CHAPTER VI

HANDLING THE HAY CROP

REVOLVING HAYRAKE

About the first contrivance for raking hay by horse power consisted of a stick eight or ten feet long with double-end teeth running through it, and pointing in two directions. These rakes were improved from time to time, until they reached perfection for this kind of tool. They have since been superseded by spring-tooth horse rakes, except for certain purposes. For pulling field peas, and some kinds of beans, the old style revolving horse rake is still in use.

Improved revolving horse rakes have a center timber of hardwood about 4 x 6 inches in diameter. The corners are rounded to facilitate sliding over the ground. A rake twelve feet long will have about eighteen double-end teeth. The teeth project about two and one-half feet each way from the center timber. Each tooth is rounded up, sled-runner fashion, at each end so it will point forward and slide along over and close to the ground without catching fast. There is an iron pull rod, or long hook, attached to each end of the center bar by means of a bolt that screws into the center of the end of the wooden center shaft, thus forming a gudgeon pin so the shaft can revolve. Two handles are fastened by band iron straps to rounded recesses or girdles cut around the center bar. These girdles are just far enough apart for a man to walk between and to operate the handles. Wooden, or iron lugs, reach down from the handles with pins projecting from their sides to engage the rake teeth. Two pins project from the left lug and three from the right. Sometimes notches are made in the lugs instead of pins. Notches are better; they may be rounded up to prevent catching when the rake revolves. As the rake slides along, the driver holds the rake teeth in the proper position by means of the handles. When sufficient load has been gathered he engages the upper notch in the right hand lug, releases the left and raises the other sufficient to point the teeth into the ground. The pull of the horse turns the rake over and the man grasps the teeth again with the handle lugs as before. Unless the driver is careful the teeth may stick in the ground and turn over before he is ready for it. It requires a little experience to use such a rake to advantage. No better or cheaper way has ever been invented for harvesting Canada peas. The only objections are that it shells some of the riper pods and it gathers up a certain amount of earth with the vines which makes dusty threshing.

HAY-TEDDER

The hay-tedder is an English invention, which has been adopted by farmers in rainy sections of the United States. It is an energetic kicker that scatters the hay swaths and drops the hay loosely to dry between showers. Hay may be made quickly by starting the tedder an hour behind the mowing machine.

It is quite possible to cut timothy hay in the morning and put it in the mow in the afternoon, by shaking it up thoroughly once or twice with the hay-tedder. When clover is mixed with the timothy, it is necessary to leave it in the field until the next day, but the time between cutting and mowing is shortened materially by the use of the tedder.

Grass cut for hay may be kicked apart in the field early during the wilting process without shattering the leaves. If left too long, then the hay-tedder is a damage because it kicks the leaves loose from the stems and the most valuable feeding material is wasted. But it is a good implement if rightly used. In catchy weather it often means the difference between bright, valuable hay and black, musty stuff, that is hardly fit to feed.

Hay-tedders are expensive. Where two farmers neighbor together the expense may be shared, because the tedder does its work in two or three hours' time. Careful farmers do not cut down much grass at one time. The tedder scatters two mowing swaths at once. In fact the mowing machine, hay-tedder and horserake should all fit together for team work so they will follow each other without skips or unnecessary laps. The dividing board of the mowing-machine marks a path for one of the horses to follow and it is difficult to keep him out of it. But two horses pulling a hay-tedder will straddle the open strip between the swaths when the tedder is twice the width of the cut.

HAY SKIDS

Hay slips, or hay skids, are used on the old smooth fields in the eastern states. They are usually made of seven-eighths-inch boards dressed preferably on one side only. They are used smooth side to the ground to slip along easily. Rough side is up to better hold the hay from slipping. The long runner boards are held together by cross pieces made of inch boards twelve inches wide and well nailed at each intersection with nails well clinched. Small carriage bolts are better than nails but the heads should be countersunk into the bottom with the points up. They should be used without washers and the ends of the bolts cut close to the sunken nuts. The front end of the skid is rounded up slightly, sled runner fashion, as much as the boards will bear, to avoid digging into the sod to destroy either the grass roots or crowns of the plants. Hay usually is forked by hand from the windrows on to the skids. Sometimes hay slings are placed on the skids and the hay is forked on to the slings carefully in layers lapped over each other in such a way as to hoist on to the stack without spilling out at the sides. Four hundred to eight hundred pounds makes a good load for one of these skids, according to horse power and unevenness of the ground. They save labor, as compared to wagons, because there is no pitching up. All hoisting is supposed to be done by horse power with the aid of a hay derrick.

