Vol. LXIV. No. 2905. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30, 1905. 
WEEKLY, *1.00 PER YEAH. 
AN ARGUMENT FOR HAYING MACHINERY. 
HORSE RORKS AND SLINGS. 
The Wood and Steel Hired Man. 
Oil page (> 14 II. H. Lyon asks about the use of the 
hay fork. He says that to use the fork requires an 
extra man and an extra horse, or one is put to the 
bother each load of taking a horse from the wagon 
to draw up the hay. Thrashing grain with modern 
thrashers requires the use of several extra men, but 
who would think of taking a hired man or the boys 
and spending half the Winter flailing out the grain the 
good old-fashioned way. When haymaking time 
comes it should be a matter of getting the hay into the 
barn as soon as possible. Some farmers who are lone¬ 
handed hire an extra man and a stout boy, the latter 
to load and to assist in mowing away. By pitching on 
by hand and by unloading in tbe same laborious man¬ 
ner five or six loads (some use V /2 or eight by 16 
foot racks) constitute a hard day’s work. In this way 
often two or three weeks are consumed in making a 
crop of hay, and then some of it was cut either too soon 
or too late for best results. The “old-fashioned” fork 
that carried from 100 to 200 pounds of hay was about 
as capable of handling hay rapidly as the 
so-called newer sorts. The forks which 
take up 500 pounds are rare. Of course 
if the hay is properly loaded and the 
fork properly stuck it occasionally takes 
up that amount, but half this weight is a 
good average. This is the writer’s ex¬ 
perience. There may be forks that 1 
am not familiar with. How is one to 
pitch hay by hand into the top of a mow 
in one of our modern barns, the comb 
of which is 40 or 50 feet above the 
floor ? 
In regard to allowing the hay to pile 
up in the middle of the mow, no harm 
results, provided after a pile has accum¬ 
ulated other forkfuls are not allowed to 
drop and wedge between the pile and 
siding. It must be admitted the hay 
cannot be taken out as easily as when 
kept level in mowing, but some argue 
that a farmer has more time in the 
Winter than when there arc a dozen 
loads of hay out and rain is threaten¬ 
ing. The modern haymaker’s outfit in 
the section with which the writer is 
familiar (southern Michigan and north¬ 
western Ohio) consists of mower, ted¬ 
der, rake—though many do not consider 
the latter essential—hay loader, eleva¬ 
tor, two men and a stout boy, if the men and boy can 
be procured. Now for results. Where the hay is 
good and the haul not a long one, about 20 minutes are 
required to drive to the field and get a load of hay; 
20 minutes more and the hay is in the mow, and 
everything is ready to go for another load. Is this a 
“western yam?” By no means. How is it done? As 
soon as the load is in the barn the two men fasten the 
first sling to the blocks, then go to the mow, while the 
boy takes the team from the wagon and hitches it to 
the elevator rope. In about one minute more the first 
slingful is in the mow. If your hay rack is a large one 
three slings are usually used for each load. This oper¬ 
ation has not necessarily taken more than five minutes. 
One of the men in the mow pulls the trip rope. The 
boy returns to the barn with the team, climbs upon the 
load, removes sling, after drawing it back to the wagon, 
fastens sling number two, goes down to his team, and 
in another minute the second slingful is ready to be 
mowed away. As soon as the third slingful is in the 
mow the men get to the wagon, remove the third sling, 
place it in position for the next load, while the boy is 
taking the team from the rope and hitching it to the. 
wagon. A drink of water, a minute’s fanning with 
hats, and before you realize it the second load is in the 
barn. This time and subsequently the men go imme¬ 
diately to the mow to dispose of the last slingful from 
the preceding load. By the time the boy has the sling 
fastened and his team ready the mow is ready for more 
hay. It is not difficult to see how a dozen loads of hay 
may be put into the barn in a day. Some may wonder 
how the two men in the mow can handle so much hay. 
As the hay drops from the slings it spreads out as it 
was on the load, and is not twisted and tangled. Be¬ 
sides this, a little practice enables one to attack a big 
slingful to advantage. However, the first time one 
faces one of these piles of hay he is apt to feel a little 
discouraged. 
The writer has assumed that one has been able to 
secure help. Where this is impossible two neighbors 
can exchange work, thereby saving the usual cost of 
haymaking. Many do this anyhow. Some make their 
own hay lone-handed, simply having some member of 
the family drive the team while loading and unloading. 
