8 



Haymaking. 



as two men formerly did with the old single-horse rakes. 

 Rakes of this size are taken through the gates by having the 

 wheels adjustable on the sides, so that the whole can be 

 packed up to go endwise, or else a light sleigh-carriage is 

 used for moving purposes. In the case where a wide mowing 

 machine is used it is obvious that a wide rake to take the 

 swathes is also necessary, so that an 18 ft. one would thus 

 take three wide or four narrow ones. 



It is obvious that the system above described is not applic- 

 able to Scotland, the north of England, Ireland, or any dis- 

 trict which has a large rainfall. The method of procedure 

 and man}'' of the implements are radically different, and by no 

 possibility could the two styles be approximated. This 

 difference is one wholly of climate or rainfall, owing to which 

 there is not only a greater difficulty in getting sufficient sun- 

 shine to dry the hay, but the hay itself contains a greater pro- 

 portion of moisture both before and after it is made. The 

 author does not know of any comparative analytical tests 

 having been made on this point, as regards hay or grass 

 from say the south of England as compared, with the south of 

 Scotland. But he has found from experience that in estimat- 

 ing the weight of a crop of hay while growing, the bulk of 

 grass which in Scotland would yield say a ton and a-half per 

 acre will yield only a little over a ton in the south of England. 

 The percentage of moisture in the grass and cured hay 

 makes all the difference, and prevents the English method 

 of curing from being adopted in the north. 



Put briefly, the Scottish method is to put the hay up in the 

 fields where it grew, in little stacks called ricks, pikes, or 

 tramp-cocks, each containing a cart-load, or say 10 to 12 

 cwt. of hay, and to allow these to remain until sufficiently 

 made or tempered to permit the hay to be carried and put 

 into a stack, several weeks sometimes elapsing between the 

 "ricking " and the £C stacking " of the hay. The carrying of 

 these ricks to the stackyard has evolved the invention of 

 another implement, to take the place of carts and the laborious 

 work of pitchforking. This is the rick- lifter, a tipping plat- 

 form on wheels provided with shafts for a horse. It is 

 backed to a rick, tipped down, a chain passed round the 



