COUNTRY LIFE
ONE of the results of a paucity of labourers in the harvest field, here and there at any rate, is that a very great deal of grain is left on the stubble. The rakings are wholly neglected, to the great advantage of those poultry- keepers who have the time and energy to glean.' Gleaning, however, is indefinitely postponed on one farm in my neighbourhood. The farmer, after a fashion new to the district, rigs up his sheafs on a wired tripod, flanked by two hurdles, leaving them in these queer wigwam-like stacks for an indefinite period ; and it is generally- understood that gleaning should not begin till the crop is carried. The tripod system may be good; but with rather inexpert harvesters, the elaborate arrangement is apt to topple, as one did when I first entered one wheatfield, and it is slow.
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