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. J have repeatedly taken off loads in 
five minutes, which would, if that rate be held, put 
in barn or stack 100 tons ina 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- 
