398 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 



spoiled every year by bad stacking, especially of wheat. 

 A farmer should never attempt to stack his own grain 

 unless he is sure he knows how ;. and he can never be 

 sure of that until he has a vivid -recollection of the time 

 when he did not know how. In Great Britain it has 

 long been the custom to secure grain in stacks ; and they 

 have brought the art to a great deal of perfection ; and 

 every farmer who has not learned the art himself, should 

 secure the services of some English, Welsh, or Scotch 

 farmer to do that job for him until he has thoroughly 

 acquired the art himself. 



u A man may understand something about the theory 

 of stacking without being an adept in the business. 

 Building a stack correctly can only be acquired by prac- 

 tice under the eye of a competent instructor. But the 

 theory is useful, if for nothing but to enable the farmer 

 to know when he has found a competent practical man. 

 This theory, as we have seen it practised by English- 

 men, is substantially as follows : " 



. TOPPING OUT A STACK. 



"When laying sheaves above the bilge of a stack, the 

 same writer says, commence in the centre by setting 

 up sheaves as for a round shock, adding course upon 

 course, setting the butts of each succeeding course a 

 little more out, so as to have the outside course at 

 about the angle of a quarter-pitch roof, being care- 

 ful to force the butts down on the next course so they 

 will not slip and flatten down as weight is added. Let 

 this last or outside course, in working from the centre, 

 serve as the first course in the layer which you 

 make back to the centre, laying the butts of the next 



