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The Country Gcntlanaiis Magazine 



to follow out any regular swathe, but will be 

 compelled to change the direction of the 

 swathe as the direction of the lying corn 

 changes. Hence, a field, in the condition 

 above described when cut, will present the 

 appearance of having been laid out in patches, 

 each patch or many of the patches lying in a 

 different direction from another or that of 

 others. If wifh such a condition of the field 

 a straightforward cutting is attempted, the 

 ground may be got over quickly, but the corn 

 will be laid in such a variety of directions, 

 and in consequence in such a tangled state 

 that all the subsequent operations will be 

 greatly retarded. In the laid or lodged con- 

 dition of corn, which is met with after and 

 during wet and windy weather, the straw is 

 very apt to be broken, and if not actually so 

 by the wind, very liable to be so by the 

 operation of cutting, especially if this be 

 done when the straw is wet. Now, this break- 

 ing of the straw is carefully to be avoided — if 

 it can be by care avoided, for it may be broken 

 by natural causes, and then no blame can be 

 attached to any one — for broken straw can 

 never be well put straight on the sheaf, or 

 stand up well in the field. The breaking of 

 the straw may be greatly avoided by cutting 

 short and narrow swathes, sweeping the corn 

 cut, rather towards the mower than in the 

 usual direction of a full and broad swathe. 



Slow as this narrow and short swathing may 

 appear to be, it is in reality the quickest way 

 to cut a field in the condition we have named 

 above; the quickest way because it best 

 helps forward the putting up of the corn into 

 sheaf, which is the ultimate result in view, so 

 far as the field operations are concerned. A 

 badly laid field of corn can never be cut so 

 quickly, or in the same proportion as quickly, 

 as a fair standing field, because, as named 

 above, the direction of the cutting has to be 

 changed so frequently, and it is only by 

 going "in and out, and round about," that 

 the mower can succeed in cutting the corn so 

 as to lay it as much as it may be possible to 

 lay it in the straight condition necessary to 

 enable the sheaf to be properly made. KSS. 

 this careful work on the part of the mower 

 requires careful supervision on the part of the 

 master. In this case a master's eyes are 

 worth a hundred pairs of hands. l\\ bad 

 weather, if he wishes his corn well got in, he 

 must not grudge the personal care and at- 

 tendance necessary to ensure its being so got 

 in. The 7uell directed efforts of men go in- 

 finitely further in the prosecution of any work 

 than when they are allowed to go on at their 

 own will and guided by their own notions, 

 which are not always, indeed, we might 

 say rarely, well founded as to what is to be 

 done, and how it is to be done. 



MEADOWS AND HAYMAKING. 



i'ConcIuded from ] 



ON the supposition that the hay is well 

 and quickly made, and got up into 

 great cocks in excellent condition — a state of 

 matters which we hope all our readers will 

 realize in their practice this season — the 

 next point to be considered is the storing of 

 it, as to Avhich a few remarks may here be 

 offered. 



As soon as any farm produce is ready for 

 storing the sooner it is stored the better. 

 This is a plain way of putting a common- 

 .sense rule of practice. Judged by this rule, 



the methods adopted in England generally 

 will be found to be the best, that in Scotland 

 the worst; for in the latter country, too 

 frequently is it the case that in place of being 

 at once carted away from the field, as soon as 

 it is in good condition to be stored, it is 

 allowed to stand in large cocks for weeks 

 exposed to all the atmospheric influences 

 which so rapidly deteriorate it. Multiply the 

 outside surface of the hay exposed in each 

 cock, not only to the action of the sun and 

 rain, but to that of the damp ground ujjon 



