710 
finish the shock. A cap sheaf is “broken” by sup¬ 
porting it with the butts on the thighs and with one 
forearm and hand under it at the band, while the 
straw is broken over just above the band with the 
other hand. The sheaf is then placed on the shock. 
The straw should be spread out over the shock in 
so doing, especially if only one cap sheaf be used. 
The knack of doing this in the operation of throw¬ 
ing the sheaf over the shock will come with prac¬ 
tice. The second sheaf is prepared and put on in 
the same way, on top of and at right angles to the 
first. An important point in this connection is to 
make the heads of the cap sheaves face in the di¬ 
rection from which the storm winds usually come. 
It takes a much stronger wind to displace cap 
sheaves when blowing against the heads than when 
blowing against the butts. The shock is now fin¬ 
ished. and if well done it will allow the wheat to 
cure satisfactorily, will keep it reasonably dry. and 
as soon as it has become “set” will withstand all 
ordinary winds and storms. h. e. mern. 
HARVESTING HAY IN NORTH COLORADO. 
Part II. 
OTHER TOOLS.—Next came the overthrow 
stacker, an abominable invention, with all the pos¬ 
sibilities of maiming more men and horses than a 
runaway mower. It works like a windmill, and if 
constructed heavy enough to stand the severe strains 
put upon it with safety it is too heavy to move 
around a meadow. Some people still have a good 
word for them, but like the other early methods, they 
are too slow. You could not put up a thousand tons 
of hay quickly enough, hence the present one, which 
is generally known as the North Park stacker. It is 
simple, both to run and build; in fact, the first one 
was designed and constructed by an ingenious youth 
of about 17. 
An inclined plane is made of poles or lumber slats 
with teeth extending to the ground as shown iu Fig. 
CONCRETE ROLLER PLATES. Fig. 23S. 
239. The teeth are bolted to the sides of the poles, 
or hinged in such a manner that they can be thrown 
back on the incline when the stacker is being moved. 
The hay is placed on or iu front of the teeth and 
shoved up by a plunger. The incline is constructed 
so that the face extends higher than the rear up¬ 
rights, enabling one to drop the hay in the center, 
and top out with the proper slope. The stacker’s 
dimensions vary according to requirements, but the 
slope of the face should not be too steep. As a rule 
they are made about 12 to 14 feet in width, and as 
high as one desires his stacks. 
DETAILS OF PLUNGER.—The plunger is a 
square frame with fence in front to push the hay. 
Two wooden rollers, running the full width, are 
fastened underneath, and a pole the length of the 
stacker’s face set in the rear beam and securely 
braced. The rear beam of the frame to which the 
plunger pole is inserted is fitted into the side beams 
with bolts or pieces of iron so as to allow play 
enough for the head to negotiate the change of angle 
between the ground and the inclined face of the 
stacker while the plunger pole is still level or at a 
different angle. A revolving clevis with double-trees 
is made fast in the butt end of the pole, and a 
wooden shoe bolted underneath. When the horses 
have been driven up so that the pi linger head shoves 
the hay over the stacker, back them up until it is 
again on the ground, turn them around, and drive 
directly away, far enough to give ample room for 
more hay to be put on the teeth. The plunger’s own 
weight will cause it to slip down the incline. A go- 
devil may be used with one of these stackers, but, 
as before, it is not fast enough, even if you have a 
number of them, hence the sweep. 
CONSTRUCTION OF SWEEP.—The North Park 
sweep is by far the best of any machine yet made 
use of for the purpose of getting in hay. It is a 
relation of the go-devil with larger teeth, and more 
grown and thoroughly developed. As most ranch¬ 
men make their own, they vary in some small de¬ 
tails, but with a good sweep, and a man who knows 
the business, half a ton may be loaded at a time, 
and with three sweeps and the above stacker 50 tons 
of hay may readily be put up in a day. Instead of 
THE RUKA.J-, NiEW-YORKER 
having the horses in front, as with a go-devil, they 
are hitched one at either side and the hay piles up 
between them. The width between the horses cor¬ 
responds to the width of the stacker. The teeth are 
eight or 10 feet long, extending out as far as the 
horses’ heads. Two wheels are used (usually mow¬ 
ing machine wheels) in the body of the sweep, and 
the teeth slant at a greater angle than those in a 
go-devil. On top, and not quite parallel with the 
THE NORTH PARK STACKER. Fig. 239. 
teeth, poles run out from the body at either side, to 
end of which the halter rope and martingale or neck- 
yoke straps of the harness are fastened iu a ring 
set in for the purpose. Single-trees swing from the 
protruding ends of the body. See Fig. A tail¬ 
board is inserted in the rear of the body directly in 
the middle. By moving backward or forward on 
the tail-board one can raise or lower the teeth at 
will. This comes in handily on rough ground, or 
crossing laterals with which the irrigated meadows 
abound. The same lines are used, but only one line 
to a horse, with the check-rein so shortened that 
when you pull you pull straight back. You do not 
have to steer. By holding one horse and forcing the 
other you turn around. Any horse may be used on 
a sweep; in fact, it is a favorable place for bronchos 
and outlaws. In hitching to a sweep it is best to 
have your martingale or neck-yoke straps run on 
the sweep side of the horse’s front leg and held up 
by a strap from the hames, in such a way that when 
you back there is no weight on the neck. In load¬ 
ing a sweep one goes down a windrow filling first 
one side, then the other. When both sides are full 
take the rest in the center and it will pile up eight 
or 10 feet and leave little or no scattering, if the hay 
SIDE VIEW OF SWEEP. Fig. 241. 
is dry. One acquires the knack of running a sweep 
in a very short time. 
