Workers in Wood and Iron. 71 
From the ash woods on the slopes, and the copses, 
of the fields, large ash-poles are brought, which one 
or two old men in the place spend their time splitting 
up for ‘ flakes ’—a ‘flake’ being a frame of light wood, 
used after the manner of a hurdle to stop a gap, or 
pitched in a row to part a field into two. Hurdle- 
making is another industry ; but of late years hurdles 
have been made ona large scale by master carpenters 
in the market-towns, who employ several men, and 
undersell the village maker. 
The wheelwright is perhaps the busiest man in 
the place; he not only makes and mends waggon 
and cart wheels, and the body of those vehicles, but 
does almost every other kind of carpentering. 
Sometimes he combines the trade of a builder with it 
—if he has a little capital—and puts up cottages, 
barns, sheds, &c., and his yard is strewn with timber, 
There is generally a mason, who goes about from 
farm to farm mending walls and pigsties, and all 
such odd jobs, working for his own hand. 
The blacksmith of course is there—sometimes 
more than one—usually with plenty to do; for 
modern agriculture uses three times as much machi- 
nery and ironwork as was formerly the case. At first 
the blacksmiths did not understand how to mend 
many of these new-fangled machines, but they have 
learned a good deal, though some of the pieces still 
have to be replaced from the implement factories if 
broken. Horses come trooping in to have new shoes 
