618 Report on the Trials of Combined Stacking- Machines 
longer than any other (fortj-seven minutes) had its horse-gear 
attached. 
Ahhough when each machine is first brought out from the shed 
folded up, one form will generally take as long a time as the 
other to set to work, yet after they are once opened it will take 
much less time to shift the self-contained machine from one rick 
to another than to move separately the independent machine and 
the separate horse-gear to work it. 
These self-contained machines possess another indisputable 
advantage — they occupy less room in the rickyard. The horse 
working beneath the trough, and between the waggon and the 
rick, no further space is needed. With the other machines it 
is sometimes difficult, when the rickyard is nearly full, to find 
sufficient space for the separate horse-works. Another advantage 
that has been claimed for this form of machine is that the horse- 
power being applied more directly, there will be less of it lost 
in overcoming friction. The results of the last trial, however 
(given on Table II.), will show that in the machines subjected 
to mechanical tests this advantage was very small. 
On the other hand, certain disadvantages must be noted against 
these self-contained machines. The hay or corn that falls from 
the waggon, the rick, or the machine, drops upon the horse-track, 
and in the course of a day's stacking a considerable quantity 
will be thus fouled by the droppings and treading of the horse. 
When a separate horse-gear is used, this inconvenience and loss 
is avoided. Another inconvenience is found in the height of 
the hopper.; when the horse works below, the hopper must be 
placed higher than the side of a waggon ; we thus give the man 
on the waggon a part of the work that we wish to save by the use 
of a machine-elevator. In the two machines first on the list, this 
difficulty was overcome by removing the hopper, but more hay 
and corn then dropped by the horse-track. Another objection 
that has been hitherto made to these machines, is that the 
horse-gear being beneath, they cannot be folded down low 
enough to go under an ordinary cart-shed ; this difficulty, how- 
ever, has been quite overcome in the case of the Beverley Iron 
Works machine, which folded down to 7 feet 7 inches, lower 
than any other machine in the trial. There is an advantage 
in having the horse-power separate, since on many farms it will 
be useful for chaffcutting or other work when not wanted for 
stacking. 
Although the Judges were of opinion that the balance of 
advantages rests with the machines provided with separate 
horse-gear, yet the other form of machine has such decided 
merits that it will probably be preferred on many farms ; it 
was, therefore, with great satisfaction that they found machines 
