made. This method is available
in level or prairie countries and to those who do not need to save the
straw."

That ingenious Dutchman Conrad Heresbach refers, in his _Husbandry_,
to Palladius' description of the Gallic header with small respect,
which indicates that in the sixteenth century it was no longer in use.
I quote from Barnaby Googe's translation of Heresbach (the book which
served Izaak Walton as the model for his _Compleat Angler_): "This
tricke might be used in levell and champion countries, but with us it
would make but ill-favoured worke."

Dondlinger, in his excellent _Book of Wheat_ (1908), which should be
in the hands of every grain farmer, gives a picture reproducing the
Gallic header and says:

"After being used during hundreds of years the Gallic header
disappeared, and it seems to have been completely forgotten for
several centuries. Only through literature did it escape the fate of
permanent oblivion and become a heritage for the modern world. The
published description of the machine by Pliny and Palladius furnished
the impulse in which modern harvesting inventions originated. Its
distinctive features are retained in several modern inventions of this
class, machines which have a practical use and value under conditions
similar to those which existed on the plains of Gaul. Toward the close
of the eighteenth century, the social, economic and agricultural
conditions in England, on account of increasing competition and the
higher value of labour, were ripe for the movement of invention that
was heralded by the printed account of the Gallic header. The first
header was constructed by William Pitt in 1786. It was an attempted
improvement on the ancient machine in that the stripping teeth were
placed in a cylinder which was revolved by power transmitted from the
wheels. This 'rippling cylinder' carried the heads of the wheat into
the box of the machine, and gradually evolved into the present day
reel."

It may be added that the William Pitt mentioned was not the statesman,
but a contemporary agricultural writer of the same name.]

[Footnote 97: According to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert it was the custom in
England to shear wheat and rye and to leave the straw standing after
the third method described by Varro, the purpose being to preserve the
straw to be cut later for thatching, as threshing it would necessarily
destroy its value for thatching. It was the custom in England,
however, to mow barley and