HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1970-06-25, Page 11The demand for hay for horses led to haymarkets being established in most urban To facilitate the rnovino of hay to pity hay markets, the hay PresS came into service,
centres before the turn of the century like the one Pictured above, The hay was laboriously bound into large bales using wire ..or twine. This one dates
from the turn of the century.
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Clinton News-Record
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=105th YEAR No. 26 CLINTON, ONTARIO — THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1970 SECOND SECTION „1,0,00,00,...000.,,,,,,,,,„muipowiliommimmimillmmilloullinumminominimiunitmournimiimminimoulowninnuminsommumilmmilloomoomnimonimonmmoommiloommilimmmommomminuol
Haymaking history:
From scythe-cut grass to a modern top crop
The old ways of gathering hay and storing it in the barn were very picturesque but they were also
hackbreaking. Few farmers would go back -to the old way when they,can produce more hay with
less effort and in less time using modern machines.
In the old days of farming horsepower really meant what it,said,Huge beasts like this vvorkeil long
hours in the field to ensure that they would have, plenty of feel Iorthemselves when winter rolled_
around.
Hay could be used for many purposes. During the American were so amazed to see the imposing structure they abandoned
Revolution the Americans built a sturdy fort of 700 pound hay their plan to attack on the plains of Dorchester near Boston.
bales under cover of darkness. In the morning the British troops
Few **nes like this are seers in our part of the cOUritry how that
Modern haying eqUinment it On nearly every farnti. tonnetiMes
though, licklerinenife and -Amish areas Of the country horsedraWn
dunip rakes can still be seen in the fields.
"Make hay while the sun
shines". . ."a real haymaker". .
."that ain't hay!" Almost
everyone has heard these
expressions at one ,time or
another, but it's safe to assume ,
that few people have ever given
much thought to the origin of
these terms. And perhaps it's a
good thing because they would
have difficulty in tracking down
such origins.
The difficulty stems from the
fact that haymaking operations
have been, around as long as'
recorded history. Indeed, one of
the world's first agricultural
writers, a Roman by the name of
Columella, who was more hep to
farming than fighting, penned
some words about haying more
than 2,000 years ago. He
described making hay as
"throwing hay loosely together
for a few days to heat and
concoct itself before putting
into the mow."
A lot has happened to haying
since Columella's day when hay
was looked upon merely as a
handy way to feed stock. In
early days little value was placed
on the grass that was hand-cut
with a crude scythe and placed
in the mow with a pitchfork.
Today we still are able to place
an estimate of high value on
things by saying . . "and that
ain't hay" . .. an indication that
hay was once of little value.
But such isn't the case today!
Haymaking has become such a
precise, valuable agricultural
science that such an exclamation
no longer carries weight. Long
neglected, hay is now one of the
biggest crops in North America
and there are instances where
the per-ton market price of hay
has exceeded the price of grain,
But, the value of hay as a crop
didn't keep pace— with the
development of agriculture
through the ages.
From Roman days through
the Dark Ages, farmers were
held in contempt by citizens of
the cities and lords of the land.
Slaves and serfs tilled the soil
under a manorial system that
offered little encouragement to
the people who were developing
better agricultural methods.
Despite this, it was only in the
Dark Ages, following the fall of
the Roman Empire, that
agricultural development slowed
down.
THE BLACK DEATH STRIKES
Then the Black Death wiped
out half the population of
England and spread through
Europe. The farmer, with little
help available, was faced with
producing food to feed the
survivors. He met the challenge
with better implements powered
'by larger teams of animals. Hay
continued to be a crop that was
basically a fuel for the farmer's
Source of power — his oxen and
horses.
Cutting hay with a scythe,
forking it into piles, turning the
piles several times, hefting it into
a wagon by fork, then unloading
it by hand into haypiles soon
helped develop the brawn of the
haymakers. These men with
bulging muscles were able to
develop tremendous power in
the swing of an, arm. Many a
townsman who was on the
receiving end of such a swing in
the local inn became acutely
aware of the power of a
haymaker, and the term
"delivering a real haymaker"
found its way permanently into
the English language,,and is still
mentioned occasionally by
boxing match announcers.
For centuries, the scythe and
pitchfork continued to be the
main- implements for haymakers
in Europe. Their use was
extended to the English colonies
where agriculture was
blossoming into newly cleared
frontier areas. By the time the
American colonists were
declaring their independence
from England, some enterprising
Yankees had devised a "screw
press" for putting hay into bales.
Evidence of this baler is found in
Washington Irving's "Life of
Washington," where it is
described as being an important
part of the Battle of Boston.
A HAY BALE FORT
Colonial soldiers, seeing a
large Redcoat army being
assembled for an attack on
Dorchester Heights, ,busied
themselves during the night
building a fort from the baled
hay that was hand-fed into the
presses. When the sun rose in the
morning the British found
themselVes staring at a massive
fort built of 700-pound hay
bales. The English coin/slander
decided the fort was too strong
to take and called off the attack.
Many agricultural implements
were being invented and sold in
large quantity in the United
States during these years. But,
little was done to improve
haying methods even though the
use of more farm animals was
increasing the demand for hay as
feed. At the beginning of the
19th century some models of
mowers began to make their
appearance on the farm scene as
an outgrowth of the mower
device on the reaper which had
found its way into farm use in
England as early as 1787.
