CHAFF, in husbandry, the husks of the corn separated from the grain, by screening or winnowing it. This term is also applied to the rind of corn, which in grinding it, produces the coarser part of the meal.
By treating corn in a manner similar to that practised by the Tartars with buck-wheat (see pp. 376 and 377), it may be easily deprived of its rind, or, in a manner, blanched; and the same effect may be produced by merely steeping it in water, and expressing the starch: but the husky part thus separated, cannot with propriety be called chaff, as it is in reality part of the grain. Nor do we think that cut straw deserves that appellation; because it is a distinct part, or the stalk of the plant. For this reason, we shall delay the description of its properties, as well as the various machines invented for saving the labour of cutting straw by the hand.