30.
Ploughing.
Here we have one of the chief operations of British farming in which horses and men work together. They are turning over the ground with the plough to prepare it for the seed. Ploughing is usually done in the autumn, so that the land may lie fallow, that is to say at rest, for a time before the crops begin to grow in the spring.
31.
Wheat in Sheaf.
32.
Carrying Corn.
With this coloured slide we come to harvest time. The grain has turned under the summer sun to a beautiful golden brown, and has been cut and set in these stooks, where it is drying in the hot August weather. Presently it will be taken away in wagons, drawn by horses, and stacked. Do you see on the ground the straight lines of stubble due to the fact that the seed from which the corn grew was cast into the straight furrows made by the plough? In this slide the last sheaves of the harvest are being gathered in. There will be much rejoicing in the village to-night because the harvest has been safely got, and rain storms have caused it no harm during the critical days after it had been cut, when it stood drying in the sun.
33.
Reaping Machine.
The first farm machinery introduced in modern times was worked by horses not by steam engines. For example, in this slide we have a horse-drawn reaping machine employed to cut down corn, thus saving the hand-work of many men.
34.
Thrashing Machine.
Here is a thrashing machine driven by a steam engine. The corn is placed on the top of the machine where stand the two men; it is caught into the running parts of the machine which are driven by the engine to the right hand; it is beaten in the machine so that the grain falls from the straw into the bags which you see, while the straw is lifted by the elevator on to the stack to the left hand, there to remain until required for the bedding of horses.
35.
Cows.