In the West hay is often put up in long ricks instead of stacks. One of my jobs in California was to put up 2,700 acres of wild hay in the Sacramento Valley. I made four rickers and eight buck rakes similar to the ones shown in the illustrations. Each ricker was operated by a crew of eight men. Four men drove two buck rakes. There were two on the rick, one at the fork and one to drive the hoisting rig. Ten mowing machines did most of the cutting but I hired eight more machines towards the last, as the latest grass was getting too ripe. The crop measured more than 2,100 tons and it was all put in ricks, stacks and barns without a drop of rain on it. I should add that rain seldom falls in the lower Sacramento Valley during the haying season in the months of May and June. This refers to wild hay, which is made up of burr clover, wild oats and volunteer wheat and barley. Alfalfa is cut from five to seven times in the hot interior valleys, so that if a farmer is rash enough to plant alfalfa under irrigation his haying thereafter will reach from one rainy season to the next. CHAPTER VII FARM CONVEYANCES STONE-BOAT One of the most useful and one of the least ornamental conveyances on a farm is the stone-boat. It is a low-down handy rig for moving heavy commodities in summer as well as in winter. No other sleigh or wagon will equal a stone-boat for carrying plows or harrows from one field to another. It is handy to tote bags of seed to supply the grain drill, to haul a barrel of water, feed for the hogs, and a great many other chores. [Illustration: Figure 158.--Stone-Boat. Stump logs are selected for the planks. The bend of the planks is the natural curve of the large roots. The sawing is done by band saw cutting from two directions.] When the country was new, sawmills made a business of sawing stone-boat plank. Trees for stone-boat staves were cut close to the ground and the natural crooks of the roots were used for the noses of sleigh runners and for stone-boats. But cast-iron noses are now manufactured with recesses to receive the ends of straight ordinary hardwood planks. These cast-iron ends are rounded up in front to make the necessary nose crook. The front plank cross piece is bolted well towards the front ends of the runner planks. Usually there are two other hardwood plank cross pieces, one near the rear end and the other about one-third of the way back from the front. Placing the cross pieces in this way gives room between to stand a barrel. [Illustration: Figure 159.--Wheelbarrow. This factory-made wheelbarrow is the only pattern worth bothering with. It is cheap and answers the purpose better than the heavier ones with removable side wings.]