54 OUR FARM CROPS. 



15 acres as the day's work (and we are cutting more than that now), 

 it would give 55. per acre as the cost. These payments include the 

 usual allowance for beer. 



"As a matter of cost, there can be no question between the two; 

 and as the writer has given its disadvantages, I will conclude by 

 attempting to show its advantages. By mowing you are enabled to 

 concentrate your strength, and get through the harvest much more 

 quickly. By this division of labour you nearly double the effective 

 power of the individual, and thus half the cost, and you have all the 

 labour under your eye at the same time. You leave far less on the 

 ground than by fagging or reaping, as the horse-rake goes over the 

 field after the stocks are carted, and thus takes up anything the 

 drag-rakes may have left. The corn is ready to carry sooner than if 

 reaped. The stubble is left much shorter, and the land is ready for 

 the plough directly the crop is carried. The only practical disad- 

 vantage that I can admit is, the extra work in thrashing, and this is 

 even reduced to a very small amount where steam-power is available. 

 The carting, stacking, and thatching, are of course affected in direct 

 proportion to the length of stubble left by the two operations under 

 comparison ; but taking the average difference in the stubble at 6 

 inches, and the height of the crop at 4^ feet, it would only give in 

 bulk about |th, or 1 1 per cent., and in weight, only about 5 per cent, 

 of increase. This would, I think, be fully counterbalanced by the 

 cost of mowing the reaped stubble (about 2s. 6d. per acre), and of 

 carting it home at a time when the teams are most wanted in the 

 field." 



These were the results of the harvest operations of about 

 200 acres of grain crops each year, and which subse- 

 quent harvests have confirmed, allowance being made, of 

 course, for the different rate of wages in different districts 

 and in different years. In some districts where the scythe 

 is used, the labourers undertake the cutting, stooking, and 

 loading, and in some instances stacking, at a given price 

 (about 10s. usually) per acre. Here, as in reaping, much 

 time is lost, and much labour uneconomically applied, in 

 changing from one operation to another, and in the man 

 occupying himself with work which a child or boy could 

 do as well in leaving off mowing for the purpose of 

 making bands and collecting his sheaf. 



Throughout the vast range of the United States and 



