-428 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[NoVEMBBBi. 
structed stack-bottoms. These may be made with 
brick pillars, one being in the center, and others 
ranged around it either in a circle or square, as 
may be desired. Floor joists may be laid upon the 
pillars, as shown at 
figure 2 (p. 427), and 
connected near the 
ends, which project 
two feet over the pil- 
lars, by cross pieces, 
as there shown. 
A tight plank floor 
may be laid upon 
the joists, and as 
this projects at least 
two feet out from 
the posts, rats or mice 
can easily be kept 
out of the stacks ; 
besides, as the floor 
is raised from the 
ground at least 18 or 20 inches, these destructive 
vermin find no hiding places underneath the stack. 
ited by the quantity produced, and the cost of 
; packing. It is now no longer held to be an axiom 
j in farming that "all the bay and straw grown up- 
1 on the farm should be fed upon the farm." When 
L 
Fig. 3. — FRAME FOR A HAT PRESS. 
and 60on leave for more comfortable quarters, 
or are destroyed by cats, dogs, owls, and hawks. 
Pressing Hay and Hay Presses. 
There is a rapid increase in the demand for hay 
as an article of merchandise to be shipped to dis- 
tant places. So bulky a material as this, is not 
readily portable, unless it is very closely compress- 
ed into bales. The more closely the hay may be 
compressed, the more extensive will be the market 
for it, and the greater the distance to which it can 
be profitably carried. If ten tons of hay can be 
pressed so closely that it can be carried in an or- 
dinary freight-car, it is clear that it can be carried 
twice as far for the same money, as if only five tons 
could be put into the car ; because light, bulky ar- 
ticles are charged for the room they occupy, and 
not according to their weight. The more effective 
the method of compressing hay, the greater its 
Fig. 1. — p. K. DEDERICK & CO.'S PERPETUAi HAT-PRESS. 
j a farmer can purchase for a dollar, in the shape of 
artificial fertilizers, all the fertilizing elements that 
a ton of straw contains, and for the value of a ton of 
hay can procure an equivalent of greatly more valua- 
ble food, such as bran, oil-cake meal, or corn meal, 
it is profitable for him to sell his hay, and use the 
purchased substitute. Should the plan of wintering 
stock exclusively on meal become anything like 
general among farmers, a still larger quantity of hpy 
would be thrown upon the market, and must neces- 
sarily be baled for shipment. The use of hay press- 
es, in view of all these circumstances, would seem 
therefore to be capable of great extension, and it is 
well that every producer of hay should be informed 
about these useful machines. We here describe 
two hay presses, either of which is very convenient 
and effective in use. The press shown at fig. 1, is 
"The Perpetual Hay Press," made by P. K. De- 
Fig. 2. — dodge's EXCELSIOR PRESS. 
derick Company, of Albany, N. T., and is one of 
the several kinds manufactured by them. This ma- 
chine is shown as operated by a common lever 
horse-power, but any other power, either of horses 
Fig. 1. — ^VXEW OF A STACK YARD, WITH PROPERLY COVERED STACKS. 
value to the grower of it, and it is to the fanner's 
interest to procure the best obtainable presses. 
A large and gi-owing business is now done in pack- 
ing hay, and the extension of the trade is only lim- 
or steam, can be applied to it. As the name, " per- 
petual press," indicates, the pressing is continuous, 
and it need not he stopped to remove the bales, as 
they are made. The hay is pressed into small bundles 
of 10 to 25 pounds each, and the bale is made up of 
several of these. Bales of 100 or more pounds can be 
made, but the convenience of light bales is such, as 
to make them most desirable. These presses are made 
of two sizes, and will 
so press the hay, as 
to allow 8 to 10 tons to 
be packed in a grain 
car. The " Dodge 
'Excelsior Press,'' 
shown at figure 8,. 
is somewhat simi- 
lar to the preceding, 
but it makes a round 
bale, and ten tons of 
hay can so be packed, 
as to go into a car. 
It is very portable, 
and in this respect 
6eems to have an 
advantage over some 
other hay presses. With two horses, six tons of 
hay are easily pressed in a day, and with four horses 
ten tons may be packed. This machine received 
the first premium at the New York Statu Fair. It 
can be operated by any sort of power, either by 
horses or by steam engine, as may be preferred. 
A machine that can be made by any mechanic 
from materials that may be at hand, is inquired for 
by correspondents located in Arizona and Colora- 
do, hundreds of miles from raUroads, and where- 
freighting costs several cents 
per pound. In such places it 
is probable that the manufac- 
turers of the presses here 
mentioned, could supply the 
iron work of the machines, 
leaving the wood-work, which 
is the cumbrous portion, to be 
made where the press is to be 
used. This would much re- 
duce the cost of freight. 
Otherwise a frame, such as 
that shown at figure 3, may be 
made wholly of wood, and the 
pressure may be applied by 
means of an iron screw, (fig. 
4,) which would be all that 
might he needed to be freight- 
ed. The frame should be 
made of stout timber, strong- 
ly mortised together, with 
shoulders to each mortise, to 
strengthen the joints and 
enable them to stand the 
strain, and the pins to fasten 
the mortise should be strong. The frame is lined 
within on the bottom and two sides with smooth 
strips, placed lengthwise ; a door being provided 
on the end, as shown at figure 5, through which 
the bale is removed. The press is filled at the top, 
and the hay is trampled down as compactly as pos- 
sible ; loose planks are then placed lengthwise up- 
on the hay, one end of each plank being pushed 
under a cross-bar of the frame, and the other ends 
being held down by a loose cross-bar, which fits at 
each end into slots in the 
frame timbers. The ties, of 
strong cord, are passed 
through the notches seen in 
the follower, and others in 
the falling door at the end ; 
when the bale is pressed, 
the ends of the cords are tied 
on each side. The screw, 
fig. 4, is one made by Messrs. 
E. Whitman & Sons, of Bal- 
timore, who make a specialty of screws of this kind 
for tobacco and other presses ; but any of the or- 
dinary screws, worked either with a bar, or a 
double-handled winch, will answer the purpose. It 
is a question, however, if the money can be spared 
for the purchase, whether it would not be better 
to procure one of the very useful and effective ma- 
chines above described, rather than to work more 
slowly and less economically with any home-made 
press. This question must, of course, be de- 
cided according to the circumstances of each case.- 
Fig. 4. — SCREW. 
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Fig. 5. — ESD DOOR. 
