3'2 On Hay-making. 



au extra hour or so in the evening, when the husiness requires dis- 

 patch, they receive a proportionate allowance. 



The mowers usually begin their work at three, four, or five'b'clock 

 in the morning, and continue to labour till seven or eight at night ; 

 resting an hour or two in the middle of the day. 



Every hay- maker is expected to come provided with a fork and a 

 rake of his own ; nevertheless, when the grass is ready, and labour- 

 ers scarce, the farmer is frequently obliged to provide both, but for the 

 most part, only the rake. 



Every part of the operation is carried on with forks, except clear- 

 ing the ground, which is done with rakes ; and loading the carts, which 

 is done by hand *. 



Having premised so much, I now come to the description of the 

 business of the 



First day. All the grass mown before nine o'clock in the morn- 

 ing is tedded, in which great care is taken, thoroughly to loosen every 

 lump, and to strew it evenly over all the ground f. Soon afterwards 

 it is turned, with the same degree of care and attention ; and if, from 

 the number of hands, they are able to turn the whole again, they do 

 so, or at least as much of it as they can, till twelve or one o'clock, at 

 which time they dine. The first thing to be done after dinner, is to 

 rake the grass into what are called single windrows ^ ; and the last 

 operation of this day is to put it into grass cocks. 



Second day. The business of this day commences with tedding 

 all the grass that was mown the first day after nine o'clock, and all 

 that was mown this day before nine o'clock. Next, the grass cocks 

 are to be well shaken out into staddles (or separate plats) of five or 

 six yards diameter. If the crop should be so thin and light, as to 

 leave the spaces between these staddles rather large, such spaces must 

 be immediately raked clean, and the rakings mixed with the other 

 hay, in order to its all drying of a uniform colour. The next busi- 

 ness is to turn the staddles, and after that, to turn the grass that was 

 tedded in the first part of the morning, once or twice, in the manner 

 described for the first day. This should all be done before twelve or 



* In Scotland, the haymakers ted out the hay by the hand, and execute the 

 greater part of the work, without forks, using them solely for loading the hay on 

 the carts. 



f The following observations on the Middlesex method of hay-making, were 

 obligingly communicated by the late Thomas Skip Dyot Bucknall, Esq. M. P. 



'* By a regular method of tedding grass for hay, the hay will be of a more 

 valuable quality, heats more equally in the stack, consequently is not so liable 

 to damage, or fire ; will be of greater quantity, when cut into trusses, and will 

 sell at a better price ; for when the grass is suffered to lay a day or two before 

 it is tedded out of the swath, the upper surface is dried by the sun and winds, 

 and the interior part is not dried, but withered, so that the herbs lose much, 

 both as to quality and quantity, which are very material circumstances, at the 

 price hay now fetches at market. An instance in point : the physic gardeners 

 who attend to their business, are very careful in the proper and equally drying 

 their herbs, and they find their account in it." 



J That is, they all rake in such a manner, as that each person makes a row, 

 the rows being three or four feet apart. J. M. 



