328 Agriculture of Norfolk. 
one row being turned to each side, from the centre to the swathe adjoining, and one 
from each outside towards it. One raker follows each gathering-fork, with a rake 
five feet long. Two women gather for two pitchers. There are two rakers 
after each pitcher ; two to load the waggons, one of them being the team-man ; there 
are also two pitchers, or one for each man on the waggon. The land is afterwards 
horse-raked. The waggon commonly used throughout Norfolk is rather too 
substantial ; it is a shafted one, drawn in harvest when loaded by three horses, one 
before another, and driven without reins. When unloading there is only one 
horse standing with the waggon, the others having gone to assist in bringing a fresh 
load. The stack-staddles of straw are about 5J to 6 yards wide for barley, the 
length varying according to circumstances. Mr. Hudson's stack-stage is peculiar, 
and readily formed, a cart being the foundation for it. There are usually five 
men at the stack for two pitchers. As is usual in Norfolk, nearly all the corn is 
stacked in the fields, and as near to where it was grown as may be, without injury 
to the clover, or waste of labour ; thus the barley is generally put on the first wheat 
stubble in the way to the barn. After harvest the outsides of the ricks are 
threshed with poles to save the corn (and prevent the staining of part of it), which 
falls on a rick-cloth or waggon-sheet. 
Barley is threshed by machines, the men not liking to use flails. Horse-machines 
are almost universal in Norfolk, but Mr. Hudson has recently had one erected to 
go by steam. A winnowing-machine takes the chafl' out of the barley. It is 
hummelled by machinery. Winnowed again with smaller riddles. Blown, to 
take out the small corn. To make the parcel more uniform, the corn is not mea- 
sured as dressed, but after the whole is clean. The bushel is not filled by a scuttle, 
or " scoup," but with the hands, the measurer having it between his knees at the 
time. A coomb (four bushels) is put in each sack. Barley is delivered in a 
waggon drawn by four horses, which usually takes twenty-five coombs for a load, 
but occasionally thirty. 
Third Year, Clover. 
Thistles are cut on new layer before they are closed for mowing, at the rate of 
2d. per acre. Clover is mowed for 2s. 6rf. to 3.s. per acre. Some get it done for 
Is. 6(/., but, the stubble being of no value, Mr. H. pays more to have it cut close to 
the ground. The weakest land is manured for wheat, and, the earlier the manure 
is put on after the clover is carried, the more beneficial it appears. Mr. Hudson's 
breeding-flock being comparatively small in number (2un), he does not practise 
folding extensively, but only when the lambs are not with them. 
Mr. Aylmer's boy, " Abraham Fisher," aged twelve the previous April, was 
removing the fold when I saw him in August, 1843, but this he had then done for 
about two years. Those who at first think the hurdles expensive, may not do so, 
perhaps, after calculating the difference there is between the wages of men and those 
of boys like this. I annex a sketch of Mr. Aylmer's sheep-hurdles ; — 
They are 21 feet long, and cost 30s. each, but I was informed they may be made 
for considerably less. Sixteen of these (four on each side) constituted Mr. Aylmer's 
fold for 400 Southdown ewes ; and this valuable flock was attended to by the boy 
" Abraham Fisher," above alluded to. 
Preparing for Wheat. 
Mr. Hudson's layers are ploughed by Ransome's wheel Olland-ploughs. Drill- 
rolled with a 12-ro!l pres.ser, covering six feet, and drawn by three or four horses, as 
the land is level or otlierwise. Harrowed with heavy harrows, to raise mould. 
Mr. Hudson thinks it very important to select the finest ears for seed. Mr. Neave 
had the " Britannia" and " Clovers" last year, both of which surpa.^scd any other in 
