WEST DEVONSHIRE. 177 



VII. PITCHING CORN SHEAVES. 



The Sheaves being thus left upon the floor 

 or ground, without any advantage from a 

 carriao-e, where the mow or Hack rifes to a 

 height above the reach of an ordinary fork, 

 an expedient has been flruck out, and 

 brought, by practice and the emulation of 

 young men, to an extraordinary degree of 

 flight and expertnefs. They are flungy 

 provincially " pitched" from the point of a 

 prong, formed very narrow in the tines, 

 over the head of the pitcher ; a boy placing 

 the {heaves fairly before him. I have feeii 

 a man thus pitching sheaves up to the 

 roof of a flack above the ordinary height, 

 throwing them feveral feet above the reach 

 of his fork. 



The fpring is got by the arms and the 

 knee jointly ; or is done at arms length* 

 When the height is very great, or the 

 flieaves heavy, two men's exertions, it feems, 

 are joined : one man placing the tines of his 

 pick under the " ftem" or handle of the 

 other ! Much probably depends on the 

 forming of the tines of the prong : they 

 contract upwards to an acute angle : the 



VoL.L N £heaveG, 



