FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 47 



withered, it should be set up in windrows, i. e. in heaps ; then 

 into small hay-cocks, in order that it may sweat. For if it 

 sweat not in the hay-cocks, it will sweat in the mow, and then 

 it will be dusty, and not wholesome for horses, beasts, and 

 sheep.' ' Quyche hay ' is that which is made from the crowfoot, 

 and we are told that it makes the best of hay for horses and 

 cattle. It must however be carefully dried, and it takes a long 

 time in drying. 



Rye is reaped at the end of July or the beginning of August, 

 and should be cut with a sickle. To mow rye as some do is 

 easier, but it is wasteful, difficult to bind, difficult to dry, and 

 takes too much space in the barn. Wheat too should always 

 be reaped, and if the corn be reaped high, in order to keep the 

 stubble for thatch or fuel, the reaper is very apt to waste the 

 grain, especially if it bend or be laid. Barley and oats were 

 generally mown, except they be laid. The mower is followed 

 by a woman, holding a handrake half a yard long, with seven 

 or eight teeth, who takes together as much as will make a sheaf. 

 Then the mower twists a straw band, lays it under the loose 

 sheaf, and if it be dry within three or four days it is bound or 

 carted. After the barley or oats are carried, the land must be 

 raked, or much will be lost. Peas and beans are reaped, mown, 

 or hacked. Here, again, care must be taken not to cut beans too 

 high. It is better to bind them, for in this manner it is easier 

 to build a rick, and carry them to the barn. Fitzherbert next 

 proceeds to direct the husbandman how to stack the sheaves 

 for drying. Four are to be set up on end on each side, and 

 two are to be placed on the top, with the ears downwards 

 so as to cover the tops of the other sheaves. When they are 

 dry, if there be not enough room in the barn, they should 

 be laid on a scaffold, and a rick should be built. The 

 scaffold should be high enough to keep the corn out of the 

 reach of cattle and swine, and in this case it will afford the 

 live stock shelter. 



Stock raising is as necessary to a farmer as corn cropping. 

 Without both, says Fitzherbert, he will be a buyer, a borrower, 



