Part 44

Perhaps the greatest improvement of modern times is the method of carrying the hay from the field to the stack. An American invention known as the sweep rake was introduced by the writer into England in 1894, and now in many modified forms is in very general use in the Midlands and south of England, where the hay is carried from the cock, windrow or swathe straight to the stack. This implement consists of a wheeled framework fitted with long wooden iron-pointed teeth which slide along the ground; two horses are yoked to it--one at each side--the driver directing from a central seat behind the framework. When in use it is taken to the farther end of a row of cocks, a windrow, or even to a row of untouched swathes on the ground, and walked forward. As it advances it scoops up a load, and when full is drawn to where the stack is being erected (fig. 5). In ordinary circumstances the sweep rake will pick up at a load two-thirds of an ordinary cart-load, but, where the hay is in good order and it is swept down hill, a whole one-horse cart-load can be carried each time. The drier the hay the better will the sweep rake work, and if it is not working sweetly but has a tendency to clog or make rolls of hay, it may be inferred that the latter is not in a condition fit for stacking. Where the loads must be taken through a gateway or a long distance to the stack, it is necessary to use carts or wagons, and the loading of these in the field out of the windrow is largely expedited by the use of the "loader," also an American invention of which many varieties are in the market. Generally speaking, it consists of a frame carrying a revolving web with tines or prongs. The implement is hitched on behind a cart or wagon, and as it moves forward the web picks the loose hay off the ground and delivers it on the top, where a man levels it with a pitchfork and builds it into a load ready to move to the stack. At the stack the most convenient method of transferring the hay from a cart, wagon or sweep rake is the elevator, a tall structure with a revolving web carrying teeth or spikes (fig. 6). The hay is thrown in forkfuls on at the bottom, a pony-gear causes the web to revolve, and the hay is carried in an almost continuous stream up the elevator and dropped over the top on to the stack. The whole implement is made to fold down, and is provided with wheels so that it can be moved from stack to stack. In the older forms there is a "hopper" or box at the bottom into which the hay is thrown to enable the teeth of the web to catch it, but in the modern forms there is no hopper, the web reaching down to the ground so that hay can be picked up from the ground level. Where the hay is brought to the stack on carts or wagons it can be unloaded by means of the horse fork. This is an adaptation of the principle of the ordinary crane; a central pole and jib are supported by guy ropes, and from the end of the jib a rope runs over a pulley. At the end of this rope is a "fork" formed of two sets of prongs which open and shut. This is lowered on to the load of hay, the prongs are forced into it, a horse pulls at the other end of the rope, and the prongs close and "grab" several cwt. of hay which are swung up and dropped on the stack. In this way a large cart or wagon load is hoisted on to the stack in three or four "forkfuls." The horse fork is not suited for use with the sweep rake, however, because the hay is brought up to the stack in a loose flat heap without sufficient body for the fork to get hold of.

In northern and wet districts of England it is customary to "make" the hay as in the south, but it is then built up into little stacks in the field where it grew (ricks, pykes or tramp-cocks are names used for these in different districts), each containing about 10 to 15 cwt. These are made in the same way as the ordinary stack--one person on top building, another on the ground pitching up the hay--and are carefully roped and raked down. In these the hay gets a preliminary sweating or tempering while at the same time it is rendered safe from the weather, and, thus stored, it may remain for weeks before being carried to the big stacks at the homestead. The practice of putting up the hay into little ricks in the field has brought about the introduction of another set of implements for carrying these to the stackyard.

Various forms of rick-lifters are in use, the characteristic feature of which is a tipping platform on wheels to which a horse is attached between shafts. The vehicle is backed against a rick, and a chain passed round the bottom of the latter, which is then pulled up the slant of the tipped platform by means of a small windlass. When the centre of the balance is passed, the platform carrying the rick tips back to the level, and the whole is thus loaded ready to move. Another variety of loader is formed of three shear-legs with block and tackle. These are placed over a rick, under which the grab-irons are passed, and the whole hauled up by a horse. When high enough a cart is backed in below, the rick lowered, and the load is ready to carry away.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Hay Elevator. (Maldon Iron Works Co.).]

