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tricts, the taste of farmers, the extent of crops, 
and the circumstances of farms. Long, narrow, 
quadrangular stacks are preferred, in some in- 
stances, for convenience of erection, firmness of 
structure, pleasantness of appearance, and econo- 
my of thatching; but circular stacks, of 12 feet 
or upwards in diameter, with either a cylindrical 
or a gradually widening body, and with a roof or 
head in the form of a cone, are found, in the ag- 
gregate of enlightened experience, to comprise 
the greatest amount of advantages. 
The old stool or foundation used for a stack 
was either a quantity of loose dry straw, laid on 
dry ground or bedded on brushwood, or a com- 
pact layer of dry boulders or other large stones ; 
but that now in use, in all well-managed farms, 
is a stand, staddle, frame, or platform, of the same 
diameter and periphery as the stack, supported 
on feet or short pillars of either wood, stone, or 
iron ; and this serves the three-fold purpose of pre- | 
serving the stack from the depredations of rats 
and mice, of protecting it from the moisture of 
the ground, and of admitting the air from below 
to circulate through its body and to maintain it 
in sweet and sound condition. In beginning to 
form a circular stack, a sheaf is placed upright 
on its butt end, as nearly as possible in the cen- 
tre of the stool; and around this other sheaves 
are placed in circles, likewise upright, but with 
a small inclination of their tops inwards. Cir- 
cular ranges of these upright sheaves are con- 
tinued till nearly the whole stool is occupied. 
The stacker then begins to place his outside row 
of sheaves, bending them by means of his knees, 
so that their butts become somewhat. horizontal 
from the band downwards, while their heads lean 
obliquely upwards and inwards against the outer 
range of the upright sheaves. He continues to 
lay on circular layers of sheaves, their butts all 
outwards, till he has raised the outside of the 
stack nearly to a level with the tops of the ori- 
ginal upright sheaves, which are now all forced 
into great obliquity inwards, and into consider- 
able consolidation. He then fills up the heart 
of the stack; in doing which, he does not place 
the sheaves in any very exact order, yet so ar- 
ranges all as to fill up the space equably, the 
centre or heart being always highest, and the 
corn ends of the sheaves inwards, every sheaf or 
row of sheaves having a regular and obvious 
slope downwards and outwards towards their 
butts. The stacker never steps upon the central 
part of the stack ; and, in consequence, that part 
is always left comparatively open, or less com- 
pressed than the exterior of the stack,—all the 
sheaves of which are pressed down by his weight. 
He now forms a circular row of sheaves about 15 
or 18 inches within the outside circle; and this 
is very carefully laid sloping outwards and down- 
wards at its butts, and upwards at the ear-ends, 
which rest or ride upon the heart of the stack. 
After this he again fills up the heart. He next 
lays a new outside circular row, the ear-ends of 
STACK. ‘ 
which are obliquely elevated by the butts of the 
former inner row; and he continues to lay alter- 
nately outside rows, heart rows, and heartings, 
always carefully preserving a considerable cen- 
tral elevation, by which all the butts in the 
whole composition of the stack have an obli- 
quity outwards and downwards. In forming 
very large stacks, or when the straw is very 
short, there may be two or even three or more 
series of heart-rows, overlapping each other as 
already described, and all carefully constructed | 
under the proper precautions, by which the 
penetration of rain into the stacks is effectually 
prevented. In the formation of all the circular 
rows, the stacker works upon his knees, pressing 
down every successive sheaf into its place by the 
application of his weight; and to ensure regular | | 
equality in building, he always begins a new cir- |} 
cular row at a different place from where the 
former terminated. When he has carried up his 
stack to the intended height, perhaps 10, 12, or |} 
15 feet, he sets what in Scotland is called ‘the || 
easing gang,’ or an outside circular row of 
sheaves, having the butts projecting a few 
inches beyond the body of the stack, and form- 
ing the eaves, After this, every successive row 
of outside sheaves is placed gradually more in- 
wards, and the heart of the stack is always 
most carefully preserved higher than the out- 
side row, and even a good deal more so in the 
head of the stack than while building the body, 
continuing or rather increasing the obliquity of 
the sheaves. When he has drawn the roof of the 
stack to a narrow circle or platform of 3 or 4 feet 
in diameter, he quits the kneeling posture in which 
he had hitherto worked, and places one sheaf up- 
right in the centre of the small platform, filling 
the whole of that space with upright sheaves set 
around the centre one, and leaning a little to- 
wards it. He then gets a straw-rope, with the 
middle of which he firmly embraces these upright 
sheaves, by two or three turns of the rope, and 
the assistants fasten the two ends of that rope on 
opposite sides of the stack, so as to secure this 
conical crown of sheaves from being thrown over 
by the wind. A stack carefully built in this 
manner, and afterwards properly thatched, will 
bid defiance to any kind of weather, except a 
hurricane ; and can even be very little injured 
by rain coming on before it is thatched; and no 
good farmer, unless from necessity, trusts his 
stack even for a day or two without thatching. 
The best straw for thatching is that of rye, and 
the next best is wheat-straw ; but, in defect of 
both, the straw of barley or oats must be em- 
ployed. The straw must all be previously drawn, 
the short straws shaken out, the long straw laid 
parallel and bound up into sheaves, and the short 
straw made into bunches. In laying on the 
thatch, the thatcher stands upon the sloping 
conical roof of the rick, as near as he can to the 
eaves, and lays on the straw in handfuls, from 
sheaves placed within his reach. He thrusts the 
a 
