Book V. OPERATIONS WITH PLANTS. 459 



clipping with a sort of blunt wooden shears is considere<l preferable for ferns, thistles, 

 and nettles (2904.), as they are said not to spring up again the same season, which they 

 are apt to do if cut over with the clean cut of the scythe. 



2935. The movnng of weeds in rivers and ponds is done in the usual way^from a boat, 

 in which the operator stands, and is rowed forward by another as required. Sometimes 

 scythe-blades are tied or ri vetted together, and worked by means of ropes like a saw from 

 one shore to the other ; but the first mode is generally reckoned the best, even in public 

 canals, and is unquestionably so in agriculture. 



293G. The Hainault moving is a process which is exclusively applicable to corn crops ; 

 it has been long practised in Flanders, and though various attempts have been made at 

 dirt'erent times and places to introduce it to this country, and notwithstanding the great 

 advantages promised, it is still little known. It has lately been practised with success on 

 the estate of G. H. Rose, Esq. at Muddeford, in Hampshire. We have already described 

 the implement, and the mode of using it. The breadths of corn cut at every stroke, are 

 carried forward by the joint operation of the blade and the hook, and collected at the 

 left hand of the mower, where he leaves them standing almost erect, but leaning to the 

 left against the standing corn. When as much is cut as will make a sheaf, the mower 

 turns to the left so as to face the standing corn , ijjtroduces his hook behind the middle of 

 the leaning parcels, and at the same time the scythe points near the bottom ; then mowing 

 sideways to the left, returning over the ground he has mown, he draws and collects the 

 cut corn, still by means of the hook and scythe preserving the erect position of the straw 

 to the place where the last collecting operation ended ; then wheeling round to the left 

 with the hook still embracing the middle of the whole cut corn, he stops the motion of 

 the scythe, whilst the hook still moves forward to the left, so as to overset the corn and 

 lay it evenly along on the stubble, with the ears towards the right, ready for the binder. 

 In oversetting the collected corn he uses his left foot if necessary. The mower now ad- 

 vances to the front, and comrtiences the cuts for a new sheaf as before, always working 

 towards the standing corn and not from it. With the Hainault scythe, about twice as 

 much corn, it is said, may be cut in the same time, as with the common reaping hook, 

 and a great deal more of the straw is saved, -j 



2937. Heaping is the operation of cutting corn with the hook or sickle, the former 

 called provincially bagging, the latter shearing or reaping. The operation of reaping is 

 most general in the northern counties. The corn is cut in handfuls with the sickle 

 (2406. J, and these are immediately deposited upon bands, formed by twisting together a 

 few of the stalks of the corn at the ends next the ears, and afterwards bound up into 

 sheaves, in order to their being set up into shocks or hattocks. This method is in most 

 instances adopted with the wheat and rye crops in every part of the island, as in cutting 

 them with the scythe it is difficult to be performed without much loss being sustained by 

 the shedding of the grain. And in addition, it is of great advantage to have these sorts 

 of crops bound up regularly into sheaves, the straw being much better. 



2938. In bagging, the operator hooks up the corn towards him, and then lays it on 

 bands as in reaping. By this mode corn is cut lower than by reaping with the sickle, 

 but ratlier more straws drop unless great care is taken. 



2939. Sheaving and shocking, or as termed in the north binding and stooking, are 

 operations performed for the most part immediately after the corn is cut. In binding 

 it is tied up in sheaves or bundles by the bands already mentioned ; and in shocking or 

 stooking, the sheaves are set on end in pairs leaning against each other and covered or 

 otherwise by what are called heading sheaves, laid on the upright ones so as to cover and 

 protect the ears from the weather, and act as a roof to the shock or stook. The number 

 of sheaves brought together in a stook, and even the modes of placing them, vary in dif- 

 ferent districts. The operation is performed with most care and neatness in the wet 

 climates of the north. 



2940. Calling is a species of sheaving and shocking of considerable importance in late 

 or wet climates. In performing the operation the sheaves are tied near the top, not 

 loosely, as described by Marshal, but very tightly; the binder then takes hold of the 

 sheaf with one hand, and with the other spreads, the bottom, so that when erected it has 

 precisely the appearance of the straw covering of a bee-hive ; the top is then compressed to 

 exclude the rains. When the single sheaves (gaites) have remained in this position for a 

 few days, if the weather is unpromising, they are formed into very small ricks of a 

 conical figure, tapering, however, but little till near the top. When the sheaves are 

 piled up successively in building, the butt-ends are carefully spread so as to cover com- 

 pletely the ears, and thus serve as thatch for the sheaves underneath. A large sheaf is 

 used for the hood, put on in the same way as in a common stack. The little building is 

 then secured with a rope, and the grain thus thatched with its own straw bids defiance to 

 the heaviest rains. 



2941 . In the reaping of grain crops, whether the sickle, hook, or scythe be employed for 

 the purpose, there is much difference in the height at which the crops are cut in different 



