A Revised and Illustrated Treatise On Grain Stacking

by John N. De Lamater

SUGGESTIONS.

I have found in the course of a long experience, that a foundation eleven or twelve feet wide and eighteen or twenty feet long, and a stack built in the form of an ellipse, and so as to contain ten or twelve large loads, to be the most convenient and economical. Grain can be put into a stack of this size much more rapidly than in small stacks. If a stack is built much larger it will require more labor to pass the bundles across the stack, and will have to be carried much higher before it is topped out, which takes time and hard work.

The elliptical form I have found the best; with a load driven to the side of the stack, the pitcher is never very far from the stacker; the stack is easily kept balanced, and at threshing time the grain is readily got to the machine. In a round stack of the same size, the stacker gets farther away from the pitcher, and it requires more skill to keep a round stack properly balanced; but if a round stack, after it is finished and settled, looks like an egg standing erect on the large end, that is good enough; it will not take water, and looks well, too. A square stack, or one with corners, is easily kept balanced, but in turning the corners there is too much fullness at the heads of the bundles, and when the stack settles there will usually be a sag on each side to catch water.

Two stakes, one eight and the other ten rods away, and in line with the center of foundation, will sometimes assist the stacker in keeping his stack well balanced, for at a glance he can tell whether the center is in line with the stakes. A man may build, as his fancy dictates, either round, elliptical or square, but in all, the same general principles must be observed—the lower part of the stack built straight up; put in a bulge which settles down around and nearly conceals the lower part, leaving the center of the bulge high; filling the middle to support the center of the top. These are the principles on which good stacking depends. If a man gets them well fixed in his mind and discards the idea that he must keep the middle full from the ground up, he will have but little damaged grain, even in the very worst of seasons. Very small stacks should be built like ordinary stack tops.

A boy to hand bundles is usually more damage than good until a stack is half built, and then he should not be allowed to stand on outside course. If practical, drive alternate loads on opposite sides of the stack; this is very desirable, but if, from the nature of surroundings, it is necessary to drive all on one side, draw the top of the stack over a foot or two towards the side where the unloading is done, and keep it a little the lowest; the opposite side will settle considerably the most, which will leave the stack straight up.

FANCY STACKING.

For a pyramid stack, build as usual up to within two or three rounds of where drawing in commences, then draw in a little at center of sides and ends to bring the curves to straight lines; keep the corners well out, observing the form of a rectangle in filling the middle, and finish to top.

For a Gothic stack, build an ordinary one until commencing to draw in, then draw in the oval corners and build center of sides and ends straight up. For an X stack draw in sides and ends; build corners straight up. These stacks look very ornamental on a premium farm and will save well, but take more time to build than ordinary stack tops.

SAMPLE STACK.

With some, the idea seems to prevail, that the middle of the stack should be kept full from the ground up. With the center high enough to protect the stack after it is settled, it is impossible to lay out or even build straight up, for the outside sheaves are constantly slipping out, and the process of building rendered slow and tiresome, and when the stack is completed and settled, it will usually be found that the center has gone down so much and the outside so little, that the buts of the sheaves stick up and form excellent conductors to wet the stack.