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HARVESTING the CROP. 



NORTH AMPTON-SHIRE . 



In this county the wheat is reaped witli 

 jickles, and the barley, and oats, and beans 

 are mowed with the fcythe, and after be- 

 ing turned over are put up in coles in the 

 field, like hay, where they Hand feme 

 time, and are afterwards carried home, 

 and either put into the bams, or built and 

 thatched in the flack-yard. 



The wheat is cut very high from the 

 ground, and being bound up in flieaves, 

 is allowed to remain in Ihocks in the 

 field till it is ready to be houfed ; and 

 after that is done, the ftubble is cut with 

 fcythes, and carried home to the ftraw- 

 yard, where it is either ufed for litter, or 

 for thatching houfes. 



PERTH-SHIRE. 



In this county, and indeed almofl every 

 where in Scotland, the corns are all cut 

 with fickles, in the fame manner as wheat 

 is reaped in England. And after having 

 remained fome time in Ihocks, or what is 

 here called _/?oo^j, it is carried home, and 

 built up, and carefully thatched in the (lack- 

 yard, from whence it is carried into tlie 

 barns to be threlhed as occafion requires. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



There is no operation of hulbandry in which there is a greater diffe- 

 rence than in the manner of harvefting the crops in the different coun- 

 ties, as appears above.— The mode adopted by the Perthfhire farmer no 

 doubt requires more hands to be employed to get an equal number of acres 

 cut down in the fame fpace of time. — But whether his getting it done 

 more completely, and all at once, may not in the end put him on a foot- 

 ing with the Northamptonfhire farmer in point of expence, (fuppofing 

 the rate of wages and board-wages to be the fame), appears rather doubt- 

 ful. Certain it is, that were the Northamptonfhire plan adopted in this 

 county, it would be attended with great rifk, as the climate is fo much 

 later, by which means, in bad harvefts, the corns are injured by the great 

 falls of rain which fometimes take place, even notwithflanding of the great 

 pains which is generally ufed to fet up the fliocks in a manner the beft 

 calculated to defend the grain from injury. — It may be well worth the 

 confideration of the farmers in both counties, to confider whether it is 

 not pradicable to lay the corn from the fcythe in fuch a manner, as that it 

 could be eaiily bound up into flieaves. Could this be effeded, it is proba- 

 ble that the Northamptonfhire farmer would annually fave a confiderable 



e quantity 