When put into a stack the next stage in curing the hay begins--the heating or sweating. In the growing plants the tissues are composed of living cells containing protoplasm. This continues its life action as long as it gets sufficient moisture and air. As life action involves the development of heat, the temperature in a confined space like a stack where the heat is not dissipated may rise to such a point that spontaneous combustion occurs. The chemical or physical reasons for this are not very well understood. The starch and sugar contents of the tissues are changed in part into alcohol. In the analogous process of making silage (i.e. stacking wet green grass in a closed building) the alcohol develops into acetic acid, thus making "sour" silage. In a haystack the intermediate body, acetaldehyde, which is both inflammable and suffocating, is produced--men having been suffocated when sleeping on the top of a heating stack. The production of this gas leads to slow combustion and ignition. One explanation of the process is that the protoplasm of the cells acts as a fermenting agent (like yeast) until a temperature sufficient to kill germ life, say 150 deg. F., is reached, beyond which the action which leads up to the temperature of ignition must be purely chemical. If the stack contains no air at all it does not heat, or if it has excess of air it is safe. The danger-point in a stack is the centre at about 6 ft. from the ground; below this the weight of the hay itself squeezes out the air, and at the sides and top the heat is dissipated outwards. If a stack shows signs of overheating (a process that may take weeks or even months to develop) it can be saved by cutting a gap in the side of it with the hay knife, thus letting out the heat and fumes, and admitting fresh air to the centre. The essential point in haymaking is that the hay should be dried sufficiently to ensure the sweating process in the stack reaching no further than the stage of the formation of sugar. Good hay should come out green and with the odour of coumarin--to which is due the scent of new-mown hay. Only part of a stack can ever attain to a perfect state: the tops, bottom and outsides are generally wasted by the weather after stacking, while there may be three or four intermediate qualities present. In some markets hay that has been sweated till it is brown in colour is desired, but for general purposes green hay is the best.

Hay often becomes musty when the weather during "making" has been too wet to allow of its getting sufficiently dry for stacking. Mustiness is caused by the growth of various moulds (_Penicillium_, _Aspergillus_, &c.) on the damp stems, with the result that the hay when cut out for use is dusty and shows white streaks and spots. Such hay is inferior to that which has been overheated, and in practice it is found that a strong heating will prevent mouldiness by killing the fungi.

Heavy lush crops--especially those containing a large proportion of clover or other leguminous plants--are proportionately more difficult to "make" than light grassy ones. Thus, if one ton is taken as a fair yield off one acre, a two-ton crop will probably require four times as much work in curing as the smaller crop. In the treacherous climate of Great Britain hay is frequently spoiled because the weather does not hold good long enough to permit of its being properly "made." Consequently many experienced haymakers regard a moderate crop as the more profitable because it can be stacked in first-class condition, whereas a heavy crop forced by "high farming" is grown at a loss, owing to the weather waste and the heavier expenses involved in securing it.

In handling or marketing out of the stack hay may be transported loose on a cart or wagon, but it is more usual to truss or bale it. A truss is a rectangular block cut out of the solid stack, usually about 3 ft. long and 2 ft. wide, and of a thickness sufficient to give a weight of 56 lb.: thirty-six of these constitute a "load" of 18 cwt.--the unit of sale in many markets. A truss is generally bound with two bands of twisted straw, but if it has to undergo much handling it is compressed in a hay-press and tied with two string bands. In some districts a baler is used: a square box with a compressible lid. The hay is tumbled in loose, the lid forced down by a leverage arrangement and the bale tied by three strings. It is usually made to weigh from 1 to 1(1/2) cwt. The customs of different markets vary very much in their methods of handling hay, and in the overseas hay trade the size and style of the trusses or bales are adapted for packing on ship-board.

