64 LUCERNE CULTURE. 



If cut in summer it must be left one day before raking, and 

 then rake while there is a little dew, this keeps the leaf on. Then, 

 put it into pooks or cocks of about four feet wide at the bottom, 

 and build up cone shape with forks. Usually it should be left 

 about four days to dry, according to the weather, before stacking. 

 If your fields are sown in sections, then make your pooks on the 

 ridges between the sections ; this mode keeps the sections clear. 



When pooking, work your lucerne say the outside ridge to 

 the second one, then half of the second section lucerne to the same- 

 ridge, and the other half to the third ridge ; then from the fourth, 

 to the third ridge again. This brings the two rows of pooks on 

 the two ridges of one section ; this saves a lot of tramping to your 

 lucerne when carting to stack, and keeps the traffic on one section. 

 Change about your pooking every cutting from one section to 

 another. 



CARTING TO THE STACK. 



When carting to the stack, first see that the lucerne is in the 

 right conditicn. To know this, open the pook to the centre, then- 

 take a few stalks in your hand, pass between your finger and 

 thumb, and see that the skin does not rub off ; if it rubs off it is 

 not yet ready to stack. Should the ground be very wet, and the 

 pooks be damp at the bottom, then turn them over fcr a couple of 

 hours in the sun before riding in. 



STACKING. 



Say for a stack eighteen feet by thirty, firct make your " sted- 

 dle " eighteen by thirty, of wood or stone, to keep the hay from 

 coming in contact with the ground. Next make a flue nine inches- 

 square from one side to the centre of the steddle ; then take four 

 pieces of wood (say two inches by two and fifteen feet long, or 

 according to the height required of stack), and nail to them small 

 raps about nine inches long and nine inches apart, thus making a 

 flue or ventilating shaft to go up the centre of the stack, connected 

 with the end of the bottom flue. This is a measure of safety against 

 over-heating. 



To start your stack commence in the centre by the upright 

 flue, placing say six feet of hay around the flue at the centre, slop- 

 ing gradually to the sides. This will draw any heat to the centre 

 flue. Always keep your stack high in the centre ; this will keep- 

 the rain from penetrating. The flue must always be kept shut at 

 the top to make good hay, only to be opened in case of stack over- 

 heating. 



To test a stack take an iron rod ten feet long, half-an-inch 

 thick, made with a sharp flat point at one end, with a bow handle. 

 Thrust this rod into the stack, about six feet from the centre flue 

 and about six feet high, leaving it overnight ; in the morning this- 

 will give you the temperature. It will also give you the control of 



