is what Evans was speaking about in “noise of damsel.”
Farther on in Evans’ book, it states that we must “pick up the stones” and sharpen them, but as I said before, we found that we were too ignorant of the art of sharpening the stones, and that is why we obtained the services of Mr. Mattson, who did an excellent job in “picking up” the stones.
It is interesting to read Evans’ book, and I have taken the time to copy directly from the book the chapter on the “Duties of the Miller.”
“CHAPTER XVIII
Directions for keeping the mill and the business of it in good order.
Article 116