Book IV. 



STACK-STANDS. 



423 



cattle are fed at the stake, liowever, he considers a reservoir as essential. Allan, of 

 Graycrook, near Edinburgh, recommends that there should be two, in order that as 

 soon as one is full, it should remain in that state till the urine becomes putrid before it 

 be taken away. The urine is either applied to the land in its liquid state, or mixed with 

 peat, earth, &c. The reservoirs may be either vaults of masonry, or wells : in either 

 case, the hole for the pump should be sufficiently large to admit a man to clean out the 

 sediment when it accumulates. A very desirable plan seems to be, to have these vaults, 

 or wells, chiefly within the cattle-house, as in Flanders, but partly also without, to admit 

 room for the pump-hole, close by the wall on the inside of the surrounding paved road. 

 It is needless to add, that such constructions ought to be made water-tight by the use of 

 some cement, or by puddling with clay outside of the masonry. 



2744. The stack-yard, or enclosure within which corn, hay, &c. is stacked, is placed 

 exterior to that side of the building which contains the barn. Stack-yards should 

 always be sufficiently spacious and airy, having a lirm dry bottom ; and some advise 

 them to be ridged up, to prevent the accumulation of surface-water, as by the ridges 

 being pretty well raised in the middle, and covering the places where the stacks are 

 to be built, either with rough stones, with a mixture of gravel, or paving them in the 

 same manner as streets, much advantage would be gained at little expense. But a 

 much better method is to have them raised considerably above the surface, and placed 

 upon pillars of wood or stone, with a covering of wood round the circumference, and 

 beams laid across. The inclosing of stack-yards should be well performed, either by 

 means of walls or palings, or better with a sunk fence ; as in that way the stacks will 

 have the full benefit of the air from top to bottom, a circumstance of no small moment, 

 as it is often found, especially in wet seasons, where the fence of the stack-yards is only 

 a low wall, that the whole of the stacks are damaged or spoiled as high up as the wall 

 reaches, while the upper part is perfectly safe. Should any addition be required to the 

 sunk-fence, a railing upon the top may be quite sufficient. This fully shows the vast 

 advantage of having stack-yards sufficiently airy. The proper arrangement of the 

 stands, for their being removed to the threshing-mill, is also a matter of much conse- 

 quence in the economy of the work that is to be performed in them. 



2745. A stack-yard, arranged on principles pectdiarly well planned and judicious, 

 has been formed by Mitchell, of Balquharn, near Alloa. His stacks are divided 

 into regular rows, and there is a road on each 

 side of every double row, besides a road round 

 the whole yard. (See our Jig. 114. and 115.) 

 This plan is attended with the following ad- 

 vantages ; 1st, by these parallel roads, there is 

 a greater degree of ventilation ; 2dly, he can re- 

 move any stack he pleases, as necessity or markets 

 require ; 3dly, in the hurry of harvest there is no 

 confusion or loss of time, whatever may be the 

 number of men or horses employed ; and 4thly, 

 by having the rows arid the stacks regularly 

 numbered, there is no difficulty in ascertaining 

 what each field of the farm produces. 



2746. Corn-stands are requisite fixtures of the 

 stack-yard ; they are basements of timber or ma- 

 sonry, and sometimes of iron (Jig. 370 a. ) , on which 

 to build the stack, and their object is to keep the 

 lower part of the stack dry, and exclude vermin. 

 The usual mode of constructing stands is to 

 a stout frame of timber on upnght stones, 

 feet high, and having projecting caps of flat 

 stones. They are also constructed wholly of stone, of circular or polygonal walls (Jig. 371 



a, b), built to the same height as in the for- 

 mer case, in a rather slanting manner out- 

 O wards, and covered on the tops with copings 

 of oak-planking or flat stones, which project 

 over the edges several inches, and in that 

 way prevent the ascent of rats and mice 

 to the stacks. In both these modes, pieces 

 of timber are placed as a frame in the middle 

 to support the grain upon, and generally a cone of spars in the centre, to form a column 

 of air in the heart of the corn. Some suppose the first of these sorts of corn-stands to 

 be the best for general purposes, as being more easily as well as more cheaply con- 

 structed, and at the same time permitting the air to enter and circulate with more freedom 



Ee 4 



370 



1 1 tt t 



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