yelm

A bundle of straw laid out straight, chiefly to be used for thatching; a helm.

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.

To choose and lay out (straw) straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching; to helm.

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.

To choose and lay out straw straight to be used for animal fodder or thatching; to helm.

[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.