156 OUR FARM CROPS. 



the scythe, 1 however, is more used in cutting oats than 

 wheat; and probably the " reaping machine," when it gets 

 fairly received among the necessary machines of our farms, 

 will do even better service in the oat crop than in any of 

 our other cereals. Oats are generally a heavy crop to cut, 

 and are grown chiefly in districts where the harvest is late, 

 the days short, and the weather variable all points in 

 which the advantages of a well-arranged machine are shown 

 most favourably, when compared with manual labour. 



The field work at harvest is much the same as has been 

 described the only difference, perhaps, is, that in the oat 

 districts, generally speaking, the air is moist and the 

 weather variable at harvest, and the corn has to remain 

 some time in the stook before it is fit to stack. In order 

 to protect it from the action of the weather, it is customary 

 in late districts to "cap" or "hood" the stooks by placing 

 a couple of sheaves, butt to butt, on the top of each stook. 

 This practice also exists in some parts of the west of Eng- 

 land (Devon and Cornwall), in regard to the wheat grown 

 on the high districts ; but it is but rarely, either there or 

 in Scotland, met with on the lowlands. 



The mode of stacking, and the form and size of the 

 stack, are the same as with the other straw crops. With 

 oats, however, it is more important that some means of 

 ventilation, either by "bosses" or otherwise (see p. 59), 

 should be secured, as their condition is rarely so dry as 

 that of wheat or barley; while the straw, being softer and 

 more tender, sinks down into a compact body, and more effec- 

 tually stops the escape of any moisture they may contain. 

 In Scotland generally, and especially in the oat districts, 

 the stacks are much smaller than the dimensions already 

 given; and in general, the oats are put up in smaller quan- 

 tities than the other grain. The stacks, too, are invariably 



1 In mowing oats it is always best to cut up to the standing corn than out 

 from it, as there is less risk of shaking out the grain. 