HAYASHI, TADASU, COUNT (1850- ), Japanese statesman, was born in Tokyo (then Yedo), and was one of the first batch of students sent by the Tokugawa government to study in England. He returned on the eve of the abolition of the Shogunate, and followed Enomoto (q.v.) when the latter, sailing with the Tokugawa fleet to Yezo, attempted to establish a republic there in defiance of the newly organized government of the emperor. Thrown into prison on account of this affair, Hayashi did not obtain office until 1871. Thereafter he rose rapidly, until, after a long period of service as vice-minister of foreign affairs, he was appointed to represent his country first in Peking, then in St Petersburg and finally in London, where he acted an important part in negotiating the first Anglo-Japanese Alliance, for which service he received the title of viscount. He remained in London throughout the Russo-Japanese War, and was the first Japanese ambassador at the court of St James after the war. Returning to Tokyo in 1906 to take the portfolio of foreign affairs, he remained in office until the resignation of the Saionji cabinet in 1908. He was raised to the rank of count for eminent services performed during the war between his country and Russia, and in connexion with the second Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1905.

HAYDEN, FERDINAND VANDEVEER (1829-1887), American geologist, was born at Westfield, Massachusetts, on the 7th of September 1829. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1850 and from the Albany Medical College in 1853, where he attracted the notice of Professor James Hall, state geologist of New York, through whose influence he was induced to join in an exploration of Nebraska. In 1856 he was engaged under the United States government, and commenced a series of investigations of the Western Territories, one result of which was his _Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in 1859-1860_ (1869). During the Civil War he was actively employed as an army surgeon. In 1867 he was appointed geologist-in-charge of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and from his twelve years of labour there resulted a most valuable series of volumes in all branches of natural history and economic science; and he issued in 1877 his _Geological and Geographical Atlas of Colorado_. Upon the reorganization and establishment of the United States Geological Survey in 1879 he acted for seven years as one of the geologists. He died at Philadelphia on the 22nd of December 1887.

His other publications were: _Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery_ (1870); _The Yellowstone National Park_, illustrated by chromolithographic reproductions of water-colour sketches by Thomas Moran (1876); _The Great West: its Attractions and Resources_ (1880). With F. B. Meek, he wrote (_Smithsonian Institution Contributions_, v. 14. Art. 4) "Palaeontology of the Upper Missouri, Pt. 1, Invertebrate." His valuable notes on Indian dialects are in _The Transactions of the American Philosophical Society_ (1862), in _The American Journal of Science_ (1862) and in _The Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_ (1869). With A. R. C. Selwyn he wrote _North America_ (1883) for Stanford's _Compendium_.

HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH (1732-1809), Austrian composer, was born on the 31st of March 1732 at Rohrau (Trstnik), a village on the borders of Lower Austria and Hungary. There is sufficient evidence that his family was of Croatian stock: a fact which throws light upon the distinctively Slavonic character of much of his music. He received the first rudiments of education from his father, a wheelwright with twelve children, and at an early age evinced a decided musical talent. This attracted the attention of a distant relative named Johann Mathias Frankh, who was schoolmaster in the neighbouring town of Hainburg, and who, in 1738, took the child and for the next two years trained him as a chorister. In 1740, on the recommendation of the Dean of Hainburg, Haydn obtained a place in the cathedral choir of St Stephen's, Vienna, where he took the solo-part in the services and received, at the choir school, some further instruction on the violin and the harpsichord. In 1749 his voice broke, and the director, Georg von Reutter, took the occasion of a boyish escapade to turn him into the streets. A few friends lent him money and found him pupils, and in this way he was enabled to enter upon a rigorous course of study (he is said to have worked for sixteen hours a day), partly devoted to Fux's treatise on counterpoint, partly to the "Friedrich" and "Wurttemberg" sonatas of C. P. E. Bach, from which he gained his earliest acquaintance with the principles of musical structure. The first fruits of his work were a comic opera, _Der neue krumme Teufel_, and a Mass in F major (both written in 1751), the former of which was produced with success. About the same time he made the acquaintance of Metastasio, who was lodging in the same house, and who introduced him to one or two patrons; among others Senor Martinez, to whose daughter he gave lessons, and Porpora, who, in 1753, took him for the summer to Mannersdorf, and there gave him instruction in singing and in the Italian language.

