Proceedinos of the Farmer^ Club. 349 



morgan's hay-pitceer. 



This is a device for elevating hay on the load vrhile in the 

 meadow. The main features consist of an erect standard ten or 

 twelve feet high, secured to the hay rigging or shelving. On the 

 top of this stand is a crane three or four feet in length. A rope 

 passes from the fork on the ground over a pulley at the end of the 

 crane, and over another pulley at the junction of the crane and 

 the stand, and thence down to a drum which is attached to the 

 wheel of the cart or wagon. The fork is thrust into a cock of hay, 

 when, by starting the team, the forkful is elevated and dropped at 

 pleasure on either end of the wagon. The inventor, Joseph Mor- 

 gan, Springfield, Mass., having such a pitcher at Eve, a committee 

 was designated to go and supervise its operation. On Monday, the 

 2d inst., J. H. Macy, J. B. Peck and S. E. Todd were the commit- 

 tee who appeared to witness the operation of the pitcher. 



A load of hay was carted to the field and distributed in bunches 

 weighing about one hundred pounds each. Then the hay was 

 returned to the wagon by means of this pitcher. If simply pitch- 

 ing the hay on the load were all that is desired, the committee 

 would cheerfully indorse this device as a valuable labor-saving 

 machine, as the fork will elevate a cock of hay, weighing from one 

 to two hundred pounds, in a few seconds. Under favorable circum- 

 stances, this pitcher would pitch a ton of hay on the wagon in eight 

 or ten minutes, with comparative ease to the man who handles the 

 fork. The committee were agreed that, so far as simply pitching 

 hay is concerned, this device operates successfully. But there ai-e 

 points connected with the operation which they did not like. The 

 team must be moving while the hay is being pitched on the wagon. 

 Besides this, when a cock of hay is tumbled on the loadat random, 

 it is very difficult for even an expert loader to place the hay around, 

 so as to make a load that will ride safely to the barn. A boy, or 

 light man, who could make a square load, if the hay were pitched 

 on in forkfuls of a moderate size, would find it extremely difficult 

 to load hay satisfactorily, when it is rolled up and tumbled up in 

 such large wads that he cannot move it readily, when portions of 

 it must be placed in order to build a square load. The committee 

 feel bound to set forth the disadvantages as well as to approbate 

 the merits of all such labor-saving devices. 



SHEEP m WEST VIRGINIA. 



Mr. N. P. Atkinson, Elm Grove, Ohio county. West Virginia, 

 says that in all sections north of forty degrees, luxuriant blue grass 



