154 HOW TO MAKE TUE FARM PAY. 



or raked by hand, it should be bound as soon as possible, and 

 stacked. The size of the gavels is an important consideration ; 

 they should be as large as can be conveniently bound, and of 

 uniform size. If one thousand sheaves are made where only 

 seven hundred and fifty were needed, just the time used to bind 

 two hundred and fifty sheaves is lost. In raking gavels, great 

 care should be taken that the butts be kept even, else it will 

 not stack properly. A great convenience to the grain raiser is 

 a band maker. "We give a description, and as it is not patent 

 any blacksmith can make one. Take a piece of half- inch 

 round iron twenty inches in length ; make three inches at one 

 end into a hook, and nine inches at the other into a crank. 

 Before bending the hook, run the iron lengthwise through a 

 six-inch stick of hickory, or other hard wood, for a handle. 



The bands are made as follows. "Wet a quantity of straw, 

 fasten some of it to the hook and walk backward, turning the 

 crank. A person should sit on the floor, and let out the straw 

 as it is wanted. Several hundred feet of 'good bands can be 

 made in an hour in this way. 



Shocking "Wheat is one of the most important operations 

 of the harvest. The main cause of so much poor flour is bad 

 shocking and stacking. "Wheat can be shocked in such a 

 manner as to receive no injury from ordinary rains, but it is 

 seldom done. 



The loss to the wheat crop from faulty shocking, can be 

 reckoned only by millions. In forming a shock, either set one 

 sheaf in the centre, and lean others against it, or set two sheaves 

 leaning against each other. Upon these centre sheaves depends 

 the stability of the shock, and great care should be taken that 

 they securely brace each other. 



And here we would stop to recommend, in the strongest lan- 

 guage we are capable of using, the employment, by every grass 



