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56
In the Hedgerow, Haymakers , Snatch Their Midday Meal
At any other time of year, the men on the farm would
go
back to their cott,ages for
dinner in the middle of the day. In the ha)'making season there
is
no time fo"f such _
excursions. Every hour of sunshine
is
precious; yet, while they eat, they sit in the
hedge
to
escape the sun. And the horse, unhitched, gets
~
rest too.
Time
On many mechanised farms, the horse has not a great deal
to do
on the farm
throughout most of the year. Even at harvest time, the tractor has taken his
,
place on many farms.
started. The annual race of the farmer versus the weather is on.
" The ,reaper and binder starts from the outside edge of the '
field and wor,Ks ' round alid round towards the middle, cutting
the' corn and throwing it out, bound up in sheaves. With
ea~h
circle, the rabbits, disturbed
in
their seats, tumble deeper into
, the cover of the standing corn.
By
the time the reaper has
reaehed the centre, all t,he rabbits in the field are huddled in a
-tiny island in a sea of laid stalks. Then the dogs go in and the
small boys attack them with sticks as they bolt inJo the open.
When the reaper turns out of the field gate at- dusk, there is
usually a bunch of rabbits hanging from the driver's stool.
_ While ,the reaper cuts the field, a man with a scythe works
-in the hedgerows
cu~g the~corn
where 1he machine cannot
go. Sometimes heavy rain beats the corn to the ground.
Then the whol<:;. field may be cut laboriously.
~y
hand. It is
/ the last remnant of the tiine when the harvest was all gathered
this way by men working obliquely through the ,fields like a -
flight of birds.
_
.
As-soan as the binder throws out tl;te corn,
th~
sheaves 'are
set up into stooks or shocks to dry. The number of sheayes
in a stook varies in different districts.
.
'
/'
- When the corn -is dry, it is... taken away
in
wag~ons
_and
stacked in 'the rick-yard until it is ready for threshing.
_ The men who make -the ricks are the geniyses of the harJes-t.
The method is
t@
peg out the ground ' te-
s~e
A bottom,
called the " stepple " is
m~de
with faggots, straw, or perhaps'
a load of rain-spoilt hay. Iri building the tick the sheayes are
added laye!.;.. by layer, -the ears pointing towards ,the- centre
which is always kept slightly higher than the outside.
I
The_shape of ricks varies
4!
different counties :
~ey
may
b~,
square, round or rectJlngular. When built, they are
thatched. Since the .finished 'rick is a 'work of art, it is some"
times capped with a straw ornament,
The farmhouse at
harvest-tim~
.is deserted.
Everyon~
from the children to the old men-+-Iends a hand. The farmer
doesn't return for his meals. His ·wife brings
him
"beaver"
to the fields.
'
"
/'
.',
The cows, '.who regard regularity as the'ir right, nioo dis–
consolately- because, for, these few weeks of the year _milking
times tel!.d to be ir-regular. The farm :beasts hate the heat
qf
the swpmer anyhow. Summer means flies. The poor creat–
ures, ·ifthey U!ll, find a pond, stand up to their hocks in water.
They mass into tihelshade of the trees. Watch them for a while
and you'll see them "gadding" : bucking with
tails
qpright in
the
air
to escape the bite of the gad-fly:
-
r
...
r-
,.
The
Laboure~
Sharpens His Scythe ,
The scythe
is
a primitive
~
harvester, But
'it
is
still oonsidered
more convenient than the mechanical reaper for cutting the corn
which 'lies close into the hed erows.
I