250 A FARMER'S YEAR 



follows the horse-rake, which rakes it into lines, the man seated on 

 the machine from time to time freeing the roll of hay from the 

 hollow of the rake by means of a lever at his side, which lifts all 

 the prongs simultaneously, to be dropped again immediately the 

 line is cleared. Lastly, so soon as it is dry enough, come other 

 men with forks and build it into cocks of convenient size. 



I notice that the wheat is beginning to come into bloom, for 

 on what will be the sheath of each grain appear odd little worm 

 shaped anthers or flowers, or what in our ignorance most of us 

 believe to be flowers. Now it is that we require dry, warm, and 

 quiet weather, for unless they have this while they are blooming 

 the wheats do not often cast well. After our recent experiences, 

 however, to hope for hot and sunny days seems Utopian. 



June 29. The improbable has happened ; to-day is fine and 

 warm our first taste of summer. We have been carting hay from 

 the All Hallows layer as fast as we can, and I am glad to say that 

 by night we had secured most of the cut. In the All Hallows beet, 

 No. 29, Mrs. Fairhead, the wife of one of my horsemen, is engaged 

 in singling the mangolds, that is, in drawing out all superfluous 

 plants, leaving those that are to go on for crop at a distance of 

 from a foot to eighteen inches apart. I think that this is about 

 the only field labour in which women are now employed in our 

 parts, unless it be occasionally as pickers of stones. I believe that 

 fifty years ago they worked much more upon the land, and this 

 seems to be borne out by old prints of agricultural occupations. 

 Thus, in Stephens's ' Book of the Farm ' four women and one man 

 are represented as engaged in winnowing corn, the man acting 

 as driver, and the women as riddlers and feeders. Again, in 

 measuring up corn, four women appear as against one man, the 

 man doing the measuring and the women all the hard work. Also, 

 in a representation of the feeding of an old-fashioned thrashing 

 machine, women workers are carrying sheaves from the mow to 

 the mouth of the machine. 



It is indeed a happy thing that females should no longer be 



