HARVEST 



3862 



HARVEST-MITE 



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Radcliffe College is for women 

 students. There are about 800 

 members of the staff, and over 5,000 

 students. Longfellow and Joseph 

 Story were on the staff at Harvard, 

 while Emerson, Channing, Lowell, 

 and O. W. Holmes graduated here. 

 See Harvard College, by an xonian. 

 H. C. Hill, 1906; The Story of 

 Harvard, H. Pier, 1913. 



Har'/est (A.S. haerfest, crop, 

 cognate with Gr. karpos, fruit, and 

 Lat. carpere, to pluck). Final stage 

 in the getting in of crops, especially 

 cereals. Among the chief cereals, 

 barley is allowed to remain standing 

 until the grains are fully ripe and 

 the ears bend down, while oats and 

 wheat are cut before fully mature, 

 as otherwise the grain is liable to 

 fall out and be lost. The sickle for 

 reaping and hand labour for mak- 

 ing up the sheaves are now almost 

 entii-ely superseded by the reaping 

 machine and self-binder (q-v. ). 

 Carts may be filled up by means of 

 a loader, and the labour of stack- 

 building reduced by employment 

 of an elevator. The crop is now 

 often stored in Dutch barns, but 

 when stacks are built in the open 

 the principles of construction and 

 thatching are much as given for 

 hay (q.v.). It is usual to raise a 

 corn stack from the ground on 

 supports which prevent or hinder 

 the access of rats and mice. 



Beans are either cut and tied up 

 in bundles mechanically or secured 

 by a hook. Peas are cut by a hook 

 and allowed to dry on the ground, 

 the heaps being turned as neces- 

 sary. See Australia ; Chile ; Egypt. 



Harvest Customs . Ceremonies 

 and celebrations associated with 

 the completion of the gathering in 

 of harvest. Of immemorial anti- 

 quity and world-wide distribution, 

 they originated in worship of the 

 nature deities associated with the 

 growth of crops. Among the Ro- 

 mans the Cerealia weije feasts in 

 honour of Ceres, and many widely 

 disseminated customs are linked 



Harvest. Scenes in the harvest field. Tractor with two loaded wagons. 

 Above, cutting oats with a Fordson tractor and self-binder 



By courtesy of The Agricultural Gazelle 



with the classical legends of Deme- 

 ter and Persephone. 



One custom which, with but 

 slight variations, can be traced 

 among widely separated peoples, 

 is the forming of a crude figure 

 sometimes merely a handful of 

 corn decorated which is borne in 

 procession as a personification of 

 the crop and made the central 

 figure of the festivities. This cus- 

 tom still survives in parts of Eng- 

 land and Scotland, where a harvest 

 doll or kern, i.e. corn baby, is 

 fashioned from some of the best 

 corn into the semblance of a human 

 figure, dressed up, and carried with 

 the last wagonload of the harvest. 



In Scotland, the last sheaf, called 

 the Maiden or the Old Woman, 

 according to whether it is cut 

 before or after Hallowmas, is kept 

 till Christmas morning, when it is 

 distributed to the cattle to give 

 them health throughout the next 

 year, or is - .. _ . 



hung up until 

 replaced by its 

 next year's 

 successor. 

 Similar cus- 

 toms are re- 

 corded in vari- 

 ous European " H arvest-Mite, 

 countries. greatly enlarged 



Another immemorial custom is 

 the harvest supper given by the 

 owner of the crop to all who help 

 to garner it. The Jews feasted at 

 the getting in of harvest and made a 

 thank-offering of the first fruits, 

 and among heathen peoples the 

 heads of families feasted on terms 

 of equality with their servants. 

 In England the supper was the 

 crowning celebration of the harvest 

 home, and from the fact that a 

 goose was the principal dish on 

 these occasions the custom of 

 eating a goose on Michaelmas Day 

 originated. See The Golden Bough, 

 J. G. Frazer, 1917, etc 



Harvestman. Popular name 

 lor a group of spiderlike arachnids 

 (Phalangium), common in autumn. 

 They are distinguished from spiders 

 by absence of a waist and their re- 

 markably long legs. See Arachnida. 



Harvest-Mite, HARVEST-TICK 

 OR HARVEST-BUG. Name given to 

 the larvae of a group of mites of the 

 family Trombidiidae. The common 

 harvest-mite, which is covered with 

 scarlet hairs, is found in vast num- 

 bers on grass and low herbage in 

 summer and autumn. It bores un- 

 der the thin skin, usually of the legs, 

 of man and other animals. As it 

 reaches the adult stage, it leaves 

 its host and drops to the ground, 



