PUTTING INTO WINTER QUARTERS
When (in regions of much humidity) the hay is safely in cock, covered with hay-caps, and has had a few days of curing, it is ready for permanent quarters. Remembering that the hay after its drying has begun should be handled as little as possible, the cocks have been made small enough so that two men may lift them bodily onto a wagon, if a wagon is used in the stacking. From the wagon, the hay is lifted by a hayfork to the stack. Or, more careful still, the farmer will use three slings to each wagon, which are lifted by a hook to the stack or mow. A sling is a heavy sheet the size of the wagon hayrack. One is spread on the bottom of the rack, another on top of the first one-third of the load, and the other on top of the second third. These slings are banded at the ends; the ends are drawn together and a third of the load lifted to the stack or mow, thus saving in some instances a third more leaves than any other method.
In arid and semi-arid territory, cocking and loading on or off wagons are dispensed with by dragging the rapidly dried hay directly to stacks built in the fields, where the lifting into place is done with great expedition by horse implements. A wheel-rake or “go-devil” is used to take at once several cocks, bunches or a part of a windrow to a nearby stack. Others use a rope to drag one or more large cocks to the stack; or, if the hay is to be taken from windrows, it may be put upon wagons with a loader. The loader is an excellent implement for handling timothy and clover, but is apt to shake off a good many leaves of alfalfa if the hay is very dry. The more common sling now on the market is made of ropes, four ropes the length of the hayrack and with ropes across like a rope ladder, and used to handle one-third or one-fourth of a load. Others are made like the carriers of a threshing machine with slats and ropes.