JULY. 



RURAL OCCUPATIONS. 



243 



Hay-harvest is now general, and fills the 

 whole country with animation. Honest Tusser 

 in his " Five hundreth Poynts of Good Hus- 

 bandrie" gives the following pithy exhortation 

 to the farmer in this hay-making month. 



Go muster thy servants, be captaine thyselfe, 

 Providing them weapons and other like pelfe ; 

 Get bottles and wallets, keepe fielde in the heat, 

 The fear is as much, as the danger is great. 



With tossing, and raking, and setting on cox, 

 Grasse latelie in swathes, is now haie for an oxe ; ' 

 That done, goe to cart it, and have it awaie, 

 The battell is fought, ye have gotten the daie. 



Cattle in the fields require attention to give 

 them shade and water. Dairy cares continue. 

 Turnips and potatoes require hoeing: in the 

 midland counties late turnips are sown. Field- 

 peas are gathered for market. Hops,, and all 

 kinds of trees may be pruned, the heat speedily 

 drying their wounds and preventing their 

 bleeding. Those who have finished these opera- 

 tions, take the opportunity to get stone, mend 

 their roads, gates, etc., and thatch their ricks. 

 The corn-crops require constant watching by 

 the bird-boy, to defend them from hosts of 



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