HAYSAVING AND HAYMAKING 49 



land. The price is within the reach of the smallholder, 

 being about £7. The extra wheels are £3 more. The 

 creel sides can be made at home. 



SOME HINTS ABOUT STACKING 



Now, as to the matter of stacking. It is an advan- 

 tage for hay of any kind to heat a little in the stack, 

 " sweating," as it is called. True, if the heating is too 

 great the stuff becomes mow burnt, or may even take 

 fire. But there is a good deal less risk of the latter 

 contingency than is generally supposed. Some farmers 

 on the appearance of a little heat, get into a panic, and 

 begin doing the very thing they shouldn't do, pulling 

 the stack to pieces. 



Now, the heating of a stack is primarily caused 

 through the action of small organisms, or bacteria, as 

 they are called, and possibly also by the live cell tissue 

 of the hay itself. At all events, heating from this cause 

 takes place up to a certain point ; after that, the 

 organisms are killed by the heat, and further heating 

 results from the chemical combinations or substances 

 in the hay and the oxygen of the air. 



It should also be noted that these bacteria require 

 a certain amount of moisture present in order to work or 

 bring about heating. Forearmed with the above know- 

 ledge, we can control the amount of heat in a stack. 

 Many farmers who follow the practice of hay sweating 

 know from long experience how much heat is desirable. 

 Their method is largely guesswork, and wherever in 

 farmwork we can dispense with guesswork the better. 



Thermometers are cheap endugh and should always 

 be used in stack building. If in building a stack, put 

 a long iron pipe in the centre and build round it, the 

 thermometer can be placed into this, and by the assist- 

 ance of a bit of graduated cord the heat at any part of 



