A Treatise on Grain Stacking by John N. De Lamater

With some, the idea seems to prevail, that the middle of the stack should be kept full from the ground up. With the center high enough to protect the stack after it is settled, it is impossible to lay out or even build straight up, for the outside sheaves are constantly slipping out, and the process of building rendered slow and tiresome, and when the stack is completed and settled, it will usually be found that the center has gone down so much and the outside so little, that the butts of the sheaves stick up and form excellent conductors to wet the stack.

Usually at harvest the country is full of good stackers, and if, between that time and threshing, there is little or no rain, they live through and there is a good supply next year; but if, between stacking and threshing, a protracted rain occurs, vast multitudes are drowned, so that, at threshing time, but few good stackers are found alive.