yelm

noun

1. (UK, dialectal)A bundle of straw laid out straight, chiefly to be used for thatching; a helm.

   “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.”

verb

1. (UK, dialectal, transitive)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.”

   “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.”

2. (UK, dialectal, intransitive)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.”

   “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.”