The Farm.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 496, 13 October 1882, Page 25

The Farm.

Reaping Corn.— Coin, whether wheat, barley, oats, or rye, may be cut in three ways— viz., by the sickle or reaping-hook, by the scythe, and by the reaping-machine. For the small farmer, who has a limited patch of oats, barley, or wheat, and the labour in his owa family, we should recommend the reaping-hook or sickle. Such a farmer generally is not pressed for time, and the extent of his crop is not such as to cause much delay in the cutting. The hook leaves the corn in much better state for binding than the scythe. It is easier to cut the straw with the smooth-edged than with the toothed sickle ; but on the other hand there is a delay in every now and then sharpening the former, which is not the case with the latter. It may be interesting to some of our readers to be informed that the curve on the reaping-hook depends on very nice mathematical and anatomical calculations. The sickle should be a light steel one, heavy implements causing an unnecessary amount of labour. If timejfc an object— but there is no objection to leave the corn a day on the ground before binding— then the small farmer bad better use a cradle scythe. With this he can reap a statute acre of corn in a day, and the crop will be more open after being cut and more permeable to air and sun than if reaped with a hook. The best sort of cradle scythe for reaping is one with two short handles, one branching out of the other. The blade is from 3 feet 4 inches to 3| feet long ; the principal handle is 4 feet long ; the cradle is about 8 inches high, jointed to the heel of the blade. Nuts are used with screws to shift the position of the cradle to suit the mower. But the blade of a common scythe with an ordinary handle may also be mounted with a cradle. It is a bad practise to use the strickle and scythe stone too frequently on the scythe. Indeed a good and careful mower will take a long time to blunt his scythe. It will be found that a man with a good cradle scythe will get through a good deal more reaping in a given time than with the ordinary Bcythe. Where the extent of grain crop is considerable it would be a folly now-a-days to use either sickle or scythe except at coiners and headlands or where the grain is lodged. The reaping machine is for many reasons far preferable. In the first place, as much work can be done in a day at reaping with a two-horse machine as twelve men could accomplish. In the second, there is a great saving of time, a matter of the utmost importance in our variable climate. In the third there is a saving of expense. Of reaping machines there is a great variety. There are the simple hand delivery reapers. On these one man guides the horses, while another, with a rake, pushes off sideways the corn reaped. Then there are the self-delivery reapers which are also self-raking. The driver sits on the body of the machine, while revolving rakes catch the corn which has been deposited on a platform and delivers it either backward or side-ways In some machines the corn is left in rows on the field, bat there is one kind in which it is delivered in separate portions, each sufficient to form a aheaf. This is called tie sheaf-delivery reaper. There is another kind of reaping machine, which not only reapes but binds the sheaves before delivering them. This is called the self-binding reaper. The first specimens were made to bind with wire, but there were so many inconveniences connected with the use of this material that for a length of time efforts weie made, though at first unsuccessfully, to substitute other less objectionable substances. At length M'Cormack, Wood, and other manufacturers succeeded in adapting string as the binding material, and now the string-binder is an established machine. One objection to it is its expense, another its bulk and weight. Its complexity, too, makes it very liable to get out of order, but its details have been much simplified and improved since its introduction. A modification of it consists in having the reaping and binding apparatus in two separate machines, the one following the other. Xue best place to inspect the various kinds of reaping machines is at agricultural shows, where the various new devices and improvements on old ones are calculated not only to interest the farmer, but every person having a taste for mechanical inventions. We do not intend here to enter into the discussion of reaping by steam or electricity, a thing which we think will never be introduced into any country where the holdings are of moderate size and the capital of the farmer limited. We think, too, that unless the breadth of corn sown in this country enormously increases, selfbinding machines will not succeed in it, whatever may be the case in Australia, New Zealand, or the Western States of America. However, it is well for our farmers to know something about all useful agricultural inventions. The cost of reaping a field of corn, whether the instrument used is a sickle, a scythe or a reaping machine, will depend to a considerable extent on whether the crop is light or heavy and whether it is or is not lodged. The proper size of a sheaf of corn being 11 inches at the band, we should say that 144 of these to the acre might be reckoned a very email crop and 600 a very large crop. As 12 sheaves from a stook, the crop would vary from 12 to 50 stooks per statute acre. When people are hired to reap and bind we consider the fairest way to pay them is by the stook, but many labourers object to this method, though it ought to be to the advantage of a good workman. One thing we must advert to before concluding—viz., the time for cutting corn. The usual fault with farmers m Ire ?K£i 8 waiting too long, till the coin becomes over-ripe. This fault is^res injurious in the case of barley than of the other cereals notwithstanding the name given to the old reel tune, " The wind that Bhed the barley," because this grain, to malt well, must be dead-ripe. Wheat should be cut about 10 days before it is dead-ripe, or when the seed without husk has somewhat of the consistence of dough when pressed between the fingers. In favourable weather it will rapidly ripen in the stook, and the chaff and bran will not be so course or thick as if let stand till later. Oats should be cut about a week before it is dead-ripe. This is paiticularly necessary when the straw is to be used for feeding purposes. Oaten straw when cut while still with a tinge of green in a part of it, is excellent feeding for cattle when chaffed and mixed with pulped roots, but when the grain is Buffered to become quite ripe it contains a m "eh greater quantity of

woody and indigestible fibre. The stooks should not be made into small stacks on the field, but should be carried as soon as possible to the stack-yard. In the latter everything should be prepared for the reception of the corn before harvesting is commenced. Waiting till the last moment is a source of all kinds of subsequent delays and inconveniences. — Dublin Freeman. The Farmer's Opportunities.— lf the great aim of every man, as far as this world is concerned, should be to strive after moral, intellectual and physical perfection, the farmer is peculiarly well circumstanced for carrying out such a programme. As far as moral improvement is concerned, he is safe from the corrupting influences and dangerous temptations of large cities, and his mode of life necessarily saves him from many others. An intelligent farmer who has received a good elementary education when young, and who has a desire for self-improvement, can easily satisfy that desire. He is surrounded by thousands of natural objects of the animal, vegetable and^ mineral kingdoms, more than sofficient to occupy his thoughts during all his leisure moments, and his occupations make him familiar with the various operations of nature. He can study botany, veterinary science, mechanics, meteorology, and various other departments of natural science practically, and by means of books theoretically. One of the principal difficulties of the city student is the distractions to which he is exposed, and these are absent from the dweller in rural districts. Books are now cheap and easily procurable. For a man cultivating his mind the country can never be monotonous. As for physical education, the pure air, the early hours, the regular life, the amount of labour and exercise required, and the simple, unadulterated food are of inestimable advantage to the farmer, and supply him with a health and strength unknown to the unfortunate townsman. If the farmer, therefore, be not morally, intellectually and physically superior to the inhabitant of the city, he has no one but himself to blame and the neglect of the opportunities he possesses. And as a nation is such as are the individuals composing it, so no naiion can hope to conquer the adverse conditions in which it is placed till each one of its children, without regarding what the others may or may not do, resolves to aim at the standard to which we have above alluded. In order to do this, %vaste of time must be avoided, bad habits must be reformed, every moment must be utilised, and our farmers must endeavour in the first place to make themselves good agriculturists. — Dublin Freeman.