Tiic Couiiiiy Gcutlcniaiis Magazine 



239 



HARVESTING OF GRAIN CROPS. 



[Concluded from our 1 



SUPPOSING the corn to be cut after a 

 fashion more or less complete and per- 

 fect, the cares of the farmer are next directed 

 to the tying of it in sheaf, and the placing of 

 it in stook on the field. As facilitating the 

 placing of the cut corn in stook, it is difficult 

 to overestimate the economical value of those 

 self-acting reaping-machines, which not only 

 cut the corn but lay it in regular and uniform 

 bundles, ready to be tied up into sheaf. To 

 see a reaping-machine of this class do its 

 work, one cannot help being made 

 strikingly aware that the labour of the 

 field is reduced almost to a minimum. When 

 to the present work of the reaping-machine is 

 added that which will, we are assured, one 

 day be added to it, in which the corn laid 

 aside in regular bundles shall be tied together 

 so as to be placed at once in stocks, the 

 labour of the field will be still further reduced. 

 Although the fact should not here be 

 overlooked, that in certain seasons, and 

 under certain conditions, the grain will 

 be all the better if allowed to he loosely, for a 

 period more or less lengthy, on the ground, 

 to be subjected to the drying influences of the 

 sun or air, which advantages could not be 

 secured, or at all events so well secured, if the 

 corn was tied tightly up simultaneously with 

 its being cut and laid aside by the self-acting 

 rakes of the reaping-machine. At the same 

 time, the advantages here noted v^'ill be much 

 modified by the state of the weather at the time, 

 or rather shortly after the corn has been laid in 

 the field by the reaping-machine. For incertain 

 states of the weather it should be the object 

 of the farmer to get the corn set up in stook 

 as quickly as possible in order to protect the 

 corn from the action of the wet. Yet an- 

 other view may be taken, and it is right to 

 state that it is a view held possibly by the great 

 majority of practical men, that if the corn is 

 cut dry there is no necessity to let it lie for 

 any time on the ground to be exposed to 



the sun or wind ; but, on the contrary, 

 it is the best way at once to get the 

 corn set up in stook, securing it from rain, 

 should that come before it is taken to the rick- 

 yard and safely housed in the stack. Hence, 

 in this view, the importance of all modes 

 by which the tying up of the cut corn in sheaf, 

 and of placing it in stooks so arranged as to give 

 the best possible protection from the weather, 

 are quickly done. In tying up corn in sheaf the 

 practice generally is to make the sheaves too 

 large, by tying up too much at a time. The 

 object here aimed at is, doubtless, the saving 

 of time, as the time taken up in tying a large 

 quantity of com will not be much greater, if 

 any, than that required to tie up a small 

 quantity. And this is one of the advantages 

 of the self-acting reaping-machine, for the 

 corn given to each sheaf is not, as a rule, 

 large in quantity. There can be no doubt of 

 this, that if the gi"eat object is to have the 

 corn exposed as fully as possible to the 

 drying influences of wind and sun-heat, 

 the more loosely it is put up the better. 

 In very large sheaves the corn in the 

 centre will be found scarcely at all open 

 to drying influences. Thick and massive 

 sheaves should therefore be avoided ; and 

 although more time will be expended in 

 making light sheaves, still the good result re- 

 quired will be more readily obtained. And 

 it should ever be remembered that in this, as 

 in other departments of labour, it is not the 

 saving of trouble which is the object in view, 

 but the perfection of the work in hand. A 

 close consideration, indeed, of the philosophy 

 of the subject of the preservation of corn, 

 would shew that the system of putting 

 it up in the field in thick sheaves, and these 

 put closely together in stooks to protect the 

 sheaves, is simply brought into existence by 

 the exigencies of our uncertain climate. If 

 the plan were at all feasible in practice, the 

 true way to treat the cut corn would be to 



