STACK. 



expense ; but a much better method 

 is to have tliein raised considerably 

 above tbe surCace, and placed upon 

 pillars of wood or stone, with a cov- 

 ering of wood round the circumfe- 

 rence, and beams laid across. The 

 enclosing of stack-yards should be 

 well periormed, either by means of 

 walls or palings, or, better, with a sunk 

 fence ; as in this way the stacks will 

 have the full benefil of the air from 

 top to bottom, a circumstance of no 

 small moment, since 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 rail- 

 ing upon the top may be quite suffi- 

 cient. This fully sliows the vast ad- 

 vantage of having stack-yards suffi- 

 ciently airy. The proper arrange- 

 ment of the stands, for their being 

 removed to the thrashing-mill, is also 

 a matter of much consequence in the 

 economy of the work that is to be 

 performed in them. 



" The proper size of the hay stack 

 should probably be different in some 

 degree, according to the state and na- 

 ture of the hay ; but a middling size 

 is perhaps the best, say from twenty 

 to thirty loads of about one ton each, 

 as there are inconveniences in both 

 small and large stacks, the former 

 having too much outside, while the 

 latter are liable to take on too much 

 heat, and, at the same time, permit 

 less moisture to be preserved in the 

 hay. In small stacks, the bellying 

 forms, with very narrow bottoms, 

 have often much advantage, and are, 

 in some districts, termed sheep 

 stacks, probably from tbe slovenly 

 practice of sheep having been per- 

 mitted to feed at them. 



" In building every description of 

 stack, the stem, or body, should be so 

 formed as to swell gradually out- 

 ward, quite up to the part termed the 

 eaves ; as by this method it is more 

 perfectly secured against the en- 

 trance of moisture, and, at the same 

 time, requires a less space of stand 



; to rest upon ; and, when the building 

 of them is well pcrforiiuMi, they have 

 equal solidity, and stand in as firm a 

 manner. 



" The stem should contain about 

 two thirds, and the roof one third, of 

 the wliole stack. If it be built on a 

 frame, the stem should contain less 

 and the roof more ; if on a bottom, 

 the reverse. The corners of the 

 stem should not be built too sharp, 

 but should be carried up rather round- 

 ish, by which the sides will look full- 

 er, and the swell given by the press- 

 ure will be more perceptible. 



" The ends of the roof should have 

 a gentle projection, answerable to 

 the stem ; and the sides should be 

 carried up rather convex than flat or 

 concave. Perhaps a roof gently con- 

 vex shoots off the rains better than 

 any other. 



" Where grain is stacked that has 

 not been sheaved, and in building 

 hay stacks, it is the usual practice to 

 have a number of persons upon the 

 stack, the corn or hay being forked 

 up and deposited on the different 

 sides all round in a similar method ; 

 after this, other parcels are laid all 

 round on the inside of these, so as to 

 bind them in a secure manner from 

 slipping outward, the operator pro- 

 ceeding in the same manner till the 

 whole of the middle space is perfect- 

 ly filled up, when he begins another 

 course in the same method, and goes 

 on in this mode, with course after 

 course, till he has raised the whole 

 of the stem, when he begins to take 

 in for the roof, in a very gradual man- 

 ner, in every succeeding course, un- 

 til the whole is brought to a ridge or 

 point, according to the manner in 

 which the stack is formed. But for 

 the purpose that the roofs may throw 

 off the water in a more perfect and 

 effectual manner, they should be 

 made so as to have a slight degree 

 of fulness or swell about the middle 

 of them, and not be made flat, as is 

 too frequently the practice with in- 

 different builders of stacks. 



" In stacking, where the grain is 

 bound into sheaves, there is seldom 

 more than one person employed in 



751 



