Yelm

After the leaves had been removed, as many turnips were thrown together as would lie upon a circle four yards in diameter: yealms of wheat-straw were made, similar to such as are used for thatching, but longer, thicker, and formed with less precision: four tall stakes were then driven into the earth, each a yard from the heap, so as to form a square, each side of which would measure six yards. Two courses of yealms were next placed on the earth, so as to enclose the quadrangle indicated by the stakes; […]

Another useful implement of Mr. Williams' is his Patent Horse-rake. […] [A] ball working with the leverage of a handle keeps the teeth at their work, and is connected with the bar running underneath by a spring, and cannot lose the yealm.

The carts take them [mangold or mangelwurzel] to the place for graving, and the whole is so regulated that all are kept going. The grave is usually set out about eight or nine feet in width, and the slant upwards finishes in a point at about five to six feet in height. Straw or stubble is drawn out in "haulms" or "yealms" as for thatching, and with these the grave is securely thatched and made safe by spits of earth being thrown upon the sides.

He [the thatcher] is attended by a man to carry up the ‘yelms,’ […]

The thatcher then laid the ‘yelms’, or bunches of drawn straw, on the laths, beginning at the eaves and working up towards the ridge.

Horses thrive particularly well upon it [furze], and are exceedingly lively and hearty in their work; but I have usually given it to them mixed with chaff, containing one part hay, and two parts straw, yelmed together, and cut by a chaff-cutter.

The straw, when delivered from the threshing machine, […] then comes down an inclined rack, nearly yelmed and ready for cutting into chaff. Three men yelm the straw, mixing it with a small quantity of green fodder, such as rye or tares.

MAYNARD, Robert, engineer,[…]—"Improvements in portable chaff-cutting machinery." Apparatus for straightening or "yealming" the straw, and additional means for bringing the straw forward to the knives.

[T]wo or three women are busy ‘yelming’—i.e., separating the straw, selecting the longest and laying it level and parallel, damping it with water, and preparing it for the yokes.

We must now call attention to a patent yealming machine by Mr. [Robert] Maynard, and when attached to his combined chaff engine was one of the most attractive novelties in the Agricultural Hall. In using it, a man pitches the hay or straw on to an elevating endless rake, which draws up the material to the yealming apparatus which straightens it for the knife of the chaff-cutter. It is a well-known fact that unless the straw is properly yealmed by hand before it goes into the feeding box a large portion of it goes in sideways and passes out of the engine as cavings. Maynard's mechanical yealming machine does the work better and more regularly than is done by hand, so that there is a gain apart from the great saving of manual labour, consequently the general advantage is immense, because farmers see the practical benefit of the combination.

The preparation of straw for thatch, which was known as ‘yelming’, consisted in damping it and ‘drawing’ it with a thatching-fork, or great comb, so as to get the straws parallel.