216 
Harvesting in a Bad Season. 
tlie (Irving of the ears cut off close to the straw ; l)ut I have 
no present intention of repeating the experiment, the cost being 
too great. The longer I live, the more confidence I feel 
in the assmance of Providence that " seed time and harvest " 
shall not cease, which surely should teach us patience and 
confidence. 
10. As to Carting or carrying the Corn home as soon as it is 
ready. — always use one-horse carts, with hecks and shelvings, 
carrying from 13 to 18 cwt. of corn in the straw; I use no cart 
ropes to tie on with, and rarely lose a sheaf off the- carts. Taking 
into consideration the tying and untying, occasional loss and 
breakage of ropes, »S:c., I consider that this alone saves nearly 5 
minutes in every load. This is an important saving in unsettled 
weather, especially when days are shortened. I have often found 
the " picker " (or pitcher) throw up 400 sheaves in 7i minutes, 
sometimes in 5 minutes. 
I have here given oim experience, but I have also read, 
where I could, that of other people. Some recommend that the 
stooks should l)e made of 8 sheaves only, that is, 4 of the largest, 
two against two ; the two smallest at the ends, so that they pro]) 
the stook ; and the two longest as " hooders " or " caps " openetl 
well and drawn close to each other over the other six, their butt- 
ends being of course uppermost. These stooks, they say, rarely 
l)low down. The caps should be tied together by twisting a 
piece, say half a handful, of the butt-ends of the sheaves on both 
sides. This, it is said, will sometimes, if well done, resist rain 
for a month. 
In Cornwall they have, or had a practice of making what they 
call an " arrish-mow." As soon as the wheat is bound, if the 
vv'eather is doubtful, they make a circular shock of 15 or 20 
sheaves standing upright, against this lay a sheaf Avith the butt- 
end nearly flat on the ground, the ears bending upwards against 
the shock. Go round this and make a circle ; then Ijegin 
another row outside in the same manner, keeping the knee 
on the last sheaves till you have got two or three hundred. 
Take care to give the ears an increased elevation, so that the 
whole when finished shall have the appearance of a spire being 
taper from bottom to top, and from 10 to 15 feet high. The 
upper part is contracted by increasing the uprightness of the 
sheaves, and the whole is covered with a sheaf of reed called a 
cap, which is held on by a straw rope, and seems to resist even 
long continued rain. 
I think the " reed " might in Yorkshire, and in most parts of 
the North of England, and in all Scotland, find a substitute in 
fern, or ling, or heather, and the newly invented thatching- 
machine might perhaps here be brought to our aid. 
