Another one, used in the United States on level ground 

 for raking up windrows and carrying the hay to the stack, is 

 shown, and this can be made on the farm, the block fully illustrating 



the construction of the im- 

 plement, to which two 

 horses are hitched. A 

 horse on each of the wind- 

 rows attached to the ropes 

 will gather up an enormous 

 mass of hay, which can be 

 pulled right up to the 

 stack or hay shed. If desired the side uprights can be carried 

 above the rails like those at the rear. 



If the crop is to be used for hay it must, as I have said, in order 

 to meet the taste of the market, be cut well on the green side, after 

 flowering and before the stalk begins to harden. If it is cut very 

 green there will of course be little grain in the chaff, but the nutritive 

 value of the straw will be higher. If a reaper and binder is used 

 the sheaves are stooked, that is, any numbers of pairs of sheaves are 

 set against each other, the usual number being six pairs. Stooks 

 are generally set in rows with the ends of the stocks pointing east 

 and west, so that the hay dries more gradually and retains its colour 

 better than if the broadsides of the stooks are presented to our 

 almost tropical sun. In the northern hemisphere where the heat of 

 the sun is not so intense, the reverse order is followed, the stooks 

 being placed north and south. If the crop is being harvested in 

 broken weather the stooks may be bonded, that is, sheaves are 

 placed along the top of the stooks, heads interlaced, to shed the 

 rain, but it is seldom necessary to do this in Australia. When the 

 sheaves are sufficiently dry, so that there is no possibility of heating 

 in the stack, they are carted from the field to the stack. The cart 

 is brought up alongside a row of stooks, one man forks the sheaves 

 to the carter on the cart, who places them with their stubble ends 



