Williams news., 1919-10-10

| GSpectaI aCIonClOn 10 the power ueCA- anism, the material used for impor- tant parts of the press, size of the feed opening. plunger return device, hself-feeding attachment, and conve- nfence in tying the bales and in set ting and moving the press.
 The reversible lever type of press is sometimes called the half-circle press, since the team travels half circle, turns around, and pulls the lever to the other side, charge of hay being pressed for each half circle. This type is easily portable and is always ready for work, since 1t is not neces- sary to take off the wheels or lower them from the ground to the axle or | to stake the front end of the press. It has smaller hour capacity than | the continuous-travel press and re- | quires a well-trained team to operate | 1t to capacity.
 Large Growers Use Power.
 Large hay growers and shippers who buy and bale large quantities of hay | generally use power presses. These are in common use in sections where the usual practice is to bale hay from | the windrow or the cock, such as the alfalfa and Johnson grass and prairie hay sections of the South. They are sometimes used in preference to the two-horse type on alfalfa and Johnson grass hay farms, even where the hay | acreage is comparatively small, say | from 50 to 75 acres, for the reason that : they will bale hay about twice as fast as it could be done with two-horse press, thereby greatly lessening the danger of injury to hay due to bad weather.
 As power to drive hay presses, the | steam engine, portable or Self-prO- polling, has been almost entirely su- perseded by the gasoline or kerosene | engine. With gas engine there is no | need for an engine and water haul CT. A-few owners employ an engineer when doing custom baling with fast | working crew, because he keeps the en- zine going and saves expensive loss of time on the part of the press crew. When the crew is hired by the ton the men are not paid for time lost on ac- count of a breakdown, and in such cases engineers are not often em- ployed. Usually one of the press crew looks after the engine when it re- quires attention. On farms where tractors are used, if the tractor is not needed for other essential work when it is time to bale hay, the belt power press should ordinarily be used, since 1t costs less than the motor press, and since it would not be good business to use a motor press while tractor stands idle.
 Thorough discussion is also given in i this government publication to the i'm i portant features of power presses, the difference between the light-duty and heavy-duty presses, the longevity of | the press, as well as facts about the economic operation of these presses. The capacity of the press depends, to large extent, upon the skill of the crew operating it. The average power press should bale from 20 to 30 tons in 10-hour day. The capacity of a power press under average conditions is about twice that of a two-horse press.
 Economy of Buying Press.
 The advisability of buying a hay press depends upon the amount of hay to be baled yearly, the likelihood of being able to obtain a crew when needed and the rate charged by those making business of doing custom bal ing. Whether it will pay the grower to own press depends upon whether the total cost of baling, including la- Dor, repairs, interest and depreciation, is less than the rate charged by the custom baler.
 The practice of baling hay directly from the windrow or cock originated in the semiarid West, where the wealth CT does not often interfere with hay making. This method has also spread to the alfalfa and Johnson grass land areas of the South, where the wealth lar because it saves labor as com- pared with stacking or putting hay into the barn. For instance, in Kansas and Nebraska it requires about IA man hours and 1 horse hour to put ton of hay into the stack with a stack CT after it has been brought to the stack with a push rake. The cost of labor for stacking alone, during 1918, was about 60 cents a ton. This work
 is entirely eliminated when hay is ba1ed from the field, the saving of la bor being much greater in sections
 where it is customary to handle hay by hand. Growers are able to extend
 the hay-making season by baling part of their hay from the windrow dusing
 propitious weather and stacking or
 holding the baling until the rush of , work is over.