Farming of Cumberland. 



233 



the scythe is yearly becoming more of a harvest-tool, as people 

 get acquainted with its uses and merits. In a discussion on the 

 relative harvest merits of scythe and sickle, at the Carlisle 

 District Farmers' Club in 1851, Mr, Thomas Gibbons esti- 

 mates the cost from his own experience, and found mowing to 

 cost 55. 5<:/., and reaping 85. 9r/. per acre. He stated that, when 

 reapers could be had for Is. ^d. to 1.9. 9(i. per day, he would 

 shear his wheat and mow the rest ; but when 2s. Qd., he would 

 cut all with the scythe. 



Mr. John Birrell gives his estimate still more in favour of 

 the scythe.* Other circumstances are in favour of the scythe 

 which do not appear in these estimates, for mowing need not 

 stop in dewy mornings or light rain, the additional straw is 

 valuable, ancl the crop is ready for the stack three or four days 

 earlier than when cut with the sickle. About the beginning of 

 the present century a company of Welsh militia were quartered 

 in Whitehaven in the autumn, and, being chiefly of the rural 

 class, were permitted to go into the country during harvest, 

 and to use the scythes they providently brought with them. 

 Wages being high through a deficiency of hands, they cut a 

 considerable breadth of corn on various farms. Several of the 

 farmers, appreciating the workmanship, attempted to use the 

 scythe in imitation of the Welshmen, but not having suitable 

 implements, or not having acquired the necessary expertness in 

 their use, were not successful teachers to the rising generation^ 

 and the practice gradually fell off, and was abandoned for many- 

 years. Its use seems now recovering, and bids fair to oust the 

 sickle and hook from all the corn-crops, except v/here full crops 

 of young seeds interfere. 



Corn-stacks are commonly built of the circular form, and the 

 thatch secured with neat straw ropes or tarred cord. The latter 

 is preferable for despatch, and with care lasts two years. 



Many of the stacks are placed on stone pillars with caps, to 

 prevent damp from the ground ancl vermin. The set of pillars 

 and caps are furnished, rough dressed, at about IO5. for each 

 stack. A kind of stack-barn, invented by Captain Robertson 

 Walker, of Gilgarron, and used by him for the last four years, 



* Scythe. 



£. s. d. 



Eight mowers, at 2s, 6c?. . . ] 0 0 

 Eight women, at Is. 8rf. . .0 13 4 

 Eight boys and girls, at lOd . 0 6 8 

 Four bandsmen, at 'is. 6f/. . . 0 10 0 

 Two stookers, at 2s. 6cZ. . .050 

 Horse-rake, 4</. per acre . .040 



Sickle. 



£. s. d. 



Two men, at 2s. 6cZ. . . . 0 5 0 

 Two women, at Is. Srf. . .034 



One acre . . .084 

 Difference, 3s. 5d. per acre. 



Twelve acres, at 4s. 11c?, . . 2 19 0 | 



Wages are generally lower where these experiments were conducted than in other 

 parts of the county. 



