IRRIGATION FARMING. 



satisfactory arrangement for gathering the hay crop. By 

 means of these rakes the hay is taken from the windrow 

 by horse power, and conveyed to the stacks in jags 

 weighing two hundred to four hundred pounds, where it 

 is delivered to the ricker, and by the latter is landed into 

 the middle of the stack. The only hand work required 

 is the distribution of the hay after it is placed upon the 

 stack. Five men and five horses with two rakes and the 

 ricker easily put thirty tons of hay a day into stack, at a 

 cost of about thirty-five cents a ton. The great draw- 

 back to these rakes is that they can be used to advantage 

 only on short and level hauls. The process of this method 

 may be seen in Figure 65. 



Colonel Lockhart, a leading alfalfa grower of 

 Fowler, Colorado, has simplified the gathering of cut 

 alfalfa in the field by throwing away wagons, "go-devils" 

 and all contrivances except a drag arrangement of his 

 own invention. This is composed of nine boards of 

 Texas pine an inch thick, six inches wide and sixteen 

 feet long. These are placed parallel, leaving six inches 

 of space between each, and all are fastened across the 

 ends with a 2x4 laid flat and loosely bolted to the boards. 

 To this is hitched a team of horses, and on it nearly a ton 

 of hay can very easily be hauled to the stack. Tho drag 

 is hauled alongside a cock of hay. Two men with pitch- 

 forks turn over the hay onto the drag, which when loaded 

 is hauled to the stack and dumped onto the sweep which 

 carries it to the top of the stack. The drag will run 

 over all ditches and obstacles, and is the best thing of 

 its kind yet devised. 



To facilitate the work of harvesting alfalfa, it is 

 well to have parallel roads thirty rods apart running 

 through the fields. These roads may be protected from 

 irrigating waters by ditches on either side, so that the 

 roadway at no time is flooded. This arrangement allows 

 the alfalfa to be stacked at close proximity, and the plan 



