The 1965 Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, compiled and edited by Ewan MacColl (and which carries a front plate of shearers with my village of Coldstream in the distance) has this to say: "In Ord's introduction to Bothy Songs and Ballads there is an interesting note concerning shearers - 'The shearing was mostly done by women. The value of a day's work was calculated by the number of thraives cut. A thraive consists of 2 stooks of 12 sheaves each. To cut seven or eight sheaves was considered a good day's work for a shearer. After the introduction of the scythe (1810), the best men cut the corn, the women gathered into sheaves and made the bands, while younger men, as a rule, bound and stooked the sheaves. The bandster could claim a kiss from the gatherer for each band whose knot slipped in the binding.' As school lads, we were still stooking corn cut by a combine on the farms which didn't yet have balers, in the late 50s and early 60s, on the Scottish border.