COUNTRY LIFE
-WHERE the ground is not too hopelessly hard, the gleaners, who had rather belatedly discovered very rich pickings, have already been driven off by the ploughs. Some few of these, though two or three are generally preferred, cut five furrows. The quick work they accomplish is not to be belittled, but they have one small and little-noticed defect. There are few better friends to the farmer than the gulls or crows (including even jackdaws) which follow the plough, sometimes so close that they are buried. They mop up the offensive insects or other " creatures " momentarily exposed. After a single plough they make a thorough business of purging the tilth ; but five furrows are more than they can tackle immediately, and the wire-worms and such are not slow to take cover after the upheaval. In a particular field of wheat that I watched at all stages the sheaves were first stacked on tripods and presently carried off, a large stack at a ,time, on broad sweeps, backed under them by a tractor and kept in place by a simple wire device. Are even shocks (with apology for the word) a thing of the past?
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