The turning-point of his career came in 1755, when he accepted an invitation to the country-house of Freiherr von Furnberg, an accomplished amateur who was in the habit of collecting parties of musicians for the performance of chamber-works. Here Haydn wrote, in rapid succession, eighteen divertimenti which include his first symphony and his first quartet; the two earliest examples of the forms with which his name is most closely associated. Thenceforward his prospects improved. On his return to Vienna in 1756 he became famous as teacher and composer, in 1759 he was appointed conductor to the private band of Count Morzin, for whom he wrote several orchestral works (including a symphony in D major erroneously called his first), and in 1760 he was promoted to the sub-directorship of Prince Paul Esterhazy's _Kapelle_, at that time the best in Austria. During the tenure of his appointment with Count Morzin he married the daughter of a Viennese hairdresser named Keller, who had befriended him in his days of poverty, but the marriage turned out ill and he was shortly afterwards separated from his wife, though he continued to support her until her death in 1800. From 1760 to 1790 he remained with the Esterhazys, principally at their country-seats of Esterhaz and Eisenstadt, with occasional visits to Vienna in the winter. In 1762 Prince Paul Esterhazy died and was succeeded by his brother Nicholas, surnamed the Magnificent, who increased Haydn's salary, showed him every mark of favour, and, on the death of Werner in 1766, appointed him _Oberkapellmeister_. With the encouragement of a discriminating patron, a small but excellent orchestra and a free hand, Haydn made the most of his opportunity and produced a continuous stream of compositions in every known musical form. To this period belong five Masses, a dozen operas, over thirty clavier-sonatas, over forty quartets, over a hundred orchestral symphonies and overtures, a Stabat Mater, a set of interludes for the service of the Seven Words, an Oratorio _Tobias_ written for the _Tonkunstler-Societat_ of Vienna, and a vast number of concertos, divertimenti and smaller pieces, among which were no less than 175 for Prince Nicholas' favourite instrument, the baryton.

Meanwhile his reputation was spreading throughout Europe. A Viennese notice of his appointment as _Oberkapellmeister_ spoke of him as "the darling of our nation," his works were reprinted or performed in every capital from Madrid to St Petersburg. He received commissions from the cathedral of Cadiz, from the grand duke Paul, from the king of Prussia, from the directors of the _Concert Spirituel_ at Paris; beside his transactions with Breitkopf and Hartel, and with La Chevardiere, he sold to one English firm the copyright of no less than 129 compositions. But the most important fact of biography during these thirty years was his friendship with Mozart, whose acquaintance he made at Vienna in the winter of 1781-1782. There can have been little personal intercourse between them, for Haydn was rarely in the capital, and Mozart seems never to have visited Eisenstadt; but the cordiality of their relations and the mutual influence which they exercised upon one another are of the highest moment in the history of 18th-century music. "It was from Haydn that I first learned to write a quartet," said Mozart; it was from Mozart that Haydn learned the richer style and the fuller mastery of orchestral effect by which his later symphonies are distinguished.

In 1790 Prince Nicholas Esterhazy died and the _Kapelle_ was disbanded. Haydn, thus released from his official duties, forthwith accepted a commission from Salomon, the London concert-director, to write and conduct six symphonies for the concerts in the Hanover Square Rooms. He arrived in England at the beginning of 1791 and was welcomed with the greatest enthusiasm, receiving among other honours the degree of D Mus. from the university of Oxford. In June 1792 he returned home, and, breaking his journey at Bonn, was presented with a Cantata by Beethoven, then aged two-and-twenty, whom he invited to come to Vienna as his pupil. The lessons, which were not very successful, lasted for about a year, and were then interrupted by Haydn's second visit to England (January 1794 to July 1795), where he produced the last six of his "Salomon" symphonies. From 1795 onward he resided in the Mariahilf suburb of Vienna, and there wrote his last eight Masses, the last and finest of his chamber works, the Austrian national anthem (1797), the _Creation_ (1799) and the _Seasons_ (1801). His last choral composition which can be dated with any certainty was the Mass in C minor, written in 1802 for the name-day of Princess Esterhazy. Thenceforward his health declined, and his closing years, surrounded by the love of friends and the esteem of all musicians, were spent almost wholly in retirement. On the 27th of March 1808 he was able to attend a performance of the _Creation_, given in his honour, but it was his last effort, and on the 31st of May 1809 he died, aged seventy-seven. Among the mourners who followed him to the grave were many French officers from Napoleon's army, which was then occupying Vienna.