TOOLS AND RURAL INDUSTRIES 183 



blade towards the edge was ridged transversely, much like 

 a toothing-plane, so that the edge was a saw. When I was 

 a biggish child, strong and delighting in any bodily exercise, 

 I sometimes had a day in the harvest-field. My reaping- 

 hook — rip-hook it was always called — is the third from the 

 top in the picture ; the two above it are older ones that have 

 seen more wear. 



Anyone who has never done a day's work in the harvest- 

 field would scarcely believe what dirty work it is. Honest 

 sweat and dry dust combine into a mixture not unlike mud. 

 Hay-making is drawing-room work in comparison. 



Nowadays, when wheat is not cut with a machine, it is 

 ' fagged ' with the fag-hook, the lowest tool in the picture. 

 It is a much heavier tool, and the way of using it is quite 

 different ; ' ripping ' and ' fagging ' are quite distinct. The 

 fag-hook has a square crook or step, just after it leaves the 

 handle, bringing the blade into a lower plane than the hand. 

 This is to protect the hand in slashing through brambles and 

 rousrh stuff in hed^e-trimmincr and to save the knuckles 

 from being skinned against stumps. The blade of the reap- 

 insf-hook goes straight out of the handle. 



In reaping, the left hand grasps a handful of the stand- 

 ing corn and the tool cuts it with a sharp, dragging action. 

 In fagreriner, the left hand holds a light stick or a small hand- 

 ml of stiff-strawed corn, and with it bends back the steins to 

 be cut. The tool is used with a slashing action. The work 

 is quicker and easier. 



I have lately asked several farmers and work-people why 

 corn was ever cut by the slower and more laborious process 

 of reaping, for the fag-hook is no new tool. It was alwaj^s 

 in use for trimming hedges and cutting rough grass in odd 



