TOOLS AND RURAL INDUSTRIES 189 



the mill free of charge and sent home to the cottages. In 



a good season the gleaners could usually get enough to last 

 well through the winter. 



Those cheerful gangs of hay-makers and harvesters — are 

 they gone for ever? Let us hop,; not. What happy and 

 well-earned meals those were that were eaten sitting under 

 the shady side of the hedge bank, where an oak gave wide 

 overhead shelter. 



The mower's meals were many and his wholesome drink 

 was much, but he toiled the long day through with all the 

 strength of his body — every muscle in full play. 



Often they began work at daylight, and on some farms 

 it was the custom that the man who came first got a pint 

 of ale. 



The mowers' reo-ular meals were : breakfast at six, lunch 

 at half-past nine, dinner at noon, afternoon lunch at four, 

 supper at seven, when the farmer generally gave each man 

 a bottle of beer or cider. 



A man would mow an acre of hay a day for half-a-crown or 

 three shillings, but he could mow an acre and a half of barley. 

 A first-rate man has mown two acres of barley. Now, an 

 acre of hay cannot be hand-mown under ten shillings. 



The drink — beer or cider — was carried in the wooden 

 harvest-bottle — a little barrel strongly hooped with iron. The 

 largest are about ten inches high, and will hold a gallon. 

 Like all good barrels they are of oak with a projecting mouth- 

 piece, and just above it a hole for the vent-peg. The vent- 

 peg and cork are tied to the rope-handle, so that they cannot 

 go astray ; two holes are bored in the base of the mouth-block, 

 through which a cord or leather thong is passed, to carry by. 



