150 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



to undo in the handling, These several manipulations are 

 but the work of a moment, and unless they are all properly 

 done, the sheaves can never stand as they ought to do in 

 a stook, but will either be leaning too much one way or 

 else be turned over altogether by the least puff of wind. 

 Where hood-sheaves are used, they require to be bound 

 as close as possible to the butt, and more firmly or tightly 

 tied than the other sheaves. But it is very seldom that 

 corn cut with the scythe is hooded. 



" Our last proposition on this occasion is stooking. When 

 the sheaves are small and the straw is very long, the work 

 is more difficult to execute properly than when they are of 

 an ordinary size ; but, in either case, the theory of setting 

 a sheaf is involved in the old proverb ' Every tub must 

 stand on its own bottom.' In compliance with this, the 

 bottom of each sheaf must be made to cover a sufficient 

 area of ground, and the two sheaves opposite each other 

 not be set too far asunder. The two sheaves, one in each 

 hand, then get a gentle pressure down, to make them sit, 

 as it were, sure on their seats. Their tops are next spread 

 together, where they meet, like the thatch on the top of a 

 stack thatched after the English fashion, in order to make 

 them defend a shower. The simple but important art of 

 setting a stook depends upon each couple of sheaves being 

 thus seated firm upon the ground together at proper dis- 

 tances from each other both ways. All this, too, is but the 

 work of a moment to an efficient stooker ; and nothing can 

 be more unpardonable on the part of farmers, especially in 

 a wet season, than to tolerate the slovenly performance of 

 a work upon which so much depends. 



" Where wheat is reaped with the hook or sickle and the 

 stooks hooded, the difference of detail requiring notice is 

 the putting on of the hood sheaves. In this, the same 

 artistic attention is required to bring the sheaves to an 

 acute angle at the top, as if no hoods were to be used. 

 When the crop is too ripe, the ears large and hanging, the 

 task is often next to impossible, especially when the straw 

 is short and the top or ear-end of the sheaf is thicker than 



