Harvesters and Harvesting 1840-1900: A Study of the Rural Proletariat

During the second half of the nineteenth century the enormous increase in agricultural production, unmatched by technical advance in harvesting, drew vast numbers of rural and migrant workers into the harvest that lasted from June to October.

This book, first published in 1982, examines the technology, conditions and customs of the harvest and, through that, the life of the rural population of central England from the 1840s until the end of the century when hand tools finally gave way to me...