1879 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
4=57 
riages ; and these last are just about half the value 
of the Agricultural Implements and Machinery. 
Stacking with Horse-Pitchforks# 
As noted elsewhere [page 377, last month], stack¬ 
ing hay is the almost universal custom in the tim- 
berless regions, and the stacks are usually long in¬ 
stead of round. On the farm of Mr. Lucien Wil¬ 
liams, Harrison township, Winnebago Co., Ill., we 
saw a convenient Frame for unloading hay upon 
these stacks with a horse-pitchfork, which is easily 
constructed, and has proved successful in practice. 
We made a sketch of it for the engraving herewith, 
which will explain its structure and use. The three 
sills are of 6x6x6-inch timber, the two side ones 20 
feet long, and the end one 18 feet long, or its 
length may be varied to the width of stack desired. 
The four corner uprights and the four plates are of 
lx6-i ucli timber. The hight is say 26 feet—more 
or les6, according to the hight of the stack. The 
braces are of 2x6 timber. A swinging track-rail is 
suspended for the pulley carrying the fork. This 
rail projects a foot or more over the load, which is 
driven up with its side against the braced end of 
the frame. The stack is built in at the open end of 
the frame. A structure 20 feet long, 18 feet broad, 
and 26 feet high, will suffice for unloading 10 to 12 
tons of hay. As soon as the stack fills the length 
of the frame, the side sills are raised a little with a 
crowbar or hand-spike, and round billets of wood 
are put under. Two hooks are indicated in the 
cross sill, to which a team is attached by a chain, 
and the frame is quickly and easily moved along 
just its length, ready to add another section to the 
stack. The hooks, while convenient, may be dis¬ 
pensed with by putting the draw chain directly 
around the sill. The whole apparatus is simple, 
and can be put up by any carpenter. The great 
saving of labor, and, still more important, the sav¬ 
ing of time when hay should be hurried in, will 
doubly pay for such a structure in a single season, 
even where only 20 or 30 tons of hay are gathered. 
Form and Size of Hay-Stacks. 
The simple covering for hay-stacks [page 377], 
and the unloading apparatus described above, indi¬ 
cate the one continuous long stack in preference to 
several small rouud stacks. There is another strong 
reason for preferring the long stack. In this form, 
a larger or smaller amount of hay can at any time 
be cut off from the end with a hay-knife, or even 
with an axe, without disturbing the rest of the 
stack, or exposing it to storms, as rain will not 
penetrate the smooth-cut end. One, two, three, or 
more, feet may be cut off at a time, either for feed¬ 
ing out or taking to market. The hight and width 
of the 6tack will depend upon its exposure to winds 
that would blow it over, and upon the total amount 
of hay, and the quantity to be used daily. The 
frame described above, with 26 feet posts, would 
leave room to top off a stack 15 or 18 feet high, 
with room under the track-rail for taking in the 
heaw forkfuls. The stacker, by standing on 
either Lide of the track-rail, could top it off 20 feet 
or more high. When the quantity is large, and the 
daily draft upon it is heavy, and where strong winds 
are not feared, the stacks may be 18 feet wide at the 
base, and 18 to 20 feet high, though 15 feet is usu¬ 
ally high enough. The larger the stack, the less is 
the proportional exposure to weather. For limited 
quantities, and small daily feeding, 10 to 12 feet 
wide, and 12 to 14 feet high, would be large enough. 
Barbed Wire Fences—New. 
The matter of fencing is of great importance ev¬ 
erywhere, and especially so all over the hundreds of 
millions of acres of treeless prairie between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River, and 
still further eastward, embracing nearly all of the 
great State of Illinois, and the southern part of 
Wisconsin. Rails and fence boards are too expen¬ 
sive ; the posts alone are a serious item. We have 
given much attention to this in many former visits, 
and especially so during this journey. For a long 
time the simple wires were resorted to, and the 
chief efforts at improvement looked to devices for 
keeping up the proper tension during the expansion 
and contraction of hot and cold weather. But they 
have always been unsatisfactory. The animals 
would run against and break them. They would 
crowd their heads, and often their bodies, between 
the wires in reaching for a choice bit of better 
grass, or perchance a cultivated crop, on the other 
side. Within a few years, various arrangements of 
Barbs, or Sharp Points, 
at intervals along the wires, have been provided, 
and double or triple wires used, twisted together 
like the strands of a rope, both to hold the barbs, 
and to diminish the difficulty arising from expan¬ 
sion and contraction of the wires. These were con¬ 
sidered a great advance, and have been largely 
adopted. Indeed, at almost every railway station, 
arid in many baggage cars, we have 6een large 
amounts of these twisted and barbed wires coiled 
on spools, the projecting point on every side plainly 
saying, “ Noli me tangere" —touch me not. We 
leam that about 40,000 miles of the different va¬ 
rieties of such fencing had been erected up to the 
end of 1878, and that some 20,000 miles more have 
been erected this year, so that there are at least 
60,000 Miles of Barbed Wire Fence, 
and the manufacturers are now turning out 75 or 
80 miles a day, requiring 30 to 40 tons of iron. (A 
ton, 2,000 lbs., of No. 12 wire will make two miles 
of three strand, or 2 2 /3 miles of two-strand fence, 
four wires high. On the plains of Texas, and where 
animals are cheap, and the enclosures large, this 
barbed wire answers well. But there is the se¬ 
rious objection that when animals run blindly 
against it, or are forced upon it, there is always the 
danger that long gashes will be cut in the skin. We 
have found, here and there, farmers strongly op¬ 
posed to its use, and have had related to us numer¬ 
ous cases of serious injury to valuable animals. 
