268 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



up. These stacks were sometimes four-sided [T. I. p. 

 266], sometimes round, and their shapes can best be seen 

 from the accompanying figures ; for they did not have 

 them in many varieties. On the top, these, as well as 

 all ricks in these places, were very well thatched with 

 straw, ganska val tackte med halm, which was done 

 in the same way as has been previously treated in detail in 

 respect of hay-stacks [p. 211 orig.] In such stacks were 

 built up not only wheat, barley, and oats, (for rye is not 

 sown in this place), but also pease and beans. Besides, 

 the feet or pillars, pelare, which stood round about the 

 sides, there was always a foot or pillar set under the 

 middle of the stack for the sake of greater strength. The 

 number of the pillars was commonly nine — viz., one under 

 the middle and eight round about. These ricks always 

 stood at home at the farms, and never out on the fields. 

 The crop, saden, can be kept for a long time good and 

 uninjured in such a stack, without turning musty, or 

 taking any harm ; for manifold experience has shown that 

 all kinds of seeds are kept [T. I. p. 267] best and longest 

 in their own seedhouse, or husk. Down on the bottom, 

 botten, ' Rick-staddle,'' or ' Rick-frame ,' * is spread out 

 preferably, furze, hawthorn, and sloe, and sometimes 

 brackens. These thorny trees are especially used for 

 the bottom of the rick, so that if any chance has brought 

 mice into the stack, their thorns should deprive them of 

 the pleasure of staying there long, and also hinder the 

 ascent of others. Down at the ground the stacks were 

 always narrower, and broadest in the middle, where their 

 thatch ended, so that the sides might not take harm from 

 rain which drips down from the thatchfoot on to the 

 stack. The pease and bean stalks were thatched with 

 straw in the same way as the corn-ricks. 



* So called, 1886. [J. L.] 



