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The Art of Scything Has Not Died
The heavy rains this year have laid much of the corn fiat;
so
the scythe
7r!ust
be
used
on
those stretches where
the horse-drawn reaper will not work properly. Once, all corn was harvested
in
this way. Even to-day
54
the older men are the mqst skilled with the scythe. The- man
on
the- right
is
making up the sheaves. .
For the onlooker, the harvest is the most
who gather it, the harvest. is the most
great ·countr.ies, the
h~rvest
is thefador
S
UMMER, according to the calendar, bflgins on–
June
22
and ends on September
23.
There
are no fixed dates on t.he farm. Summer begins
when the grass is mowed;
it.
ends when the corn' is
harvested and the hay is in the rick. How early or ' _.
how late the season may bds ordered by the weather.
The farmer and his men seek to·, read their -
fortune in the skies. If the clouds foretell 'rain, the
farm frets in idleness. If the augury is settled weather
man and beast start into -sweating activity. The
farmer must make hay while the
Sllll
shines; too often,
the sun doesn't shine long enough.
- The cut grass, which needs the sun to dry
~t
into hay, lies rotting in rain-soaked fields. Continuous
.
Jts
~o~s.
When
It
out the
"stuff
is not '
nnrlnllP.1".
TlleU1iHPii~~m;Jil4~~r ~eed,
but
,grass
was able
to save it
picking it up wet and making it into
ensilage, an .increasingly popular form of qlttle
fodder. In others, the first crop is still lying in the .
fields, waiting until the harvest is safely in Jjefore it