WESTERN HAY DERRICKS

Two derricks for stacking hay, that are used extensively in the alfalfa districts of Idaho, are shown in the illustration, Figure 151. The derrick to the left is made with a square base of timbers which supports an upright mast and a horizontal boom. The timber base is sixteen feet square, made of five sticks of timber, each piece being 8 x 8 inches square by 16 feet in length. Two of the timbers rest flat on the ground and are rounded up at the ends to facilitate moving the derrick across the stubble ground or along the road to the next hayfield. These sleigh runner timbers are notched on the upper side near each end and at the middle to receive the three cross timbers. The cross timbers also are notched or recessed about a half inch deep to make a sort of double mortise. The timbers are bound together at the intersections by iron U-clamps that pass around both timbers and fasten through a flat iron plate on top of the upper timbers. These flat plates or bars have holes near the ends and the threaded ends of the U-irons pass through these holes and the nuts are screwed down tight. The sleigh runner timbers are recessed diagonally across the bottom to fit the round U-irons which are let into the bottoms of the timbers just enough to prevent scraping the earth when the derrick is being moved. These iron U-clamp fasteners are much stronger and better than bolts through the timbers.

There are timber braces fitted across the corners which are bolted through the outside timbers to brace the frame against a diamond tendency when moving the derrick. There is considerable strain when passing over uneven ground. It is better to make the frame so solid that it cannot get out of square. The mast is a stick of timber 8 inches square and 20 or 24 feet long. This mast is securely fastened solid to the center of the frame by having the bottom end mortised into the center cross timber at the middle and it is braced solid and held perpendicular to the framework by 4" x 4" wooden braces at the corners. These braces are notched at the top ends to fit the corners of the mast and are beveled at the bottom ends to fit flat on top of the timbers. They are held in place by bolts and by strap iron or band iron bands. These bands are drilled with holes and are spiked through into the timbers with four-inch or five-inch wire nails. Holes are drilled through the band iron the right size and at the proper places for the nails. The mast is made round at the top and is fitted with a heavy welded iron ring or band to prevent splitting. The boom is usually about 30 feet long. Farmers prefer a round pole when they can get it. It is attached to the top of the mast by an iron stirrup made by a blacksmith. This stirrup is made to fit loosely half way around the boom one-third of the way up from the big end, which makes the small end of the boom project 20 feet out from the upper end of the mast. The iron stirrup is made heavy and strong. It has a round iron gudgeon 1-1/2" in diameter that reaches down into the top of the mast about 18 inches. The shoulder of the stirrup is supported by a square, flat iron plate which rests on and covers the top of the mast and has the corners turned down. It is made large to shed water and protect the top of the mast. This plate has a hole one and a half inches in diameter in the center through which the stirrup gudgeon passes as it enters the top of the mast. A farm chain, or logging chain, is fastened to the large end of the boom by passing the chain around the boom and engaging the round hook. The grab hook end of the chain is passed around the timber below and is hooked back to give it the right length, which doubles the part of the chain within reach of the man in charge. This double end of the chain is lengthened or shortened to elevate the outer end of the boom to fit the stack. The small outer end of the boom is thus raised as the stack goes up.

An ordinary horse fork and tackle is used to hoist the hay. Three single pulleys are attached, one to the outer end of the boom, one near the top of the mast, and the other at the bottom of the mast so that the rope passes easily and freely through the three pulleys and at the same time permits the boom to swing around as the fork goes up from the wagon rack over the stack. This swinging movement is regulated by tilting the derrick towards the stack so that the boom swings over the stack by its own weight or by the weight of the hay on the horse fork. Usually a wire truss is rigged over the boom to stiffen it. The wire is attached to the boom at both ends and the middle of the wire is sprung up to rest on a bridge placed over the stirrup.

Farmers like this simple form of hay derrick because it is cheaply made and it may be easily moved because it is not heavy. It is automatic and it is about as cheap as any good derrick and it is the most satisfactory for ordinary use. The base is large enough to make it solid and steady when in use. Before moving the point of the boom is lowered to a level position so that the derrick is not top-heavy. There is little danger of upsetting upon ordinary farm lands. Also the width of 16 feet will pass along country roads without meeting serious obstacles. Hay slings usually are made too narrow and too short. The ordinary little hay sling is prone to tip sideways and spill the hay. It is responsible for a great deal of profanity. The hay derrick shown to the right is somewhat different in construction, but is quite similar in action. The base is the same but the mast turns on a gudgeon stepped into an iron socket mortised into the center timber.

The wire hoisting cable is threaded differently, as shown in the drawing. This style of derrick is made larger, sometimes the peak reaches up 40' above the base. The extra large ones are awkward to move but they build fine big stacks.

CALIFORNIA HAY RICKER

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.