Page:EB1911 - Volume 13.djvu/121

Rh of carrying the hay from the field to the stack. An American invention known as the sweep rake was introduced by the writer into England in 1894, and now in many modified forms is in very general use in the Midlands and south of England, where the hay is carried from the cock, windrow or swathe straight to the stack. This implement consists of a wheeled framework fitted with long wooden iron-pointed teeth which slide along the ground; two horses are yoked to it—one at each side—the driver directing from a central seat behind the framework. When in use it is taken to the farther end of a row of cocks, a windrow, or even to a row of untouched swathes on the ground, and walked forward. As it advances it scoops up a load, and when full is drawn to where the stack is being erected (fig. 5). In ordinary circumstances the sweep rake will pick up at a load two-thirds of an ordinary cart-load, but, where the hay is in good order and it is swept down hill, a whole one-horse cart-load can be carried each time. The drier the hay the better will the sweep rake work, and if it is not working sweetly but has a tendency to clog or make rolls of hay, it may be inferred that the latter is not in a condition fit for stacking. Where the loads must be taken through a gateway or a long distance to the stack, it is necessary to use carts or wagons, and the loading of these in the field out of the windrow is largely expedited by the use of the “loader,” also an American invention of which many varieties are in the market. Generally speaking, it consists of a frame carrying a revolving web with tines or prongs. The implement is hitched on behind a cart or wagon, and as it moves forward the web picks the loose hay off the ground and delivers it on the top, where a man levels it with a pitchfork and builds it into a load ready to move to the stack. At the stack the most convenient method of transferring the hay from a cart, wagon or sweep rake is the elevator, a tall structure with a revolving web carrying teeth or spikes (fig. 6). The hay is thrown in forkfuls on at the bottom, a pony-gear causes the web to revolve, and the hay is carried in an almost continuous stream up the elevator and dropped over the top on to the stack. The whole implement is made to fold down, and is provided with wheels so that it can be moved from stack to stack. In the older forms there is a “hopper” or box at the bottom into which the hay is thrown to enable the teeth of the web to catch it, but in the modern forms there is no hopper, the web reaching down to the ground so that hay can be picked up from the ground level. Where the hay is brought to the stack on carts or wagons it can be unloaded by means of the horse fork. This is an adaptation of the principle of the ordinary crane; a central pole and jib are supported by guy ropes, and from the end of the jib a rope runs over a pulley. At the end of this rope is a “fork” formed of two sets of prongs which open and shut. This is lowered on to the load of hay, the prongs are forced into it, a horse pulls at the other end of the rope, and the prongs close and “grab” several cwt. of hay which are swung up and dropped on the stack. In this way a large cart or wagon load is hoisted on to the stack in three or four “forkfuls.” The horse fork is not suited for use with the sweep rake, however, because the hay is brought up to the stack in a loose flat heap without sufficient body for the fork to get hold of.

In northern and wet districts of England it is customary to “make” the hay as in the south, but it is then built up into little stacks in the field where it grew (ricks, pykes or tramp-cocks are names used for these in different districts), each containing about 10 to 15 cwt. These are made in the same way as the ordinary stack—one person on top building, another on the ground pitching up the hay—and are carefully roped and raked down. In these the hay gets a preliminary sweating or tempering while at the same time it is rendered safe from the weather, and, thus stored, it may remain for weeks before being carried to the big stacks at the homestead. The practice of putting up the hay into little ricks in the field has brought about the introduction of another set of implements for carrying these to the stackyard.

Various forms of rick-lifters are in use, the characteristic feature of which is a tipping platform on wheels to which a horse is attached between shafts. The vehicle is backed against a rick, and a chain passed round the bottom of the latter, which is then pulled up the slant of the tipped platform by means of a small windlass. When the centre of the balance is passed, the platform carrying the rick tips back to the level, and the whole is thus loaded ready to move. Another variety of loader is formed of three shear-legs with block and tackle. These are placed over a rick, under which the grab-irons are passed, and the whole hauled up by a horse. When high enough a cart is backed in below, the rick lowered, and the load is ready to carry away.

When put into a stack the next stage in curing the hay begins—the heating or sweating. In the growing plants the tissues are composed of living cells containing protoplasm. This continues its life action as long as it gets sufficient moisture and air. As life action involves the development of heat, the temperature in a confined space like a stack where the heat is not dissipated may rise to such a point that spontaneous combustion occurs. The chemical or physical reasons for this are not very well understood. The starch and sugar contents of the tissues are changed in part into alcohol. In the analogous process of making silage (i.e. stacking wet green grass in a closed building) the alcohol develops into acetic acid, thus making “sour” silage. In a haystack the intermediate body, acetaldehyde, which is both inflammable and suffocating, is produced—men having been suffocated when sleeping on the top of a heating stack. The production of this gas leads to slow combustion and ignition. One explanation of the process is that the protoplasm of the cells acts as a fermenting agent (like yeast) until a temperature sufficient to kill germ life, say 150° F., is reached, beyond which the action which leads up to the temperature of ignition must be purely chemical. If the stack contains no air at all it does not heat, or if it has excess of air it is safe. The danger-point in a stack is the centre at about 6 ft. from the ground; below this the weight of the hay itself squeezes out the air, and at the sides and top the heat is dissipated outwards. If a stack shows signs of overheating (a process that may take weeks or even months to develop) it can be saved by cutting a gap in the side of it with the hay knife, thus letting out the heat and fumes, and admitting fresh air to the centre. The essential point in haymaking is that the hay should be dried sufficiently to ensure the sweating process in the stack reaching no further than the stage of the formation of