HAYING TOOLS. 307 



slings and lifting them in succession. This scheme 

 ought to work well but troubles because men loading 

 hay rapidly in the field forget to put their slings in 

 at the right time, or else in unloading get hold of the 

 wrong slings, getting one of the slings at the front 

 end another sling at the rear. Thus each is drawn 

 out and no hay lifted. 



I avoid all this trouble by using only one sling, 

 that placed in the bottom of the load. It would not 

 do of course to attempt to lift a ton or a ton and a 

 half of hay with one lift. Therefore the top of the 

 load is lifted with forks. Two of these are used at 

 the same time, one in each end of the load. As they 

 raise they take off a layer of hay over the whole load 

 just as a sling would do. A second layer is taken off 

 by aid of the forks, and then the rest of the load is 

 cleaned up by use of the sling. 



By aid of these slings one can elevate alfalfa hay 

 very rapidly. I have repeatedly taken off loads in 

 five minutes, which would, if that rate be held, put 

 in barn or stack 100 tons in a day. Of course men in 

 the mow or on the stack could not care for hay at any 

 such rate. 



Care of Machinery. — A good deal of the success 

 of any hay unloading machinery is dependent on 

 the care of the apparatus. It pays to use large 

 pulleys of the strongest make. It pays to buy the 

 best rope. It pays to keep the carriers and pulleys 

 well oiled. Nowhere else is intelligence and care 

 better worth while than in the looking after hay un- 



