Country Life
THE old method of hay-making—with hand- rakes and little ricks of hay set about the field to be alternately drenched with rain and dried by the sun—was wasteful in every way. It depended on the weather. It Meant the use of manual labqur and it often resulted in the crop being lost or ruined. How many days I have spent when a boy turning rows of hay ! It always seemed inevitable that rain would send us scurrying for shelter be- tween the cutting and the stacking of a crop. Scientific minds have since given thought to the nutriment loss in hay-making and engineers have designed all sorts of things to make the job go faster. The real speed-up was produced by the tractor, and the hayfield became a place for machines. 1 watched three people making hay in the old way a day or two ago. They were catching up with something that might have been done weeks before it seemed, and were working on the slope of a mountain raking up a piti- fully light crop of bleached grass. What compassion I felt for them when a brooding cloud moved over the sun I It was almost certain that tomorrow, or the day after, they would have to do it all again, for on the hill farms they have few mechanical aids and the old way is often the only way. I cleared a dry throat at the thought of their despair and looked involuntarily at my hands, half- expecting to see the blisters I once suffered when at the same task.
Previous page