Still, many say that it is so great an improvement 
over the simple wire that they prefer to use it, and 
run any ri6k of Injury. In a few places, we found 
A New Form of Barbed Fence, 
which struck us as a decided improvement. This 
consists of steel strips, galvanized, with a series of 
conical projections, at intervals, along one side. 
The strips are twisted in putting up, and the coni¬ 
cal points while sharp enough to repel animals, be¬ 
ing of cone form, will not “ dig into ” and tear the 
skin. The wide, bright, galvanized, twisted strip is 
also easily seen by the animals before running 
against it. [Since returning home we have sought 
out the manufacturers, and learned from them that 
the waste of material in cutting out the strips and 
points is so great that the fence is too expens’ 
for general use. They are now at work, in accord¬ 
ance with our suggestions, preparing a combination 
of the steel strip supplied with clamps having the 
cone points, and we have strong hopes that in our 
next issue we shall be able to announce an ar¬ 
rangement that will be decidedly superior to any 
thing hitherto produced. If successful, as we feel 
quite sure it will be, the American Agriculturist will, 
as often before,have assisted in making another very 
important contribution to our farming interests.] 
Stanchions for Cows. 
On most of the Dairy farms we visited, the cows 
are kept upon floors 41 feet long, slightly sloping 
to a urine gutter, and they are fastened with stan¬ 
chions. Our sketch book contains several vari¬ 
eties of these stanchions, the most convenient one 
of which we note 
here, but do not 
recall where we 
saw it. The up¬ 
rights, a, a, are of 
plank, 6 inches 
wide, set 31 feet 
from center to 
center. The hor¬ 
izontal piece is set 
high enough to 
leave 4 feet in the 
clear under it. 
The 12-inch plank, 
b, is set inclined 
as shown in the 
engraving, one 
side being cut 
off to leave it 1C 
inches wide at the 
top, and against 
this the piece c falls back. An opening is cut for 
the hand to conveniently grasp the upright, c, which, 
when closed, leaves the opening for the cow’s neck 
7 inches wide and 4 feet high. This answers for 
the average of cows. An animal with an unusually 
thick neck may require a trifle wider space. The 
special feature of this stanchion is the fastening or 
latch d, which falls into place whenever c is thrown 
upright, and holds it firmly. Simply raising the 
end of the latch d releases the cow.—[A stanchion 
somewhat similar to the above is shown in the 
American Agriculturist of October, 1877, with also 
an arrangement of cords leading from all the latch¬ 
es to one cord at A, outside of the stable. The bars 
are set to fall back by their own weight. Simply 
pulling the cord at A raises all the latches, releas¬ 
ing all the cows simultaneously, as in the case of a 
fire, or at any other time when desired. The weight 
E holds the cord back ordinarily, leaving the latch¬ 
es free for use. 
Breaking: Prairie Sod-Double Plowing. 
The almost universal custom has been to turn 
over a thin layer of sod, a6 flat as possible, early in 
the season, and leave it to rot. Com is frequently 
planted at once, and a moderate crop obtained the 
first season. Wheat is sown in autumn or spring 
upon the sod turned under the previous May and 
June, without disturbing it, except to thoroughly 
harrow the surface. We have found in several 
Western States a tendency to change this plan. 
For example, at Schuyler, Neb., (75 miles west of 
Omaha,) Hon. J. T. Clarkson, with whom we rode 
some 15 or 20 miles to examine a variety of farms 
under cultivation, showed us some fields of his 
own which he first broke last spring, and at once 
jut in various crops, which were doing well "'h- 
we were there in Juljv 
virgin sod 3 inches deep in the usual manuer; on* a 
second plow, following in the furrow, took up an 
inch or more of the deeper soil, and threw it over 
the inverted sod. This, harrowed, filled up the in¬ 
terstices between the sods, and furnished a fine 
soil seed-bed. The fine sub-soil of the Platte Val¬ 
ley may be better adapted for immediate use as a 
seed-bed without previous exposure to the air, 
than in some other localities, but probably there is 
