Of Heaping. 351 



Sickles are jagged on the edge with teeth ; but reap- 

 ing-hooks are ground sharp and smooth. The former is 

 preferred in those districts where the practice of bagging, 

 (to be afterwards explained), has not been introduced. The 

 toothed sickle, requires but little sharpening; it has the 

 advantage of keeping the corn better together ; and in 

 careless hands, some of the heads are cut off and lost, in 

 using the sharp reaping-hook, when it enters among the 

 crop, before the reaper has gathered the corn with his 

 hand( 180 ). 



Reaping by the sickle is performed by the day ; by the 

 acre ; by the harvest season ; or by the work that is exe- 

 cuted, for instance, a certain sum for any given number of 

 sheaves. Of these modes, the one per acre is the most ad- 

 vantageous, where the practice can be introduced. 



It is a most essential object, to cut the crop very low, that 

 any waste of straw, or loss of grain may be prevented. The 

 additional quantity of grain thus procured, will pay the ex- 

 pense, and the increased quantity of dung, is mostly clear 

 profit ; because mowing the stubbles afterwards, imperfectly 

 supplies the place of close cutting in the first instance. 



Cutting corn when wet, ought to be avoided, for when 

 put up in a damp state, in a close sheaf, it cannot get dry. 

 In bad harvests, the sheaves ought to be gaited, that is, set 

 up single, loosely tied near the ear-ends of the straw, and 

 spread out circularly on their butts, or ends, to give them a 

 firm standing. 



The sheaves ought to be of a moderate size, with ordinary 

 crops, not exceeding nine inches in diameter, or thirty inches 

 in circumference ; but when the corn is long, it will not stand 

 well in the stacks, unless the sheaves are about a foot in diar 

 meter, and when gaited, every sheaf should be at least sixteen 

 inches in thickness. In wet seasons, from six to eight inches 

 in diameter is quite enough, and instead of binding with 

 two lengths of the corn made into a rope, one is sufficient ; 

 nor ought the knee to be applied, when the sheaf is bound, 

 as the air is thereby too much excluded. The binder's arm, 

 will compress the sheaf as much as it ought to be, provided 

 the size be such as is here recommended ( I81 ). 



It is calculated, that three good reapers will cut down an 

 English acre, and that one man will bind, and put into 

 shocks or stooks, two acres per day. The expense of these 

 operations, varies from 10s. to 16s. per English acre. Tak- 

 ing all charges into consideration, if the crop be good, and 

 the reaping process be duly executed; the farmer has no rea- 



