On the Farming of Middlesex. 
11 
large proportion to the whole casual supply, is now nearly 
extinguished. 
Strangers are sometimes even hired by the hour, so that if the 
employer be dissatisfied with the work, or if the weather change, 
they may at once be paid oft". Where the farms consist partly of 
arable and partly of grass land, the regular labourers on the farm, 
with the addition of casual local assistance, which the agreeable 
associations of the hay-field seldom fail to call out, are found 
sufficient to secure the crop. Tedding machines are in very 
general use. They are now brought to a very high state of 
perfection, their double action performing two almost distinct 
operations in the process of haymaking: either shoking from the 
swathe, after the scythe or machine; or keeping it moving in the 
air, and thus under some conditions of weather securing the rapid 
accomplishment of the process, by which the colour and weight 
are retained, and time and labour economised. In very hot 
weather the latter use of the machine is sparingly put in requisi- 
tion, as it endangers the breaking and loss of some parts of the 
tender portions of the crop. 
The introduction of rick-cloths — said to have been invented or 
first used by Sir Joseph Banks — for the protection of ricks in the 
course of building, and portable scaffolds with stages to facili- 
tate the pitching of the hay from the carts, is within the memory 
of man ; they are now among the most economical, if rather 
costly, articles of the hay-farmer's stock. " The larger the rick 
the better the hay " is almost proverbial in Middlesex, as there is 
less outside in proportion, and it cuts out more economically. 
It requires much practical experience, and much patient dis- 
cretion, to put together a large mass of hay, from which first all 
water- wet, namely, that which it receives as rain or dew, must 
be evaporated to prevent mould and dust ; in fact, to strike a 
balance between the too great desiccation of the hay, and its con- 
sequent loss of those succulent properties on which its quality and 
weight depend ; and the carrying too soon, and so risking the 
overheating and possible firing of the mass, or the vexatious 
alternative of cutting or turning the rick, a process which, as is 
well known in Middlesex, calls from the passer-by the jeering 
enquiry, " Farmer have you lost your watch ? " 
It is remarked by Baird, and it is indeed universally acknow- 
ledged, that more hay is spoiled in fair weather than in foul, 
obviously from impatience and over-anxiety to secure the crop. 
Large ricks also require skilful and careful builders, under 
whose guidance the work on the rick is carried on ; peculiar 
attention being paid to the probable settling of the whole 
evenly, and in proper form. 
When the rick is finished in a rectangular form the sides are 
