REAPING. The common Reaping hook, or Sichle. with which corn is usually cut, is one of the oldest instruments of husbandry. In reaping with the sickle, a portion of the stems is collected with the left hand, and held fast, while the sickle in the right hand is inserted below the left, taking the stems in its semicircular blade, and cutting them through by drawing the sickle so as to act as a saw, for which propose the edge is finely serrated in a direction from the point to the handle. The heads of the corn, with the upper part of the straw, are then laid on the ground in quanti ties which may readily be collected into a sheaf. The division of labour is introduced with advantage amongst a band of reapers. A certain number cut the corn, while others follow to gather the sheaves ; some only pre paring the bands, and others tying them and setting up the sheaves of stooks or shocks, which usually consist of ten or twelve sheaves. In many places there is a regular measure for the circumference of a sheaf, which should never exceed thirty inches. The bands are made by taking two small handfuls of the cut corn, and crossing them just below the ears into a lmot; the sheaf is then pressed with the knee, and the band drawn tightly around it; the ends are twisted together like a rope, and inserted under the band, which effectually fastens it.
Wherever the sickle is used for reaping, the straw is cut at a certain height from the ground, and the remainder forms a stubble, which is sometimes mown at leisure after harvest, and carried into the farm-yard for litter ; but in the neighbourhood of large towns, where straw is sold at a good price, or exchanged for stable dung, it is important that as much as possible of it should be cut with tho corn. This has introduced the practice called
lagging, or bagging. The instrument used for this purpose partakes of the nature of a scythe, as well as of a reaping-hook. It is shaped like a sickle, but is much larger and broader ; and instead of being indented like a saw, it has a sharp edge like a scythe, which is re newed when blunt by means of a stone or bat. The Fagging-Tlook cuts the straw close to the ground by a stroke of the hand; and its curved form is only useful in collecting stray stems, and holding a certain quantity of them between it and the left hand of the reaper when he makes up a sheaf, The Hainault Scythe, which has been described in most agricultural works, does the work better and with less fatigue ; it is in fact a fagging book, but is not quite. so much curved ; the handle is longer, and placed at en angle with the plane of the blade. A better instrument however on extensive farms is the Cradle Scythe, which, in the hands of an expert mower, will do more work and More effectu ally secure all the straw than any other instre, :pent.
Mr. Whitworth, the eminent machinist of Manchester, patented a new reaping machine in 1810. It is a circular disc or scythe (for cutting grass or reaping corn), placed upon the side of a four-wheeled machine; motion being given to the disc by wheel-gearing attached to one of the wheels of the machine,