194 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



The Ricks should be 30 to 40 feet long, and 15 to 20 

 feet wide, the best foundation for which is logs laid down 

 for the bottom course, six feet from each other, then lay 

 across these, rails or poles one foot apart. As the hemp is 

 bound in sheaves, let it be thrown into two rows, with suf- 

 ficient space for a wagon to pass between. While the 

 process of taking up and binding is going on, a wagon and 

 three hands, two to pitch and one to load, is engaged in 

 hauling the hemp to the rick, and stacking it. Thus the pro- 

 cess of taking up, binding, hauling, and ricking, all proceed 

 together. In this way five hands will put up a large rick in 

 two days and cover it. For making the roof of the rick, it 

 is necessary to have long homp, from which the leaves 

 should be beaten off. In this state only will hemp make a 

 secure roof. 



In laying down the hemp, begin with the top ends of the 

 bundle^ inside, and if they do not fill up fast enough to keep 

 the inside of the rick level, add, as occasion may require, 

 whole bundles. Give it a rounded form at each end, and, 

 a^ it rises, it must be widened, so as to make the top courses 

 shelter the bottom ones. After it is twelve feet high, com- 

 mence for the roof, by laying the bundles crosswise, within 

 a foot of the edges of the rick, building the top up roof- 

 shaped, and of a slope at an angle of about forty-five de- 

 grees. For the covering of the roof lay up the bundles at 

 right angles to its length, the butt ends down, and the first 

 course resting on the rim of the rick as left, one foot in 

 width. Lap the bundles in covering the roof in courses, as 

 if shingling a house. Commence the second course by re- 

 versing the bundles, placing the top ends down, and then 

 go on lapping them as before. Begin the third course of 

 shingling with the butt ends down, letting the first hang 

 at least one foot below the edge of the roof, to shed off the 

 rain from the body of the stack. Unbind the bundles, and 

 lay the covering at least one foot thick with the loose hemp, 

 Japping well as before, and for a weather board, let the top 

 course come up above the peak of the roof about three feet, 

 and be then bent over it, towards that point of the compass 

 from which the wind blows least. If the work has been 

 faithfully performed, the rick may be considered as finished, 

 and weather proof, and it requires no further binding. The 

 rick should be made when the weather is settled, for if rain 

 falls upon it during the process, it will materially injure the 

 hemp. There ought always to be a sufficient number of 



