HARVEST PREPARATIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6492, 17 December 1881, Page 3

HARVEST PREPARATIONS.

(Oanlerlmry

Experienced farmers scarcely need to b« 1 reminded that when the grtdn U in car ami tome of the field* already Miming off in colour, there in not much tuno to 1)0 lest, in getting the reaping ninchinrs end oilier appliances rekiy for harvesting. Everything that can bo done should be dona in tho way of preparation, as a Jittlo neglect in fhi» mutter often lenil* to serious loss, When if in doubtful whether a machine, or uny portion of a machine, will stand the work required of it, the wmest plan in to have it properly attended to before the harvesting begins. Time is always money, and every hour represent# no small amount when tho grain is ripe and a nor’-wester threatening. Iho advantage of having two strings to a bow is proverbial, and a second string in tho shape of extras for any parts of a machine that are most liable to break is a safeguard which no farmer can afford to neglect. Harvesting at the best involves a lot of risk, but wo have no hesitation in saying that what should be only risks are in numberless cases made certain losses by want of calculation and pure carelessness. At Home a farmer is thought to bo making bad time if with tolerably good weather be does not got his harvesting finished in a month or five weeks, but hero some farmers allow it to drag on for six and sometimes oven, eight weeks. It is not often that a very long harvest is the result of the slow ripening of the grain, but it is generally owing to tho lack of sufficient strength. Scarcity of labour can hardly be accented as a just reason for slow harvesting in these days of improved machinery. There are, it is true, districts in which, owing to the nature of tho country, tho reaping and binding machines cannot be effectually used, but there is such a large extent of land on which they can bo worked with great advantage that there is enough labour thus liberated to got in the harvest in the hill districts where the binding is done ‘by hand. In this way farmers cultivating land on which tho binder cannot be used, obtain a great advantage from the invention in tho shape of cheaper and more abundant labour. The reaper and binder can bo, and in many oases is, used on tolerably stoop hill sides, but it is always unsatisfactory work. It is rot to be expected that any machine will make such good work on broken as on even ground, bat sooner or later it is most likely that modern ingenuity will prove equal to the invention of a reaping and binding machine much better adapted for down lipid than any in use at present. A machine well adapted to hilly land is an important desideratum, for a large extent of the best corn land in this island is of a more or less broken nature. The binding machine does away with one tedious and expensive manual operation, but tho stocking, forking, and stacking remain as laborious as ever. It is not easy to see how machinery can be brought to bear on either of these last named operations, bat we should not be surprised at anything whioh Yankee ingenuity should accomplish. Tho work, however, may be lightened bv tho exercise of plain common senss. There is, for instance, room for a little foresight in choosing the sites for the stacks, so as to be most convenient to the ground from whioh the grain is to be carried Many farmers build round stacks more from force of habit than anything else, but oblong stacks, somewhat narrow in proportion to their length, and rounded at the corners are the most economical. A stack of this kind can be safely roofed with a smaller proportionate quantity of material than a round one. and they are also more convenient for the threshing machine. There is undoubtedly an advantage in large stacks over smell ones, especially if they are intended to stand for any length of time. If a given quantity of grain is put into one stack there is a smaller surface exposed to the weather than there would bo if tho same quantity was built in two small stacks, and there is consequently less liability of damage from the weather. The one great principle to bo kept in vi a w of roofinga stack, as every farmer should know, -is to place the sheaves with a good slope downwards from the head to tho butt. If this precaution is neglected, and and the sheaves laid fiat, the stack is simply a contrivance built for catching and retaining water. The stem of the stack should slope outward at a slight angle from the ground to the eaves, otherwise it cannot be depended upon for keeping dry. A stack with a good deal of swell in the stem is taking to the ejre, but in very dry weather, or if the straw is at all green and heavy, there is some danger of slipping if built much ont of the perpendicular. When the ground is tolerably dry, and tho stacks are meant to be threshed out immediately, there is no great necessity for bedding, but for winterer spring threshing there is much advantage in even a small quantity of bedding The foundation of a stack should be built like a large stock, gradually sloping towards the circumference, and tho sheaves should not on any account be laid flat on the ground. When built in stook fashion, tho heads of each row of the sheaves should rest on the butts of the preceding row, so that only a small’ quantity of grain comes in contact with the ground. After a stack has stood for seveial months, no matter how dry the ground may be, it will bo found that tho butts of the bottom sheaves have drawn up much moisture, and have a good deal of dirt adhering to them. Possibly the heads may not be much damaged, but in passing through the machine the corn is damaged by contact with the wet and dirty straw. If time and opportunity admit of its beingdone, it is, of course, well to put enough bedding under the sheaves to keep them quite dry, but in the hurry of harvest work this cannot always be done. A very thin lever of bedding, however, in enough to prevent the dirt from sticking to the butts of the sheaves, and tho labour involved by taking this precaution is well repaid at threshing time.