UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 41 



have been accustomed. Some were all life and 

 bustle ; the reapers cutting the corn with their 

 sickles, and dexterously laying it in a line, so 

 that the binders who follow them can tie it up 

 into sheaves without delay ; several of these are 

 then made to stand endways, in a little tight 

 group, called a shock. In another place, horses 

 and waggons were engaged in drawing home the 

 corn which had been reaped first, and was now 

 dry enough to preserve it, to the farm-yard, where 

 it was to be stacked ; and they were succeeded 

 by many little girls, who were gleaning the scat- 

 tered ears. Farmer Moreland was in his farm- 

 yard, overseeing the stacking of his corn, and I 

 could not but admire the neatness and regularity 

 with which the sheaves were placed, with the tops 

 pointing towards the centre, all being made quite 

 firm, and the outside of the stack kept perfectly 

 even. My uncle made me also observe that open 

 passages, for the circulation of the air, were left 

 in the stack, to prevent its fermenting or heating, 

 which would spoil the grain. What a curious 

 thing it is that decaying vegetables, when thus 

 pressed together, without a free passage of air 

 should produce such a chemical change, as to 

 cause them to take fire ! 



After we had rested ourselves in Farmer 

 Moreland's comfortable house, we looked at his 

 garden, where I observed several rows of large 

 sunflowers, with the seed of which he feeds his 



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