134 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



a higher price for hay made with the machine. 

 When the lad has turned a few acres, for it is rapid 

 work, he then leaves it awhile, his horse being well 

 content to get a few mouthfulsby way of change, and 

 fetches a change of horses for the mowing-machine. 

 A couple of hours before sunset all hands appear, and 

 a leader, rake in hand, advances across the earliest 

 cut portion of the field. With left foot foremost, he 

 then lightly gathers to a roll just over his right foot, 

 about the breadth of hay that in mowing the sweep 

 of the scythe takes — that is, some four to five feet. 

 The next man striking in with his rake on the second 

 blow of his leader's, takes his gathering from just 

 under the roll left by the first rake ; a third then in 

 turn follows him, doing exactly the same, and so on 

 until the whole number is exhausted. It must be 

 deftly done, and the space between the rows be raked 

 quite clean, no disfiguring stray locks left to spoil 

 and discolour either themselves or the patch they lie 

 upon. When the opposite side of the field is reached, 

 the leader turns, and changing his rake across him to 

 his right, commences a row back again. His com- 

 panions, taking him up in turn, follow as before, 

 until at last the surface of the field lately strewn 

 with the tossed hay, presents the appearance of a 

 number of light rolls, or " wind-rows," laid parallel 

 at intervals of about four to five feet. The process 

 now is to start again all in a line, each at the head 

 of a roll, which he is to catch with his rake, and just 

 turn lightly over on a heap, then breaking off some 

 few feet on the other side to turn it back to meet. 

 So with but a couple of touches he has left lightly 



