Modern Hay - making Hay-harvest is in full swing. The reapers are
being towed round by tractors, and the business of hay-making goes ahead at a great pace. The hay used to be cut with a pair of horses and a mower, after which all available labour lined up with hay-rakes, and turned the swath again and again until it was dry. It was a long, slow. task. Sometimes a shower made it seem endless. After the turning and airing the horse was used again to sweep the swaths that had been raked together by hand, and, finally, little ricks were built on the driest places in the field. The last part of the lob was carting and rick-building in the rickyard. It is all very different now. Three men and four or five implements make a hay-harvest. The tractor pulls the mower; a mechanical rake draws up the swath; a baler disposes of the crop in neat blocks, and the field is left as clean as a new carpet. The tractor goes snorting and buzzing up the lane pulling a wagon loaded with the output of the baling machine. When all the noise is over, the rabbits come out once more to sport across the cropped field. A philosopher might ask what the world does with all the time it saves, but just now the farmer has no time to answer.
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