HARVESTING 79 



Greece, receiving the art of agriculture as a heritage from 

 Egypt, had similar forms, as did also the Jewish nation. Since 

 ancient times, the Chinese and Japanese have reaped with an 

 implement resembling the sickle. 



All sickles were used with one hand only. The grain was iut 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF EARLY SICKLES AND SCYTHES 



As lettered above : a. Egyptian sickle ; b. sickle of the middle ages ; /.smooth- 

 edged sickle; c. toothed sickle; d. early form of scythe; e. Hainault 

 scythe and hook. 



always bound in sheaves. One man could bind what six reapers 

 cut, using l ' corn ' ' for binding. A reaper cut an average of one 

 acre per day. 1 Brewer, however, states that in England in 1844 

 seven persons usually cut one to one and one-half acres in ten 

 hours. 2 Besides being still widely used in China and Japan, the 

 sickle is also a common implement among the Russian peasants, 

 and in Sicily. The first wheat raised in the Bed river valley in 

 America was cut with sickles and bound with willow withes by 

 women and children. 



The Scythes and Cradles are all used with both hands. They 

 evolved from the sickle and form the second class of reaping 

 appliances. The Hainault scythe, a Flemish implement, was a 

 form intermediate between the sickle and scythe. It had a wide 

 blade about 2 feet long. The handle, about a foot in length, 

 was held in the right hand, and had a leather loop into which 

 the forefinger was inserted. The handle also had a flat part 

 which projected against the wrist, and served to keep the blade 

 in a horizontal position. The left hand, aided by a hook, gath- 

 ered the grain. The early scythes were clumsy and heavy. 

 They had straight handles, and were used for cutting grass 



1 Rogers, Hist. Agr. and Prices, Eng., 5:53. 



2 First Cen. of Repub., p. 176. 



