Ulcadozvs and Haymaking 



145 



which each cock rests, b}- the number of 

 cocks in the field, and some notion will be 

 obtained of the loss sustained by this bad 

 mode of procedure. Let it then be accepted 

 as an axiom in haymaking, as in other depart- 

 ments of farming it is accepted, that the moment 

 when the produce is ready for storing, that that 

 is the time when the storing should be pro- 

 ceeded with. Hay is differently stored from 

 corn, and may either be put up in the barn com- 

 pletely under cover, and enclosed on all sides, 

 or put up into stack in the rick-yard. But in 

 either case the operation of putting up hay re- 

 quires to be done with great care. If it is to be 

 stacked, the site of the stack must be pre- 

 pared specially with a view to prevent damp 

 getting into the body of the hay. The mode 

 usually adopted to prevent damp is by 

 placing on the ground a number of pieces of 

 wood, poles of trees, &c., filling up the 

 interstices with brushwood, (S:c. Stones may 

 enclose the space upon which the stack is to 

 stand, and the space within the stone en- 

 closure filled up with smaller stones — or the 

 usual form of corn stack stathels may be used. 

 In the case of either of the two first-named 

 methods being adopted, it Mall be advisable 

 to cut a trench all round the space of the 

 stack, so as to prevent the water from the 

 surrounding soil draining to the stack ; hence 

 also comes this other recommendation, that 

 the site of the stack should be raised so as to 

 be considerably higher than the surrounding 

 soil, so as to drain from rather than to it — 

 although this will in some measure be effected 

 by the raised bottom of timber or stones. 



The best shape for a hay stack is that of 

 the parallelogram, in which the length is 

 greater than the breadth \ its contents can be 

 thus easily measured, and the less breadth 

 which it possesses as compared with its 

 length prevents the chance of the contents 

 getting over-heated. 



In depositing the hay in one stack, care 

 should be taken to have each layer, so to 

 say, placed as lightly and evenly as possible. 

 As each portion is taken from the cart, 

 an attendant should be ready to recei\e, 

 take it up, and shake it loose so as 

 to get rid of all knots and lumps, dispersing it 



VOL. I. 



lightly over the surface, taking care to keep 

 the middle higher than the sides and ends ; 

 and to keep these latter well bound, so as 

 to have the mass well secured together. As 

 the storing progresses, the hay projecting from 

 the sides should be carefully pulled out so as 

 to make the outside faces neat and trim. Much 

 of the fine form of the hay-rick, which one 

 meets with on a well-conducted farm, de- 

 pends upon the care with which this external 

 trimming is done. Little need here be said 

 as to the thatching of the stack save this, 

 that the same care which is given to the for- 

 mation of the stack in other parts should be 

 given in this. Nothing looks worse in a 

 rick-yard than stacks finished in a careless, 

 slovenly manner. When the hay is stored up 

 in a stack in the open air, the operation of 

 stacking will be much facilitated by using the 

 rick cover, a cloth extended between two 

 poles, or by having — as is often the case in 

 England — a permanent roof supported by 

 four standards at the corners, up and down 

 which the roof slides, so that it can be 

 adjusted at any desired height. With the 

 use of either one or other of these contri- 

 vances the operation of stacking is much 

 facilitated ; and the uniform condition in 

 which it is stacked, secured by the facility 

 given to store the hay, as it gets ready for the 

 stack, by avoiding the necessity of keeping 

 that which is first ready in the field till the 

 last cut is ready also. 



To prevent the contents of the stack over- 

 heating and getting scorched, special con- 

 trivances are often adopted by which a sup- 

 ply of air is carried to the centre of the stacks, 

 and the heated air withdrawn from the same 

 place, thus securing a certain degree of venti- 

 lation throughout the whole mass. Some do 

 not approve of these appliances, inasmuch as 

 they conceive that while carrying off the 

 heated air from the interior of the stack, they 

 also carry into it the damp condition of the 

 exterior atmosphere, so that they believe it 

 the better way not to stack till the hay is in 

 that good condition in which it will not get 

 overheated. But this, in our uncertain cli- 

 mate, cannot be always — shall we say is only 

 now and then secured — so that, after all, 



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