SYSTEM IN HARVESTING.—With the well-run 
hay crews there is a system of sweeping. Of course 
the hay is raked in windrows. If the meadow is so 
wide that one windrow will be too much for a sweep 
load, the sweep runner divides it, making an avenue 
the full length. This he uses both going from and 
coming to the stack with his load. If there are 
three sweeps running, two of them bring in the hay 
farthest away, while one takes the short hauls. In 
this way there is always hay in front of the plunger, 
and everybody in the crew is kept busy. The scat¬ 
tering raker keeps raking toward the stack, placing 
his scatterings in front of the sweeps or on the 
last windrow, so that when the last sweep loads are 
hauled in the field Is clean and all hands move to 
the next stack yard. What little hay has been raked 
from the stack, or cleaned up around it is carried 
to the next stack by a sweep, followed by the rakes. 
If the first raker has raked clean the scattering 
raker has only to go up and back the windrow after 
the sweep has passed to show a clean field. Be¬ 
tween windrows there are no scatterings, as the 
May 31, 
sweeps go out absolutely empty, and always use the 
same path. This is the system of harvesting hay in 
northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, and it 
could be used to advantage even on the smallest 
farm. If one does not wish to build a stacker, hay 
can be swept into either stack or barn by a go-devil 
or a sweep with much more rapidity and fewer 
hands than could be accomplished with the anti¬ 
quated wagon. As the go-devil and sweep pack the 
hay to a certain extent while gathering and hauling 
in, a hay-fork can be used with better results than 
when the hay is brought in with hay-racks. 
Wyoming. r. w. batiihoune, jr. 
FIGHTING THE CRAWLING INSECTS. 
Every year we have hurry calls for help in fight¬ 
ing migrating insects like chinch bugs and army 
worms. These insects travel in large broods or 
armies from one field to another, and the best way 
to fight them is to head them .off or kill them while 
on the march. Last year broods of army worms ap¬ 
peared in various parts of the East and did great 
damage when they once got into a field. We get 
in early this year with a plan of campaign against 
these crawling armies. The following suggestions 
are made by the Kansas Experiment Station as 
plans for fighting chinch bugs. After these bugs 
have once entered a small grain field there is no way 
of preventing their damage: 
“The dust barrier and the road-oil barrier are 
methods commonly used to destroy the bugs. The 
first is useful in dry weather and the latter when 
the soil is wet. A dust barrier is made by plowing 
a strip of ground about 10 feet wide between the 
infested and the non-infested fields and then work 
ing this into a fine dust. Two deep parallel furrow; 
are made by dragging with a double trough. A 
single furrow barrier may be made by listing a dee; 
CONCRETE CORRUGATED ROLLER. Fig. 243. 
furrow and then dragging with a heavy log. The 
bugs fall into these furrows when they pass from 
one field to another, and may be destroyed by a 
gasoline torch or by dragging a log through the 
furrows. The torch is more effective. 
“The road-oil barrier is constructed by plowing 
a sharp back furrow between the fields and work¬ 
ing up a ridge on this by dragging a trough over it. 
In the bottom of the trough a pole is placed which 
will leave a groove on top of the compact ridge. No. 
7 road-oil is placed in this groove in sufficient quan¬ 
tity to make a line one-half to three-fourths of an 
inch wide. After the bugs have fallen iuto the 
groove they may be destroyed by the gasoline torch. 
Coal tar can be substituted for road-oil, but it is 
more expensive and must be renewed more fre¬ 
quently. The road-oil barrier is for use in wet 
weather, when the dust barrier is useless. It should 
be placed between the dust barrier and the 11011 - 
infested fields.” 
Oxe of the best points in the policy of your paper is 
that even if you have (as said on page 429, iu reply to 
an inquirer) probably “stated 100 times that wood 
ashes should not be used on potatoes,” you answer 
the man (who, perhaps, may be a new subscriber) in¬ 
telligently and concisely, and do not try to avoid a rea¬ 
sonable reply by answering by only yes or no, or refer¬ 
ring to some previous number of the paper. J. g. k. 
We print this because it gives a good chance for 
an explanation. Sometimes when we answer these 
simple questions over and over critics chide us i"i 
doing so. They call such questions foolish. “Any¬ 
one ought to know that.” We never argue with 
these critics, but treat every question we get seri¬ 
ously. We assume that every question states a prob¬ 
lem which will appeal to many besides the actual 
questioner. What is foolish to one person may be a 
part of wisdom to another. Quite likely the "foul 
ish” one has experience or thought on other subjects 
which would put the wise one to shame. Many pc 
sons do not remember what they read. A problem 
comes suddenly before them. We may have printed 
an answer a dozen times, yet these people buy 
missed it. It Is far better in all ways for our people 
to tell us what they want than for us to guess at it 
or undertake to tell them what they ought to know. 
Therefore we welcome all sincere questions no mat¬ 
ter how simple. 
