378 THE WHEAT CULTCRIST. 



ticking they will not let the rain through, should it rain 

 a week or more, even if they have not been smeared 

 with any preparation : 



Make a paint of three parts of coal-tar and one part 

 of benzole, or benzine, or spirits of turpentine, and 

 apply it to the cloth, in hot weather, and you will 

 have caps that will last as long as one man will need 

 them. 



The most expeditious way to put the caps on a cock 

 of hay or stook of grain is, let two men throw a cap 

 over the top, and draw it down, both together, and 

 thrust in the pins into the eyelet-holes, with the points 

 a little upward. Weights in each corner of the caps 

 will hold them well ; but they are said to be very heavy 

 to carry around, as one hundred caps must necessarily 

 weigh some six or eight hundred pounds. The editor 

 of the " Cultivator and Country Gentleman " says : 

 " We experimented this season on this modern protect- 

 or, and the result is, that I believe the small caps of 

 three feet square are comparatively useless — those one 

 and a half yards square the best size. Those not oiled 

 did not keep out the wet effectually, but those dipped in 

 boiled oil repelled the rain of nearly a week's duration, 

 so as to require but an hour's airing of the cocks to fit 

 them for drawing. The stones sewed in the corners 

 will, I think, be abandoned on trial, as they make them 

 too heavy to move in quantities ; besides proving inade- 

 quate in a brisk breeze to retain them in their place ; 

 while pegs not only hold them on, but also spike the 

 hay from caking off the top, as it sometimes does, cap, 

 stones, and all. When weights are employed at the 

 corners of caps, one pound, at least, at a corner, will be 

 as li^ht as the weights should be made." 



