GROWING FIELD CROPS IN SUGAR-BEET DISTRICTS. 37 



stackers and push rakes, the usual crew being four or five men and 

 five or six horses. One man and two horses operated the stacker, 

 with one or two men on the stack. This left two men and four 

 horses on the rakes. At Rocky Ford side-swing stackers were the 

 most common type, the crews being the same as at Fort Morgan. 

 The push rakes automatically load in the field and push the hay 

 upon the stacker without any of the labor of forking. At Greeley 

 the crew most commonly consisted of four to six men and six horses, 

 using a crane stacker with sleds and slings. This equipment con- 

 sists of two sleds or gates upon which two slings are placed, one at 

 each end of the sled, and on these the hay is pitched in the field 

 and taken to the stack by one man with two horses to each sled. 



Fig. 31.— A side-delivery rake. The hay should be raked into windrows soon after it is cut or many leaves 



will shatter off. 



One man stays in the field to help load the sleds. At the stack 

 the slings are lifted by one man and two horses, one or two men 

 being on the stack to handle the hay. Sometimes this crew varies 

 in that three sleds are used and each team is unhitched at the stack 

 to operate the crane, thereby using one man less. (Figs. 30-36.) 



The harvesting of the cucumber seed crop consists of throwing 

 the ripe cucumbers into piles by hand, making pits for the storage 

 of the seed before washing, then thrashing, washing, and drying. 



The piling of the seed cucumbers in the field is usually done by 

 contract at a specified price per acre, which is put under the cash cost 

 in Table IV of this bulletin. Two men can pile about an acre of cu- 

 cumbers in a day. This work is done from October 1 to 10. In a 

 few days after piling, the cucumbers are thrashed by special types of 

 machines which remove the seed and some of the pulp from the meaty 

 part of the cucumber and rinds. The seed is hauled to pits and the 

 rinds are dropped in the field near where the piles of cucumbers were. 



