276 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



Modern improvements, however, have not greatly 

 lessened the picturesque sides of country life, and they 

 have vastly dimlnshed the hard labor. It is almost as 

 enjoyable to see the mower seated on a machine drawn 



by horses as to watch him 

 swinging the scythe, and the 

 blades of grass fall more 

 rapidly than in the older 

 way. Indeed, not only is 

 the clover practically all cut 

 by machinery nowadays, ex- 

 cept in the few inaccessible 

 spots where the scythe is 

 needed or where the stems 

 are badly matted down, but 

 it is also generally all raked 

 together with the aid of 

 horses and a horse-rake, 

 while the hand-rake hangs 

 unused in the barn. I have 

 even worked in the fields 

 where almost all pitching 



THE OLD-TIME WAY. , . , , , 



was obviated, and the stack- 

 ing done with a great toothed bucking beam pulled 

 by two horses at each end along the windrows ; and, 

 again, where the hay itself was all mechanically brought 

 up from the windrows on the carrier of a combined 

 rake and loader, attached to and trailing after the 

 wagon, and then spread out upon slings on the rig- 

 ging, thence afterwards to be hoisted in enormous 

 flaky masses to the stack by a block-and-tackle and a 

 derrick. 



