212 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



I have asked several old farmers and labourers why 

 they do not use lathes, lador, here to keep the hay in ? 

 They have answered that they considered haystacks, 

 when they are well thatched with straw far better than 

 lathes (haysheds). The reason they gave was that when 

 the hay is laid in lathes, the part of it which lies nearest 

 to the walls, 6 inches or a foot from the wall commonly 

 becomes spoilt, musty and mouldy, skamt, unkigt OCh 

 mogligt, loses its beautiful scent, so that the cattle 

 will not eat it at all willingly, but on the other hand in 

 the stack it retains its sweet and fragrant scent, is eaten 

 by the cattle very greedily, and it is only the outer surface 

 of the uncovered part which takes a little harm from 

 rain, but is for all that not so bad as that which is laid 

 next the wall in the lathe. All the hay, which was set in 

 stacks in the parts [T. I. p. 214] of England where I 

 travelled, is not taken out of the stack in the same 

 manner as is usual with us in Sweden, viz. : that one 

 tears off the highest first and so continues downwards, 

 but all this hay is cut out of the stack with a ' hay 

 knife ' specially made for the purpose, which is done in 

 this way : When they require any hay out of the stack 

 for the cattle, they begin to cut at one of the gable ends 

 of the stack first, that is to say, they begin at the highest 

 ridge or top to cut loose slices, flingor, of about 2 feet 

 broad or more, just as they please. Thus it is continued 

 with the cutting, across the whole gable end from above 

 downwards, as it is required. On this cutting, skarning, 

 it was noted, that it is not cut perpendicularly down, but 

 the lower one gets, so much the more it is cut sloping 

 into the stack, so that the upper part of the stack where 

 one is cutting overhangs the under, that the hay in the 

 stack may not take any harm from wet. In this way the 

 stack is cut to pieces until there is hardly any more hay 

 left. 



