Stacking Grain* 
335 
STACKING GRAIN. manner of stacking grain in England, we give 
In reply to Mr. Robinson’s letter, page the engravings below, which fully illustrate 
338 of this paper, requesting to know the j the whole process. 
Fig. 34. Fig. 35. 
Fig. 33, is the frame of the stack, and is 
thus formed. Eight flat stones, about 2 feet 
square, are laid down where you wish to 
place the stack, equidistant, so that drawing 
a line from one to the other, will form an oc¬ 
tagon of the required diameter of the stack. 
On each of these, a pyramidal stone block 
2 feet at its base, 2| feet high, or more, 
if thought proper, and 1 foot square at 
the top, is set in an upright position. On 
the top of each of these pyramids, a flat stone 
is placed about 2 feet square ; and on these 
rest the frame of the stack, which it will be 
seen at a glance, a rat cannot reach ; for it 
is so high he cannot jump from the ground 
on to it, nor can he climb up the stone 
pyramids, and if he could, he would not then 
be able to get over the caps. 
These stands are sometimes made of 
brick-work, 2 feet or 18 inches square, and 
carried straight up, making regular pillars, as 
wide at the top as at the bottom; they then 
receive the stone cap on the top. Others are 
made of cast iron, hollow in the centre, and 
of various shapes, according to fancy ; but 
the stone pyramid strikes us as the neatest 
and strongest, and we give a drawing of this 
simply. All these may be made in our own 
country, of round wooden blocks, sawed from 
the body of a tree, and capped with square 
pieces of plank, and we think answer as good 
and effectual a purpose as stone or iron, so 
long as they last. 
We need not describe the bottom part of 
the frame, as its formation is seen at a glance. 
In the centre is a pole, and all around this are 
eight other poles, placed equidistant from 
each other, and about 2 feet or so from the 
centre pole at the bottom, and joining it at 
the top. These ought to be framed into the 
cross pieces at bottom, and made fast at the 
top, which any ingenious man can do. 
Now commences the stacking, which is 
done in the usual way of laying up the sheafs 
of grain ; only they are placed round the out¬ 
side of the eight poles, which leave a hollow 
circle inside of the stack, 4 feet in diameter, 
narrowing till it is closed at the top. The 
stack being raised from the ground, air can 
get under it; and this hollow being left in the 
centre, it can also penetrate there ; and if 
heat is generated, it can easily escape. We 
were told that grain rather green or damp 
could be stacked in the manner above de¬ 
scribed, without danger of heat, mould, or 
growth; and it may remain so for years, 
without injury, when the stack is put up and 
well thatched as in fig. 34. In England the 
stack is a permanent fixture, convenient to 
the barn for threshing; and instead of being 
the ugly, ill-shapen, musty mass, that too 
generally forms our American stacks, they 
present in their beautiful thatched conical 
groups, a pleasing appendage, and we can 
almost add, of neat architecture, which we 
have paused hundreds of times to contem¬ 
plate with the utmost pleasure. 
The advantages of stacking grain in this 
