OF HARVESTING GRAIN. 367 



and now almost universally prevails. By this plan, the 

 reapers are paid in money, without victuals, so much for 

 every threave they cut down. For a threave of wheat, 

 consisting of twenty-eight sheaves, each sheaf measuring 

 thirty inches round, they receive 4d. ; and fora threave of 

 barley, oats, or peas, of twenty-four sheaves, each thirty 

 inches round, 3 d. Mr John Shirreff remarks, that this is 

 certainly, on the whole, the fairest mode of paying reapers, 

 the reward being exactly in the ratio of the work done. It 

 is evident, this can never be the case when a field is cut 

 down either by the day, or the acre. 



This mode of harvesting, has been found of great ad- 

 vantage to the country in general ; for thus whole families, 

 men, women, and children, obtain employment; they bring 

 their provisions with them, remain in the field the whole 

 day ; the old teach the young to cut down ; every one 

 does something ; and according to what they perform, 

 they are paid. A hundred, or a hundred and fifty persons, 

 young and old, may frequently be seen in a field at the 

 same time, and besides the advantage of getting such a 

 quantity of ripe corn cut down in a day, it is an excellent 

 school to fill the whole neighbourhood with good reapers 

 or shearers.* 



* Communication from George Paterson, Esq. of Castle-Huntly. An- 

 other respectable correspondent from that district observes, that the grow- 

 ing crops of corn are now cut down by the thrcavc. The wheat-threave 

 consists of twenty-eight sheaves, each sheaf, with him, measuring thirty- 

 six inches in girth, at the band ; for cutting and binding of which is paid, 

 in his neighbourhood, 6 d. per tlireave. The barley, oats, and peas, or bean 

 threave, consists of twenty-four sheaves, of thirty inches girth, for cutting 

 and binding of which is paid 4 d. cacli threave. These dimensions of the 

 sheaves are varied according to the fancy of the farmer, and the price is 

 either more or less according as the size of the sheaf is increased or di- 

 minished. Hence what may cost 6 d. and 4d. in one part of the district. 



