398
len off; 'when cut in this state, (which is thought much thobest), they will require from seven to eight days with bosses,and fourteen without them, if the weather is dry. And,thirdly, when the pods have all turned blackish, and the leavesfallen off; in this state three or four days may do with bosses,and seven or eight without them, provided no rain fall in theinterval. On the whole, it may be affirmed that beans, bythis mode, may be harvested in half the usual time, and bepreserved in much bettor condition. It is supposed that beansproduced upon strong clay, orcarseland, require longer timeto fit them for the stack, than those produced upon dry land.
In describing the operation of stacking, one stacker onlyhas been mentioned. But it is obviously necessary, in largefarms, to have as many stackers, two, three, or more, as thefarm teams are able to supply with corn in a fit state for be-ing stacked. It is also necessary that there should be a boyor woman on each rick to hand the sheaves to the stacker aspitched up from tho carts, and when the t icks are large, a fullgrown man is often employed for that purpose. ’
Round ricks have alone been mentioned in the precedingdescription of stacking, both because they are the most usualin Scotland , so much so indeed as to be almost universal, andbecause they are believed to be the best. Yet oblong stacks,provincially named sows , are to be seen occasionally; and theseare sometimes built with contiguous interruptions at regulardistances, called leets , for the convenience of taking themdown in parts, without disturbing the remainder. The roofsof these sows are ridged, like those of houses, and are thatch-ed in the manner already described, having their straw ropesstretched directly across. Though these oblong constructionscertainly require considerably less time and labour, and asmaller proportional quantity of materials for heading, bothstraw and ropes, they are liable to one very important objec-tion, as they interrupt the free circulation of air in the rick-yards, consequently are more liable to injury in damp wea-