392 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



districts, to see the corn stacked in all parts of the farm and the 

 ricks set widely apart. Insurance Offices have, in some instances, 

 requested that this precaution and care should be taken. The 

 principal disadvantages are as follows : first, the inconvenience of 

 having to break off the teams from their work upon the land, to 

 lead home corn whenever straw is required for the yards : second, 

 the increase of expense in carriage — the crop has to be loaded, 

 carried, and emptied twice instead of once ; a convenience may be 

 felt in harvest although roads are then good, but a greater incon- 

 venience occurs by having to lead the cropping when the 'roads 

 are often in their worst condition, and either way the whole 

 weight has ultimately to be carried the same distance ; straw for 

 thatching must be taken from the yard to the fields in harvest 

 time ; and further, if the ricks be thrashed in the field (in fair 

 weather), the straw has to be led home and the corn also before 

 it is winnowed, and if taken home to be thrashed, the whole bulk 

 has to be unloaded, stacked in the barn, and again thrown off 

 when the machine is at work. Farmers must use their own judg- 

 ment as to which is the better plan, and most adapted to their 

 respective holdings. Few of the Lincolnshire ricks are built upon 

 frames — a layer of straw being the usual '^steddle" or founda- 

 tion. Both round stacks (or ^'^ cobs") and square stacks, in a 

 connected row (or ^'joints"), are common, varying much in 

 figure and magnitude in different districts, and often carried up 

 to a great altitude by the assistance of a platform or stage." 

 The most prevalent shape is that with right lines forming a sec- 

 tion of its roof and walls, viz. the following : — 



In some parts of North Lincolnshire the subjoined (fig. 1) 

 is the section of either a round or long stack, the roof, by the 

 slanting position of the sheaves, being well calculated to shoot off 

 the rain. 



The most common form on the Wolds is shown in fig. 2. 

 Having the roof thus drawn in, though as many square yards 

 of thatch are needed as on the square stacks, the same bulk of 



