24 



OLD WEST SURREY 



rhythmical sound is silenced ; for the corn is now threshed in 

 the field by steam machinery instead of being garnered and 

 beaten out by hand, and the grand old barns no longer justify 

 their existence. 



The rickyard, with its stacks of hay and corn, adjoined 

 the barn, for the produce of this great farm — for all their 

 ample space — could not be contained within the buildings. 



Inside the Barn 



But now the rick-settle, with its rat-proof stone piers, stands 

 empty. On this farm the cultivation of wheat has almost 

 ceased. Fields that once produced their eight, ten, and twelve 

 sacks to the acre are now poor grass land. The very little 

 wheat grown is not kept stored as it used to be, in the good 

 days of English agriculture, on the settle, but is threshed out 

 as soon as possible after harvest. The days of the rick-settle 

 are numbered ; as a protection against rats its purpose no 

 longer exists. 



