The record-union., 1892-08-24
STACKING Hay.
A Aiodoc County Farmers Novel Way
of Doing It.
With Only Six Men He is Able to Stack
Neatly Some Forty Tons
Per Day.

Frank S. Chaplin, the RECORD UNIONS
travelling correspondent, writes the fol-
lowing description of cheap plan
adopted by a Modoc County farmer for
stacking hay:
Where stock-raising is the leading in
dustry winter feeding is necessary. and as
stock must be sold at price that those are
willing TO pay who drive them hundreds
OF miles and then fatten them before
marketing, it becomes necessary to put
up most hay at the least expense.
Acting under this stimulus, the farmers
of Modoc County have shown much in
genulty. Peter Peterson of Fort Bidwell
was putting up his hay from punched
wlnrows IN this way: He bitches horse
to each end Of a big rake, or buck" and
draws about 1000 pounds at once to the
stack. The horses are then detached and
wire rope, running over the stack, is
attached and another team hauls the load,
buck" ana all, up slide and over the
top of the stack. All the handling that is
necessary is to keep the stack nearly level,
and this system packs the hay so solid
IN the center that it does not wet down.
The buck" is made by taking a Axe
scantling, twelve feet long, and inserting
six two-inch teeth four feet long hori-
Zontally and four vertically. An iron
hook on the upper side of the Scantling,
glng, forms the center and completes the
rig. horse is hitched to each end by
tWelve-foot rope, and the crosS-lines are
heightened 10 keep the horses about that
distance apart. The driver and horses
soon acquire the tact necessary to gather
Up thousand pounds easily and bring it
to the stack.
For two teams they use four bucks, so
that an empty one is always ready to start
out with. The slide is like a section of a
roof mounted on wheels, cut from the end
of log, and covered with eighteen-foot
fencing. 1t is thirteen feet high on the
side next the stack. AT the top is an
eight-inch log, rolling on gudgeOns, Tor
the rope 10 run over.
Ii 1t IS necessary to make the stack more
than twenty feet high, there is an apron
twelve feet long that is hinged at the top
and drops down against the stack until it
is too high tor the main slide. Then the
slide is drawn few feet away and the
apron rested upon the stack.
When the buck has been left at the foot
of the slide one of the men comes down
the slide from the stack with the wire
rope. This is 100 feet of g-inch steel rope,
with two finch ropes at the end, each 80
feet long. loop on each of the short
ropes is dropped over hooks OH the slide
and the team at the other end of the stack
hauIs the hay, buck, man and all up the
x
ready TO push forward on the vertical
| teeth and dump the load. AS the buck
turns, the hooks loosen, and when freed
from the load it is easily thrown from the
stack
With two white men to run the bucks,
three Indians on the stack, and himself
to drive the stacking team, Mr.. Peterson
said they easily put up forty tons per day
in way that was almost perfect, SO Tar
IS settling or injury from weather was
concerned.
On rough ground hay is liable to be
wasted, and where it is OF alfalfa or any
kind Of clover, or extremely dry, there is
liable to be loss from grinding it up or
| rubbing off the leaves.
Mr.. Peterson was building his stacks
% feet wide on frame set on posts s feet
long, sunk feet in the ground and COW
cred with rails. The object was to shelter
the cattle. He only counted the labor of
getting out the posts and cross-beams,
and said it cost him about 81 per stack.
1t would be a good plan on land subject
to overflow. FRANK S. CHAPLIN.