A Farmer’s Life 
earn money. ‘They were unwilling to leave off 
if the weather turned wet; indeed, if stopped 
they were liable to leave the job altogether. 
Certainly, where the corn was at all beaten down, 
hand-workers could cut it better than a machine, 
which simply goes over it; but their work has 
disadvantages. For instance, although it has 
been urged that hand-reaping does not shatter 
out the corn so wastefully as a machine, on the 
other hand, if the men do not begin before the 
crop is ripe, it is over-ripe and will be dropping 
out before they can finish; whereas a machine 
may wait until the proper time and then cut all. 
So my uncle argued, plausibly enough. Yet 
it was hard not to suspect him of prejudice. I 
asked him if there was anything in the assertion 
I had heard from a peasant turned gardener, 
that meadow-grass grows better after a scythe 
than after a machine. The gardener had pro- 
pounded this apropos of a lawn, urging that the 
lawn suffered more from the bruising cut of the 
lawn-mower than from the clean cut of a scythe. 
Mr. Smith refused to admit it for a moment. 
But was he right, or was he just a little prejudiced 
against the labouring man? 
The knives of a hay-mowing machine need 
sharpening every hour, he said. 
108 
