HARVESTING. fk TH 
danger in letting the grain lie abroad for three or four days, 
even a week, if it be not ever ripe when cut, though a 
rainy day or two fhould intervene, as at fuch a period of the 
year the fun is generally fo hot, the days fo long, and the 
a commonly fo trifling, that the corn foon dries even 
after a heavy fhower; while in the middle, and ftill more 
towards the end of the following month, the rains commonly 
begin, the dews are more powerful, and the fun’s dryin 
power fo greatly leffened, that if wet weather takes place 
d 
then, the grain will be much more liable to grow and be 
injured : 
red. 
It has been fuggefted, by way of-caution, by an old writer, 
that it is material in hilly diftri€ts not to bind the rips of 
wheat into fheaves, at too early a period in the courle of the 
day, asin fuch fituations they have taken fuch a damp by 
w and chaffy e 
firit Pepret: and the fun has fhone a few hours upon them, 
there will ‘ftill remain an inward dampnefs in the ftraw and 
grain a 
afternoon fhould of courfe be chofen for the purpofe of grip- 
inding the grain into fheaves in fuch places, the 
work being finifhed before the approach of night. It is beft, 
rn, they fhould not be much em- 
ployed for wheat crops, as it is found that the lefs they are 
eRpe 
practice of covering the fhocks of wheat with cloths and 
The mats are found the beft 
and are the moft commonly employed. By this means it is 
fuppafed that the fample of the grain is fo much improved, 
it the bakers at Dover give a decided preference to fuch 
#818 treated in this manner. ‘The expence of mats for this 
ufe is “pr feven-pence each, which, if properly taken care 
ars 
; em near the ear ends, the conf@quences of 
which that'they flip through the bands, do not hold to- 
Sether while they are thro i and 
t wh into the carts in ng, 
Toft generally fall through the bands before they are threfhed. 
3 its are wet it is the bett to have the theaves fmall, 
; their bei 
_ not fo 
bey in € get through to the bands, which it is very liable 
i take ¢ 
more room. 
: y. 
lisve ee never to be the cafe 
"Ber, C ithe too 
ver, be left to, ; 
Vor. Xvi. loofe, as in that 
ou 
On this principle, the 
of th 
f flipping 
of flipping thro 
difficult to load 
they are bound, 
i In 
. 
for and that the ears of the bands are the firft parts that 
egin to grow. 
through whick 
It is farther recom. 
mended that inftead of tying the bands near-the butts, as is 
ufual, they fhould be tied loofely about the fane di 
oO " 
quickly ; when by fhifting the bands back again the fuc- 
indi opening the 
ears a little, they become {peedily in a ftate for carrying. 
e. 
In places where the harvefts are late and rai the pres 
P ‘ ; > ficult, 
y em. 
have been already detailed, are had recourfe 
in this manner; 
the theaf, inftead of being bound tight towards the butt-end, 
as is commonly the cafe, is tied flackly, and the band moved 
: : 
ome of the ears, 
§ the cori 
1s gaited by thofe who are experienced in the bufinefs, the 
bands are conttantly pufhed down the middle of the theaves, 
after they have been fet on end, and the bottoms fpread out, 
the middles being left hollow, and care taken to form {mall 
openings towards the fouth, by which contrivance the air 
as wellas the fun have the greateft poffible influence in pre- 
reaped, and bound | 
i og east a 
; 
5 
3 
: 
& 
Z 
what in the h t . ; = any weather however 
material a a ee, fe Cree ee 
" Upon taking one of thefe be POPe stirs. & bed Sicad 
3 act 