By lengthening the traces sufficiently by putting wire 
through the cockeye and forming a long link which is 
fastened to the singletree while unloading, the horses' 
heels will not strike, and there is no necessity for any- 
RENT PAYERS IN A MICHIGAN PASTURE. Fig. 299. 
one to handle a heavy pair of whiffle trees. Farmers by 
a judicious investment in labor-saving farming utensils 
can to a great extent solve the hired-hand problem. Two 
years ago the writer was tempted to tell the readers of 
The R. N.-Y. how he alone managed by the aid of 
many modern farm implements to handle 160 acres, all 
but 30 acres of which were in crops, and turned off ap¬ 
proximately $1,900 worth of produce, but modesty and 
deference for the assistant foreman (and by the way the 
latter wore a sunbonnet) deterred me. I will say this 
much at this time, however; that by the investment of 
about $250 more than is absolutely necessary to “get 
along” this may be accomplished under certain condi¬ 
tions. The $250 is about the price of a man’s work for 
a year. When the year is gone your money, a year’s 
board and the man are gone. Had the money been 
properly spent for machinery the money only would be 
gone; the never-tired hired man is still with you ready 
for business without a murmur, and will be for from 10 
to 20 years. I know it is not in accordance with the 
principles of labor unions to compel one’s help to do on 
an average, perhaps. 15 years’ work for the price of one, 
and not cyan be willing to furnish decent board. But, 
really, isn’t it business? J. d. prickrtt. 
SORGHUM FOR FODDER AND SYRUP. 
HOW THE SYRUP IS MADE. 
The Grain as Poultry Food 
Will some of The R. N.-Y. family tell us how to handle 
Amber oane (sorghum) to make the best syrup for family 
use? It is a new thing to raise in this section. We have 
about an acre equal to any I ever saw. Will the waste make 
good silage? I can boil the juice with steam if practical, as 
some maple sugar is made that way. c. e. b. 
Vermont. 
The first necessity for manufacturing molasses from 
Amber cane is some machine for expressing the sap. 
The mill operated by my father was run by horse¬ 
power. The mill was elevated nine feet above the 
boiling house. The juice ran through l*4-inch gas pipe 
into a sulphur box, built of inch boards. 1 he box was 
10 by 12 inches and six feet high. There were 12 
little shelves inside the box, six on each side, which 
slanted towards each other. 'I lie box stood perpen¬ 
dicularly on a second horizontal box made of similar 
lumber, and four feet long. The lower box was filled 
two-thirds full of water. A hole in the bottom of this 
box let the water out when necessary, and another 
two-thirds up the side provided an overflow to prevent 
its containing too much, while a hole 
at the top admitted the water. There 
was a small, tight box at one end in 
which sulphur was burned. Common 
roll sulphur was used. It was burned in 
an iron pan, admitted into the box 
through a sliding door at the end. A 
two-inch tin tube admitted the sulphur 
fumes into the water box, where they 
gave up their sulphuric acid. The 
fumes then passed through a similar 
tube into the upright box, escaping 
through the top, through a three-inch 
tube, which carried it into the open air. 
The juice going down through the box 
struck each successive shelf and was 
broken into spray which was acted upon 
by the sulphur fumes. The treated juice 
flowed through a rubber hose into a 
small tank, from which it was pumped 
into a settling tank, above the level of 
the evaporating pan, by a common boat 
pump. There it was allowed to settle 
for 12 hours, and a large part of the 
objectionable elements in the juice were 
removed without heat. It sometimes re¬ 
mained there several days, as the sul¬ 
phur destroyed all germs of fermenta¬ 
tion. The juice was drawn from the 
settling tank through a lk<-inch gas 
pipe into the heating tank, which was consid¬ 
erably higher than the evaporating pan, but on 
the same arch. A fine sieve at the end of the 
pipe caught any foreign matter. It was necessary 
to reject the first two quarts of juice drawn off, but 
after that it would run clear to the top of the sediment. 
Enough milk of lime was used in the heating tank so 
that the juice would turn blue litmus paper to a neu¬ 
tral tint; about a pint to a barrel of juice when it was 
desired to make sugar. If only molasses was required 
no lime was used, as the syrup is lighter colored with¬ 
out it. From the heating tank the juice passed through 
a filter into the evaporating pan. The filter was of 
oak, and made very strong. It was 30 inches high. W'A 
inches in diameter at the bottom and 20'A at the top. 
In the bottom was a chamber four inches deep with a 
false bottom, perforated by three-quarter-inch holes 
above. In the center of the false bottom was a two- 
inch hole into which a tin tube. 30 inches long, was 
closely fitted. There was a gate at the bottom of the 
filter through which the impurities could be removed. 
A thin layer of straw was placed on the false bottom, 
when the tub was tilled with sand and fine gravel, 
which had been previously washed. About two bushels 
