REAPING, the act of cutting corn, has been performed from time immemorial with an instrument called a reaping-hook or sickle. The sickles in use among the ancient Jews, Egyptians, and Chinese appear to have differed very little in form from those employed in Great Britain. The reaping-hook is a curved instrument of about 31 ft. in length, tapering from a breadth of about 2 in, at the butt-end, where it is used into a wooden handle. The edge is sometimes serrated, hut, as a rule, it has long been made plain and sharp like a knife. In reaping, the harvester takes the corn in his left hand, and then with the hoOk cuts the stalks as close to the ground as possi ble; but when a grass crop has been sown down with the grain, the stubble is often left rather longer, in order to preserve the young grass. The cord is placed handful by hand ful iu a brand usually made of the corn, and when as much has been cut as will form a sheaf, it is tied up by the " bandster." The most expert reapers Slash down the corn with the hook in the right hand, using the left merely to keep the corn from falling, until sufficient to make a sheaf has been cut, when the reaper places his hook under the corn, and supporting it with his left arm, deposits it all at once in the band. A band ster (one to every three or four reapers) binds the grain, and sets it up in stooks of gener ally 12 sheaves. It was surprising to see women of 60 years and upward handling the "hook" with great dexterity, accomplishing their 20 and sometimes 24 stooks of 12 sheaves each per day. After such a day's work, these women appeared much fatigued. hut a night's rest seemed to set them on foot, vigorous as ever. They divested them selves of much of their clothing, and really worked hard for their money.
In the principal corn-growing districts of Scotland a great proportion of the reaping by hand was at one time done by laborers from Ireland, who undertook the work at front 8s. to 15s. per acre, with board and lodging in addition. Their fare was of the simplest in the majority of cases, of porridge morning and evening, and bread and beer for dinner; their lodging at night was the barn or some outhouse, the farmer providing coarse blankets for covering. The quantity of porridge consumed
at each meal by those people was sometimes astonishing—no less, as has been proved by actual weighing, than 5 lbs., with 11 lbs. of milk besides. In England, most of the corn was cut by piece-work, at prices varying from 10s. to 18s. per acre. On the stronger lands of the midland and southern counties, the stubble is sometimes left knee-high, and afterward at leisure cut by the scythe, or with a long hook, at a cost of 2s. per acre. In Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, and on many of the lighter soils in other counties, the operation of fagging or hacking, to be afterward noticed, was preferred as being more expeditious than reaping. A good hand cut down from one-third to one-half of an acre of wheat, and often consumed, during his long day's labor, two gallons of good ale.
The scythe, in some counties, more than thirty years ago, was preferred to the sickle. The most common varieties were the Hainatilt scythe—an importation from Belgium— the cradle scythe, and the common scythe fitted with a cradle. The Hainault scythe consists of a blade about 2 ft. 3 in. long, having a handle 14 in. long. This, the mower holds in his right hand. while in his left he carries a hook, with a handle of about equal length. " The reaping," says the late Mr. Henry Stephens, in his Book of the Fl 111? , "is done by pressing the back of the hook with the left hand against the standing corn, in the direction of the wind, and by cuttingwith the scythe close to the ground against the standing corn with a free swing of the right arm," the hook keeping the cut corn front until a sufficient quantity to form a sheaf has been cut. This operation was practiced in many parts of England, and especially on the lighter soils, under the name of fagging or hacking, the reaper sometimes using in his left hand, instead of the hock. a stout crooked stick from 21 to 3 ft. long. Beans and oats were the crops most gin n. erally fagged. The cradle scythe is composed of a blade about 3-i ft. long, attached to a principal helve or sped about 4 ft. long, into which another helve of about 21 ft.