Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1875 — To Prevent Stacks from Leaning. [ARTICLE]

To Prevent Stacks from Leaning.

way of keeping a stack from leaning is to thrust one end xtf a rail or pole against it and set the other end in the ground. This sometimes turns Up the courses so as to conduct the rain toward the riiiddle of a stack. To avoid all difficulty from this source let it be braced by setting one end of a plank a few inches in the ground and the upper end pressed flatly against the bulge of the stack. This plank should stand perpendicularly, so as not to turn the courses of the sheaves up sidewise. The upright plank is kept in position by a rail or pole resting against a broad stake in the ground, while a cleat upon the plank prevents the other end from sliding. Several such braces may be fitted to a stack, which will hold it in correct pbsition while settling. This manner of bracing a stack before it has settled, when there is danger that a high wind may blow it over, will often be found very convenient. When a stack is braced in this manner the props can be removed at pleasure; whereas, when thrust against the side, it settles so heavily on them that it is difficult to take them away if desirable, after it has settled firmly into place. Stacks will sometimes lean to such a degree that all above the bulge must be pitched off and the stack re-topped. When most of the pitching is done on one side of a stack the opposite side does not get pressed down so firmly, and it (therefore settles more than the side where the material was pitched causes the stack to lean; and by leaning the courses will be turned up to such a degree that on one side it will lie down hill toward the middle of,the, stack. Another reason why stacks lean is that the bulge is laid out farther from the carter ,on one side than tile other; and as the gide that is laid out the farthest will settle most, the entire stack often leans so far as to fall over. If the tops of stacks lean, or if they are too flat, let a portion be pitched off and a new top built Jiefore long and heavy storms come qn.j—A". K. Herald. —A reporter for the Philadelphia Press has learned from Sir- Ross that Mosher and Douglass approached a patrolman, some time before Charlie Ross’ abduction, with a proposition to assist them in the abduction of a little grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, whom they intended to hold for ransom for the sum of $50,000. I ' JI 'I: / ' / . : ; / ' ■