20 CULTIVATED FORAGE CROPS OB^ THE NORTHWEST. 



sections, especially in California, where there are winter rains, the hay 

 is often stored in barns or sheds. 



The hay is usually stacked by machinery. If the stack is made in 

 the tield, sweeps or bull rakes are occasionally used for hauling the 

 bunches to the stacks, but these implements have the serious objection 

 of shattering- the leaves, causing corresponding loss of valuable fodder. 

 For this reason the bunches are usually loaded by hand on wagons 

 provided with hay racks (PI. IV, fig. 1). At the stack the hay is 

 unloaded from the wagons b}^ horsepower, the machine used for this 

 purpose being called a stacker or hay derrick. 



The most common type of stacker throughout the Northwest is some 

 modification of the pole, or mast and boom, stacker. This is essen- 

 tially a derrick, with pulleys and a hay fork, b3' which several hun- 

 dred pounds of hay can be lifted from a wagon and deposited upon the 

 stack. PI. II, PL III, and PI. IV, fig. 2, show some of these forms. 

 The stackers are generally homemade. The derrick may be sup- 

 ported by a heavy framework or may consist of poles held in place by 

 guy I'opes. The hay is usualh" lifted by means of a fork, but nets are 

 in common use in some localities. The most common style of fork is 

 that known as the Jackson fork, or, outside of California, as the Cali- 

 fornia fork. For alfalfa the fork usuall}^ has four tines, but for grass 

 hay five or six tines. By means of a small rope the operator upon the 

 wagon can dump the fork load of hay upon the stack at any desired 

 point. (See PI. I, fig. 1.) One or two horses attached to the lift- 

 ing rope or cable furnish the power to lift the load. The load on 

 the fork is swung over the stack by slightly leaning the derrick toward 

 the stack. The fork then swings by its own weight. The empty fork 

 is drawn back to the wagon by means of the dump rope. Sometimes 

 the load is swung over the stack by hand. Another form of fork occa- 

 sionally seen is the harpoon fork. Instead of the fork there is some- 

 times used a net, also called a sling or hammock. Three or four of 

 these are placed at intervals in the hay as it is being loaded. At the 

 stacks, the nets full of hay are lifted from the wagon to the stack by 

 means of derricks. 



Another form of stacker which has proven very satisfactory is the 

 cable derrick. PI. I, fig. 2, illustrates this form. Forks or nets may 

 be used with this style. In eastern Colorado and parts of Wyo- 

 ming an improved stacker was in common use. 



The bunches may be brought to the stacker with horse sweeps, but 

 the distance must not be great or there will be too much loss of leaves. 

 Hence the stacks are smaller than when the bunches are brought by 

 wagon. 



The stacks of alfalfa are commonly made about 25 feet wide and 

 high, and as long as convenient, often 100 or more feet. 



Throughout most of the alfalfa region the hay is put up during the 

 dry season, and the process can therefore go on without fear of 



