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Report on the Farming of the 
scythesman must have two followers, viz. a gatherer and a binder. 
The corn is always mown inwards ; in other words, the mown 
swathe falls towards the standing corn ; it is then immediately 
gathered and bound by the two followers, who are precluded 
from loitering or delaying their work by the fear of being over- 
taken by the succeeding scythe. In this manner the process must 
necessarily be continuous and uninterrupted ; and thus, if a good 
hand is put at the head of the gang, as much as two acres per 
scythe is easily accomplished in the day. A stooker and raker 
complete the party. The labourers are generally engaged for a 
month or five weeks, and are boarded with the farmer. It is not 
uncommon, however, on the smaller farms of the district, and 
very usual in the lowland parts, to let harvest - work by the 
acre. 
On some farms Scotch single-horse carts are used for carrying 
home the corn, but more commonly waggons : these waggons are 
of a construction somewhat peculiar, and have been in use many 
years. In harvest, two horses are yoked to them ; for delivering 
corn to market, &c., four. Where four horses are used, they are 
yoked, just as if put to a coach, the wheelers drawing by a pole, 
the leaders by splinter-bars. The driver is mounted on the near- 
side wheel-horse, and guides the team by reins, after the fashion 
of the German post-waggon; when empty they are thus able to 
trot along a good road at the rate of 6 miles an hour ; and when 
loaded, the horses, being near their work and conveniently placed 
for draught, labour more efficiently than when yoked at length. 
Excellent as the practice seems to be, and greatly as it has 
been recommended by persons of high authority, yet scarifying 
wheat-stubbles has not obtained on the Wold, except in some few 
instances. 
Sainfoin. — This plant, which in former years was held in high 
estimation, and which was said by Mr. Strickland to be an object 
of great and increasing cultivation in this part of the county, is 
now not much grown. In times when winter provender was a 
matter of anxious consideration to the Wold farmer, and when 
turnips were either untried or considered of precarious culture, 
then indeed a plant which would flourish where scarcely any other 
plant would vegetate, seeking its nourishment from the tap-root, 
and therefore peculiarly adapted to porous calcareous soils, was 
highly esteemed ; and it is not surprising that its introducer into 
this Riding should have been hailed as his country's benefactor.* 
Now that turnip-husbandry, however, has become established, 
and the alternate system of cropping is universally adopted on 
* Said to have been introduced by the Osbaldistons of Hunmanby, 
about the year 1740. — Strickland, p. 145. 
