GRAINS. 1H5 



3T grain grower, of hay and grain caps. Says S. E. Todd : ''As 

 there is so much uncertainty about having fair weather during 

 the days of harvest, they seem to be an almost indispensable 

 requisite to successful agriculture. Indeed, I think that grain 

 caps are far more important than a mowing machine or a 

 reaper. If I could have but one of the two, I should consider 

 it more economical to purchase one hundred dollars' worth of 

 hay caps, than a mower or reaper. Few farmers really under- 

 stand and appreciate the eminent advantage of such appendages. 

 I think that if a farmer who has been accustomed to secure his 

 crops without grain caps, will employ them during a "wet season, 

 he would be ever after unwilling to dispense with their use. 

 In localities where long and heavy storms of rain are apt to 

 prevail during the haying and harvesting season, every farmer 

 ought to prepare a good supply of hay caps, not only for pro- 

 tecting his hay while it is in cock, but for protecting his cereal 

 grain and Indian corn-stalks, when they are in the shock. 

 Such caps will oft5n pay for themselves in a single season in 

 protecting hay only, but after the hay has been gathered, tliey 

 will be found quite as serviceable for protecting barley, wheat, 

 and oats." 



These caps should be made of common ticking or sheeting, 

 six feet square, with the rough edges hemmed. Turn up the 

 corners about three inches and sew them down tightly, work 

 holes in eacH corner for wooden pins to go through ; these pin^ 

 may be made of any hard wood, and should be twelve to 

 eighteen inches long, with a knob at one end, and sharp-pointed 

 at the other. They should be dipped in boiled oil to render 

 them impervious to water. The writer just quoted says: 

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

 zine, and apply to the cloth in hot weather, and you will have 

 caps that will last as long as any one man Avill need them." 



