Profitable Employment of Agricultural Machinery 



519 



hay per acre), we have every reason to be 

 satisfied with it as regular farm work. There 

 is one man in charge of each machine, 

 besides the driver of the pair of horses, 

 and by remaining in charge for the sixteen 

 hours he receives double his ordinary pay, or 

 5 s. per day. The four pair of horses are 

 under their regular drivers, who at this season 

 work eight hours instead of nine, their regu- 

 lar day's work, but who, on account of mis- 

 timing, receive their usual pay. 



The cost of cutting the 6 acres we may 

 estimate at — One man in charge of machine, 

 2S. 6d. ; one man with pair of horses, 8s. ; 

 one girl with rake to clear away at turnings, 

 rod. ; beer for men, 6d. ; oil for machine, 2d. 

 — total, I2S., or at a cost of 2s. per acre, 

 against 4s. on the average of years by manual 

 labour. In cutting the crop last year only 

 one of the machines had a single breakage, 

 which, however, was easily repaired by the 

 farm blacksmith. They are always kept in 

 good order, our practice being to overhaul 

 them and put them into perfect repair at the 

 end of each season. 



We have not charged anything for tear and 

 wear or depreciation of machines, for the 

 superiority of the work done by them, and 

 the greater quantity of hay got, as compared 

 with manual labour, more than covers any 

 expense in keeping them up. They have 

 now been six seasons at work, and are quite 

 as efficient as when they came from the 

 maker's hands, although they have cut in that 

 time about 1800 acres of grass and 600 acres 

 of corn. 



We use Boby's and Howard's hay-tedders, 

 and keep them vvorking almost close up to 

 the mowing machines, our object being to 

 get the hay put into cocks without too much 

 exposure to the sun or rain. When suffi- 

 ciently dry to be put up into larger cocks or 

 pikes (small ricks), the cocks are drawn to- 

 gether by a pair of horses yoked to a hay- 

 sweep. When fit to carry we build the hay 

 into stacks of about 80 and 100 tons. The 

 larger the stacks the better is the quality of 

 the hay, if it only be in a condition to keej) 

 from fermenting too much, as less surface is 

 exposed to the weather, and the hay is nicely 



compressed, and cuts out firm, with a fine 

 colour and flavour. 



In our northern and variable climate we 

 cannot make hay so expeditiously as our 

 neighbours of the southern counties, but the 

 despatch of the work while the sun shines is 

 all the more necessary. In assisting with the 

 stacking a very important implement, and 

 one which deserves to be brought into greater 

 notice, has, of late years, been introduced — 

 namely, Wright's elevator or hay- stacking 

 machine, by which about eight men can be 

 dispensed with at the stack's side as com- 

 pared with the old plan of manual labour. 

 It was our custom, formerly, so soon as the 

 height of the stack got beyond the reach of a 

 a man from the ground, to have two ladders 

 standing against each stack, with two or 

 three men (according to the height of the 

 stack from the ground) standing upon them, 

 the one above the other, while at the bottom 

 of each ladder there were four men handing 

 the loaded forks, which were sent up only in 

 single file and in succession to the builders on 

 the stack. By the machine spoken of, how- 

 ever, a two-horse load of hay can be put upon 

 the stack at any height in about three or 

 four minutes, while our hands are two men 

 with light steel forks to load the machine, 

 and four women to put forward the hay, 

 which is pushed off the carts as they arrive 

 in succession. It may be asked why not 

 fork the hay from the carts to the stack, and 

 when the stack gets beyond reach to use a 

 portable stage, and fork it on to it ? The 

 answer is, that this method would detain the 

 carts in the yard, and less hay would con- 

 sequently be carried in a given time. An 

 extra outlay in wages at this important time 

 is only a secondary consideration compared to 

 the securing of thecropwhentheweatherisfine. 

 We drive the machine by horse-power, conse- 

 quently there is the horse, and the boy addi- 

 tional who acts as driver. To make a com- 

 parative estimate of the saving effected, 

 under the former method of manual labour, 

 we had fourteen men at 2s. 6d. each per day, 

 £1, 15s. ; while under the latter we have 

 two men at 2s. 6d., 5s. ; four women at lod., 

 3s. 4d. ; one boy with horse, 5s.— total, 13s- 



