462 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



consequently the reed right down to the roof; whilst thethatcher above, beating the sway and pressing 

 it down, assists in making the worlc the firmer. The assistant having made good the knot below, he 

 proceeds with another length of thread to the next spar, and so on till the sway be bound down the 

 whole length ; namely, eight or ten feet. This being done, " another stratum of reed is laid on upon 

 the first, so as to make the entire coat eighteen or twenty inches thick at the butts ; and another sway 

 laid along, and bound down, about twelve inches above the first." 



2956. The eaves are adjusted and formed, not square with the spars, but nearly horizontal ; nor are 

 they formed by cutting; but by "driving" them with a ^^ legget" a tool made of a board eight or 

 nine inches square, with a handle two feet long, fixed upon the back of it, obliquely, in the manner of the 

 tool used by gardeners in beating turf. The face of the legget is set with large headed nails to render it 

 rough, and make it lay hold of the butts of the reeds. Then another layer or reed is laid on, and bound 

 down by another sway, somewhat shorter than the last, and placed eighteen or twenty inches above it ; 

 and above this another, and another, continuing to shorten the sways until they be brought off to nothing, 

 and a triangular corner of thatching formed. After this, the sways are used their whole length, what- 

 ever it happens to be, until the workman arrives at the finishing corner. By proceeding in this irre- 

 gular manner seams between the courses are prevented, and unnecessary shifting of ladders avoided. 



2957. The face of the roof is formed and adjusted like the eaves, by driving the reed with the legget ; 

 which operation, if performed by a good workman, not only gives the roof a beautiful polished surface, 

 but at the same time fastens the reed, which being thickest towards the butts, becomes like a tapering 

 pin, the tighter the farther it is driven. 



2958. Finishing the ridge of the roof. In the case of reed running from four to six or eight feet long, 

 the heads meet at the ridge of the roof, whilst the butts are still at a distance from each other. For this 

 reason, as well as for that of the wear being less towards the ridge, the shortest (which is generally the 

 worst) reed is saved for the upper part of the roof. But even supposing the uppermost courses to be 

 only four feet long, and that the heads (belonging to the two sides) be interwoven in some degree with 

 each other, the butts will still remain six or seven feet asunder ; and the ridge of the roof consequently 

 be left in a great measure exposed to the weather. In order to remedy this inconveniency, and to give 

 a finish to the ridge, a cap provincially a " roof" of straw is set on in a masterly, but in an expensive 

 manner. In this operation, tlie workman begins, it is observed, by bringing the roof to an angle, with 

 straw laid long-way upon the ridge, in the manner in which a rick is topt up ; and to render it firm, ta 

 keep in its place, and to prevent the wind from blowing it off, or ruffling it, he pegs it down slightly witli 

 " double broaches;" namely cleft twigs, two feet long, and as thick as the finger, sharpened at both 

 ends, bent double, and perhaps with the twisting the crown, and perhaps barbed, by partial chops on the 

 sides, to make them hold in the better. This done, the workman lays a coat of straight straw, six or eight 

 inches thick across the ridge, beginning on either side at the uppermost butts of the reed, and finishing 

 with straight handsful evenly across the top of the ridge. And having laid a length of about four feet 

 in this manner, he proceeds to fasten it firmly down, so as to render it proof against wind and rain. This 

 is done by laying a ' broachen Ugger^ (a quarter-cleft rod as thick as the finger, and four feet in length) 

 along the middle of the ridge, pegging it down at every four inches with a double broach, which is thrust 

 down with the hands, and afterwards driven with the legget, or with a mallet used for this purpose. 

 The middle ligger being firmly laid, the thatcher smooths down the straw with a rake and his hands, 

 about eight or nine inches on one side, and at six inches from the first, lays another ligger, and pegs it 

 down with a similar number of double broaches, thus proceeding to smooth the straw, and to fasten on 

 liggers at every six inches, until he reach the bottom of the cap. One side finished, the other is treated 

 in the same manner; and the first length being completed, another and another length is laid, and 

 finished as the first ; until the other end of the ridge be reached. He then cuts off" the tails of the straw 

 square and neatly with a pair of shears, level with the uppermost butts of the reed, above which the cap 

 (or most properly the roofiet) shows an eaves, of about six inches thick ; and, lastly, he sweeps the sides 

 of the main roof with a bough of holly ; when the work is completed. 



2959. Trussing straw or hay is the operation of binding it in bundles for more con- 

 venient deportation. In trussing hay from a rick it is cut into cubic masses with the 

 hay knife (2408.), and tied by a hay rope passing once across each of its sides. If the 

 trusses are intended for the market, they are weighed with a steelyard, and each truss 

 of old stacked hay must weigh 56 pounds, and of new hay, during June, July, and 

 August 60 pounds. 



2960. Straw is commoTily trussed by tying it into bundles by a band of a handful of 

 straws, or a short rope across the middle of the bundle, or by a particular mode of 

 twisting and turning back the two straggling ends of a loose armful of straw, and tying 

 these ends in the middle. This mode, easier practised than described, is termed in the 

 north bottling or windling. When wheat straw or any other sort is to be trussed for 

 thatch, it is first drawn into regular lengths leaving out the refuse as already alluded to 

 under thatching. In London, the straw sold for litter is always required to be trussed 

 in this manner, and each truss is required to weigh 56 pounds. 



2961. Threshing by the Jlail is still a very general practice in most of the southern 

 counties, though all intelligent men agree that it is more expensive and less effectual 

 than threshing by a machine. Even on the smallest sized farms where a horse machine 

 would be too expensive, either the hand machine, or portable machine (245.3.) might be 

 employed. Besides threshing cleaner, and that too in a manner independently of the care 

 of the operators, the work is performed without the aid of expensive threshing floors, 

 goes on rapidly, is a more agreeable description of labor for servants, employs women 

 and children, and, finally, exposes the corn to less risk of pilfering. 



2962. In the flail mode of threshing, the produce is constantly exposed to the depredations of the persons 

 that are employed in executing the business, which is a great objection, and in many cases proves a source 

 of great loss to the farmer, as he cannot by any means prevent the impositions to which it is liable. It has 

 been observed by Middleton, in his Survey of Middlesex, that " where threshers are employed by the 

 day, they frequently do not perform half the work that ought to be done in the time, nor even that in a 

 perfectly clean manner." And that if " it be executed by the quarter, or by the truss, the freest corn is 

 threshed out, and the rest left in the ear." The same thing takes place in a greater or less degree in every 

 other mode that can be devised for having the work performed by the hand ; and it is consequently only 

 by the general introduction and use of the threshing machine that the property and interest of the farmer 

 can be fully secured, and work be executed with a proper degree of economy. 



2963. In respect to the mode of threshing corn Try the flail, it is the practice in some districts for only one 

 person to be employed upon a floor, but as two can thresh together with equal if not greater expedition and 

 dispatch, it must be an ineconomical and disadvantageous mode. But where more than two laborers 



