The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-07-08
Experience with Hay.Caps.

Perhaps an experience of several
years, and a study of caps and the
method of applying, may be of sufi.
Glen value TO warrant the taking up of
some space in your paper. Experience
proves that the following are necessary
essentials: (1) Lightness and ventila-
ton; (2) fastening the cap with cords;
(3) quickness in applying. l think l
have found all these; and as success is
made up of attention to small matters,
you will pardon me if l am painfully
minute.
As to the first point. My favorite
hay-cap is made of common drilling or
heavy sheeting, a yard square. This is
sufficiently impervious to rain: it does
not require to be removed to allow the
escape of moisture from beneath, and
1t is large enough TO protect the vulner-
able %point-the top of the cock. To
these may be added its %cheapness. 1t
is made by hemming on a sewing ma
chine, and turning up the corners and
sewing across, to make q kind of loop,
into which the cord Ga yard long) is in
serted. The cord is a hand-spun ma
nilla wrapping or binder Irvine. The
paper caps are Objectionable, on &C.
count of the collecting of moisture I'M
derneath.
3. I have tried fastening capt with
sticks run into the corners, but many
times we have wind storms that will
blow a well-made cock over, or the top
off below the cap. To hold a tall cock
together under a high wind, it is nec-
essary to fasten it at the bottom, and
cords must be long enough for this
purpose.
3. Taking a cap with cords, there are
three methods of applying: (a) Driv-
ing stakes into the ground at the four
corners and tying the string to them.
This is too slow. 1t would be an ex-
%ceptionally good man who could put on
q cap in this way in two minutes. Sup
pose you have a hundred caps. 1t
would take 200 minutes, or three hours
and twenty minutes; and besides, 400
stakes make a respectable load of wood.
Furthermore, it requires too much
time to remove the caps and pull up
the stakes and gather them up. (b)
Tying the strings to stones. This
would require, for a hundred caps, at
least 300 pounds of stone to be carried
on to a respectable moving field.
(c) The method I have worked out.
The free end of the cord is permanently
fastened to the middle of a small hard
wood stick, twelve inches long. Sticks
shorter or longer than this do not work
well. When caps are made, and in re-
moving from cocks afterward, the sticks
are laid together in the middle of the
cap, two corners or sides folded over
the ends, and then the caps are rolled
quickly around the sticks. Attention
to this small detail prevents the vexa-
tious tangling of strings. Thus made
and rolled up, a man can carry about
twenty-five caps on one arm.
In applying the caps, a man either
takes an armful, or a boy takes a wheel
barrow load and passes down the field
between two rows of cocks, tossing caps
toward the cocks on either side. Then
returning, or men following, the cap
is picked up and laid on top of the
over to place. Then passing around
the cock, a stick is taken, and if the
cord is too long, the slack is taken up
by quickly rolling around the stick, one
end is inserted under the edge of the
cock, lifted up and the other end set
upon the ground, and the job is done,
and 80 well done that Boreas may get
upon a rampage and crack his lungs to
no effect, while the men ~serenely eat
their supper before the sun goes down
Sometimes, however, on cocks of Hun
garian, high as your head, the strings
prove too short. In this case the stick
is inserted into the hay at any con
v~enient point. In this fashion of put
ting on hay.caps, one smart man car
put on a hundred caps in much less
than a hundred minutes, and he a re
move them and roll them up ready fol
future use in half the time. / main
tain that this method of putting on hay
caps makes hay-caps practicable. AS
to their value, l have had clover beau
tifully cured under a square yard OF
drilling during a seven days. rain. ]
have had Hungarian come in sweet and
bright after standing out eleven days
with only one interval of passable hay
weather, long enough merely to tip the
cocks over and double them up. N
Pardee, in Country Gentleman.