100 
Methods of Harvesting Corn Crops. 
uniform, all the heads being ranged neatly together, and the 
butts square. No liorse-raking was needed, and gleaners were 
cheerfully allowed to gather what was left. The crop-ends 
were broad, and consequently were more liable to injury 
from sprouting in wet weather than mown sheaves. Oats 
were commonly set up in gaits 1 separately, and afterwards 
bound into sheaves and put in stook. Stacks built from reaped 
sheaves were neat, and the sheaves were alternately laid right 
and left in order to tie the rick, and, when shaved, the builder’s 
art was exhibited in the well-marked layers. It was a perfect 
system of harvesting, possessing the usual superiority of hand 
over machine labour. Looking back to those older times, one 
cannot but regret the loss of many of the arts of the harvest 
field : the perfect sheaves, the well-placed stooks, the shaven 
ricks, and ornamental thatching, all of which have disappeared. 
The disadvantages were : the expense, and the long stubbles, 
dear to sportsmen, but wasteful of straw. In some cases the 
stubbles were mown later. 
Mowing Corn. 
The scythe was an improvement upon the sickle, and sixty 
years ago was employed generally. Corn scythes are shorter 
in the blade than Ihose used for grass, and may be two-handled, 
or with straight or bent sned dr handle. They may be 
fitted with a cradle or bow to collect the corn and lay 
it across the line of mowing, or in the line of progress, in 
which case the heads rest upon straw, and not on the ground. 
Mowing is best done by a party of three — often man, wife and 
boy. The man mows the corn, the woman binds it, and the 
boy makes bonds. A man will mow from one to two acres 
per day, and a “ head ” of mowers, that is, mower, tyer, and 
bandster, form a well-proportioned party. The cost on fair 
crops is about 10s. to 12s. per acre if let by piece. The amount 
done per day was estimated in Stephens’ Book of the Farm 
(1st Edition) as follows : — three mowers, three gatherers, three 
bandsters, and one raker to do six acres of oats, five acres of 
barley, or four acres of wheat. At the low wages which were 
given in 1841 he calculates the cost as 5s. 2\d. per acre for 
oats, 6s. 3 d. per acre for barley, and 7s. 9 \d. for wheat. Work 
of this description should never be done by day pay, and if 
let at 12s. per acre it is clear that the above ten hands would 
earn 48s. when cutting wheat, or 4s. 9 \d. each, which is reason- 
able. Barley and oats would be let at a proportionately lower 
price per acre. Mowing severs the straw two inches above 
the ground, and it has been shown by direct experiment that 
1 “ Gaits” are solitary sheaves, set up separately on their stubble ends, to 
facilitate drying. — E d. 
