OF SCOTLAND.

391

ing the ricks being materially different from any thing ob-served in England south of the Humber, appears to requiresome elucidation.

In the rick-yard a stell, stool, or stack bottom was former-ly made of loose dry straw, of the size intended for the rick ;seldom less than ten feet diameter, though sometimes extend-ing to fifteen or even twenty feet; and this stell is often bed-ded on brushwood j but now the plan of pillars, either of stoneor cast iron, is greatly preferred. When beginning to form astack', a sheaf is first placed upright on its butt end, as nearly aspossible in the centre of the stell, around which other sheavesare placed circularly, likewise upright, but with a small incli-nation of their tops inwards. Circular ranges of these up-right sheaves are continued till the whole stell is nearly occu-pied. The stacker then begins to place his outside gang orrow of sheaves, bending them by means of his knees, so thattheir butts become somewhat horizontal from the band down-wards, while their heads lean obliquely upwards and inwardsagainst the outer range of the upright sheaves. He con-tinues to lay on circular layers or gangs of sheaves, their buttsall outwards, till he has raised the outside of the stack nearlyto a level with the tops of the original upright sheaves, whichare now all forced into great obliquity inwards, and into con-siderable consolidation. He then fills up the heart of thestack ; in doing which he does not place the sheaves in anyvery exact order, yet all are so arranged as to fill up the wholeequably, the centre or heart being always highest, and thecorn ends of the sheaves inwards, every sheaf or gang ofsheaves having a regular and obvious slope downwards andoutwards towards their butts. The stacker never steps uponthe central part of the .rick, by which means that part is al-ways left comparatively open, or less compressed than the ex-terior of the rick, all the sheaves of which are pressed downby his weight. It is a matter of great importance to heartwell, as by negligence in this respect a serious loss is often inrcurred.