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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



horse corn, sometimes for meal, and sometimes for the 

 market, or granary, " The blacksmith's bellows" have also 

 been tried to blow the heat out of the stacks in the stack- 

 yard! while among the western and northern isles of Scot- 

 land, where " it rains for ever," drying the sheaves at the 

 fire, or iu a current of air between two doors, is no ua- 

 common thing in srery bad seasons. 



There being nothing new in the proposition of" smoking 

 corn sheaves like red herrings," can we improve upon the 

 old practice ? With our portable engines, stacks travelling 

 on railways, blast-furnaces, and other appliances of modern 

 discovery, all pregnant with their respective suggestions, is 

 the time approaching when we shall wheel in our dripping 

 sheaves of a wet harvest, all hung up like herrings on a large 

 framed-truck, at one end of a large barn, constructed like a 

 railway tunnel, and wheel the stacks out at the other end to 

 their respective stands in the stack-yard, all thatched, pre- 

 pared for the winter, and ready for thrashing at pleasure ? 



If this, then, is the solution of the problem, what is to 

 prevent its being successfully done ? It is^manifest that, 

 if the barn is of sufficient length and breadth, and properly 

 heated and ventilated, a very large crop could in a very 

 short time be passed slowly through it ; for with three lines 

 of rails, three pitchers could be kept going, unloading their 

 carts at the one end, and three stackers stacking upon one 

 stack at the other ; and with such a force daily at work, field 

 after field would soon be cleared, and the largest stack-yard 

 in the kingdom filled, 



Such being a general outline of the feasibility of our pro- 

 position, let us examine somewhat more closely its details 

 from a practical point of view, in order to see if it is likely 

 to return iuterest on the capital required to carry it out. 



It is very clear in the outset, that in England, with only 

 a wet season now and then, the project will not pay interest 

 on capital unless we can " hit two dogs with one bone," as 

 the proverb has it. In the North of Europe, and even in 

 Scotland, a drying barn, as above, might be yearly used, 

 and might therefore pay, although only used for the inga- 

 therhig and drying of crops ; but in those provinces where 

 fine harvests are the rule, and wet ones the exception, it 

 would, we fear, be otherwise. 



Can we contrive to dry our sheaves in any other farm 

 building, such as in a feeding-house for cattle? Can a 

 building be so designed as to serve the twofold purpose of a 

 drying-house for sheaves during harvest, and a feeding- 

 house for cattle afterwards ? 



In the erection of a new homestead there is nothing to 

 prevent this being economically done, without the expense 

 of an extra farthing as to the building. A dijing barn, for 

 example, 200 yards long 13 yards wide, and of a suitable 

 height, would make a splendid feeding-hoase after harvest, 

 capable of being fitted up for 200 head of cattle in 200 

 movable feeding-boxes, 100 on each side, with a fine wide 

 passage along its whole length between them. On the one 

 end of this would be the turnip barn, which would also 

 serve for unloading the sheaves from the carts, and putting 

 them in the railway tracks ; and on the other end the sheaf- 

 barn now used would also serve for the stacks being built 

 in, and from which they could be wheeled to the stack-yard, 

 being thus built and wheeled out, as they are now wheeled 

 in, to the thrashing machine, the work being only inverted, 

 as it were, in its details. 



With regard to railway, three lines of portable rails could 

 easily be laid down the whole length, with one outside line 

 for bringing round the empty trucks upon. And with re- 

 gard to the trucks and their framing, they could be con- 



structed in various ways, rude, strong, and simple, at a 

 trifling cost each. One plan of constructing them might 

 be as follows, viz. : 



A rough frame 20 feet long by 10 wide, on four small 

 wheels, similar to those of a travelling crane, with four 

 uprights at each end, three or four horizontal bars, accord- 

 ing to the length of the sheaves, lengthways between each 

 pair of uprights, thus forming three passages along the 

 length of the truck, across which the sheaves are hung on 

 small rods, three sheaves upon each rod, the ear end 

 downward, the rod being thrust through the sheaf imme- 

 diately below the band, which would thus support the 

 weight of its sheaf upon the rod ; about 300 sheaves to a 

 truck, allowing two square feet to each sheaf as the hori- 

 zontal sectional area which it would have to dry in ; the 

 diameter of each sheaf about six inches, and the sheaf 

 loosely tied, to allow the free ingress of heated air and egress 

 of moisture in the process of drying. 



In filling the trucks, one man hands the sheaves to two 

 others, who put them on the rods, while two on the truck 

 put the rods on the bars for drying. Five hands would 

 thus empty a cart in the usual time it is done in the 

 stack-yard at present by two hands, or three where two are 

 allowed upon the stack. 



If a gentle inclination were given to the railway, the 

 trucks would pass along the line to the other end at any 

 speed the process of drying would permit. Or the trucks 

 could be hauled along a level line by means of a wire-rope 

 and capstan. 



In unloading the trucks and stacking, an equal number 

 of hands would be required as at the other end ; and 

 about half the work would be done by boys or women. 



Thus far we have discussed the matter in the stack-yard 

 long ago, putj the sheaves upon a pitchfork handle as fast 

 as another could hand them to us, and set them aside ; 

 while it was admitted that a country carpenter could make 

 a truck for about i'2, timber being cheap, the bars of the 

 feeding-boxes serving as part. Also in the field, if the 

 mowing was going on'at the same time, the sheaves would 

 not have to be stooked, but would be taken directly from 

 the binder to the drying barn. 



We now come to the process of drying, and the conclu- 

 sion at which we and other practical farmers have generally 

 arrived, was that heated air would be necessary ; and that 

 to give it free circulation among the sheaves, so as to dry 

 them thoroughly in the shortest time, it would require to be 

 let in at the bottom or below the sheaves, and taken out at 

 the top by means of fans. If a regular current of heated 

 air is got to play through the sheaves, the process ot dryuig 

 will be but a short one, and effectually done. In drying 

 such com upon a kiln, a process of which we have had 

 considerable experience, success depends upon " how the 

 kiln draws ;" for if steam is allowed to stagnate at a high 

 temperature among the com, it does an immense 

 harm, destroying the colour and quality of the corn in a 

 very short time ; but if the " kiln draws well" so as to take 

 off the steam rapidly in a current of air as fast as it is 

 generated, the corn is soon ready for removal to the 

 granary. As there cannot be a doubt but the same result 

 would be experienced in the drying of sheaves were steam 

 allowed to stagnate in the heart of the sheaf, similar means 

 must be used for its removal. The sheaves, therefore, 

 must be small, loosely tied, and hung so as to let the heated 

 air pass through them for the purpose of removing the 

 steam as fast as it is created. The principle thus contended 

 for is familiar to fanners in the rapidity with which sheaves 



