Hainauh Scythe. 
G13 
stroke is a drawing stroke, so as not to shed the corn : he goes on, leaving 
what he has cut leaning on the corn hehind it, and when he reaches the 
point at which he judges he should stop, he turns the crook towards the 
corn, and facing to it, cuts back to where he set out from, dragging in 
his crook what he cuts both in going out and back; he then disengages 
the crook, and, with his right foot, lays the corn cut in a line with the 
standing corn for the hinder, whose work is facilitated by the leng'th of 
the straw. The closeness of cutting depends on the length of the 
handle, which is of wood ; of course every good farmer will have the 
handle long to save all the straw. The blade which is so constructed and 
placed that it must enter by the point, has the edge a little raised to save 
it from stones, and the point a little raised that an awkward man may 
not catch the ground. A great advantage is, that it cuts from without 
and not from within ; thus it is excellent for laid crops ; it is not inserted 
and then drawn out ; it strikes against the prostrate crop, which the late 
Lord Winchelsea found much benefit from with heavy crops of laid oats. 
I had an immense crop of tares so matted as to be very difficult to cut, 
except by this instrument, which did it most easily. As to the facility 
of labour with it, I should mention a conversation which I had with niy 
head carter, at the introduction of it a few days after the beginning of 
harvest. I asked him how he liked it ? He said, "Particularly, for 
he could do exactly double the work he did in reaping, and that when he 
went to bed, after the whole work of a July or August day in harvest, 
and straightened his back he cried like a child from pain, and could not 
sleep, w-hile, with the new instrument, the instant he laid down he slept 
like a child." 
The right hand is placed on the part of the handle'from A. to B, 
grasping it. The nob at A is meant to prevent the hand slipping off. 
At C a leathern loop is nailed to the handle, through which the man 
passes his fore-finger, to give him more power of holding, using, and 
directing the instrument. 
I sent it to the Agricultural Society of Ireland, with a labourer ; but 
he beat so decidedly the reapers there, that he was soon obliged to be 
sent back for his safety. I told them, on sending him, that he would 
cut closer and do twice the work in the same time ; but it seems that 
their reapers cut very low, but of course more slowly. Thus they replied 
to me, that their people cut as low as my man, but that he beat them, 
not as 2 but as 3 to 1 in time. He (Braker) is now alive at Christ- 
church. 
I beg leave to refer you to a communication to the old Board of Agri- 
culture, vol. vi., Journal 213, from Mr. Philip Howard, of Corby Castle, 
of the 3rd of March, 1794. He says : — " What greatly facilitates the 
expeditious harvest of the grain-crops in Flanders is the use of the Hai- 
nault scythe, the best instrument yet invented to unite expedition with 
neatness, very different in this last respect from the cradle-scythe ; it lays 
all the corn as regularly for the binders as could be done by the reapers 
with the sickle." Mr. Howard failed in his attempt to introduce this 
scythe for want of a teacher, as did the Earl of Marchmont in 1709 
(Marchmont Papers, vol. iii. p. 349). 
As to sheaves, as you have the whole length of the straw, they are of 
2 s 2 