In the early 1800's agriculture
inventors were at work devising
better ways to feed growing
nations. It was during this period
that mowers and rakes began to
occupy the time of inventors.
But it wasn't until the mid
1800's that any great advances
were made. Until this time
fanners were forced to pay
particular attention to the
Weather when they began to
make hay. Because all the
Operation involved long days of
hard work farmers would not
chance haying operations when
there was danger of losing their
crop to a rain StOrnl, "Make hay
while the sun shhmes" Meant just
that to farmerS who Were prone
to keep A keen eye on the
horizon for stoma clouds. Today
we use the statement to indicate
taking advantage of
opportunities, Many Of Which
are in no Way related to
fanning,
FAHM E(' 01111/
MOVES AREAL)
But things really began to
happen to fariterS And
haymakers around 1850.
Improvements in mowers, rakes,
and hayloaders accompanied
other farm implement
breakthroughs. Farmers were
now able to plant larger crops
with the knowledge that they
would be able to harvest them
with less danger of loss from
weather.
With larger hay crops possible,
farmers began to see the
commercial value in hay and by
1880 hay had become the
nation's leading agricultural
product in value. Packing,
shipping and handling of hay
was an irregular business, but an
important one. Horses were the
mainstay of transportation in
the nation, and hay was the fuel
that kept the country moving.
HAYMAKERS GET NEW TOOLS
In the late 1800's a small
machine shop, destined to play a
major role in haymaking in the
future, began operations in New
Holland, Pennsylvania. The
company began building a new
type non-freezing gasoline
engine for the farm, and built
and repaired the usual farm
machinery of the period. And all
across the country,
inventor-farmers were
developing improved haying
tools.
By 1900, mower cutter blades
had increased to widths of eight
feet and roller bearings and ball
bearings had been introduced to
make mowers more efficient.
Hay rakes had been steadily
improved from crude wooden
rakes — that resembled giant
garden rakes pulled by horses —
to the one-horse steel toothed
sulky rake that dumped a row of
hay with the pull of a lever. By
1900, side delivery rakes were
being used to neatly pile
continuous windrows Of hay and
Straw and crews could start
loading as soon as the rake
started across a field.
The movement of hay and
straw from rural areas to Cities
developed into a great problem
for growers and shippers. The
cities Were undergoing great
expansion And horses Were
providing the bulk of
transportation power. Trolley
cars were horse powered.
Delivery wagons demanded
thousands of horses for power.
Family carriages were the only
practical method of commuting
Until rail lines ,Were built to serve
expanding areas. Even the city
fire departments and police
paddy wagons required
horsepower. Ray markets in the
cities were the tottivaled
today's fuel distribution centers
and these buildings figured in
many a historical event including
the infamous Haymarket labor
riot in Chicago in 1896.
In the latter half of the 1800's
some railroads ,began refusing to
ship loose hay and demanded
that hay and straw be baled.
Baling presses were improved
and made portable so they could
be taken into fields, and bales
weighing 200-300 pounds were
made from hay that was hand
fed into the presses. This hay
was hauled to the press after it
had been picked up by hand or
with a horse drawn hay loader
that found its way into use
around 1850.
Both twine and wire were
used to tie bales, and the baling
wire began to find its way into a
variety of other uses on farms.
Machines and implements were
"repaired" with baling wire, and
gradually many old machines,
automobiles and even airplanes
which were in a sad state of
maintenance were referred to as
being held together with baling
wire. This wire, also known as
hay wire, was so commonly used
for repair work that things
which were , no longer
functioning properly were said
to have gone "haywire", a term
which is still used when things
go wrong.
A horse powered baler was
invented that went through the
fields and picked up hay from
windrows. Two men sat at the
rear of the baler and as bales
emerged at the rear, they hand
tied the bales. Eventually
tractors were used to pull these
balers, and this was the state of
making hay in 1940 when the
world faced the crisis of a global
conflict.
In Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, a farmer had been
experimenting with previous
models of balers trying to
develop a method of tying the
bales without the use of the two
men doing the job. Ile had
perfected his knotter and was
experimenting with it when
spotted by a group of local
businessmen. They could see the
effect the device Would have on
farming and promptly bought
the rights to the keotter., They
then purchased the New Holland
Machine. Company to begin
production of New Rolland
balers:
The war drained the faith
Manpower reservoir and the
baler became a prime exist pie of
Modern labor saving inventions
that were to make hay the
nation's leading crop. "Grassland
farming" became a science that
resulted in more and better hay
crops to help feed a world at
war. By the end of the war, New
Holland had established itself as
the leader in grassland farming
equipment.
But the curtain was just going
up on a whole new era in the
history of haymaking. Farmers
and scientists were as busy as the
machinery inventors and they
discovered new and valuable
information about hay crops.
They found that the animal
nourishment value was in the
leaves, not the stalk. So
machines were designed to
preserve the leaves, The
scientists found that crimping
the stalk preserved the crop, so a
crimper was devised to do the
job easily. Then mowers were
combined with a machine which
spread the hay into windrows
for proper conditioning prior to
baling.
Today, a farmer using
improved varieties of hay crops,
is able to raise lush crops of hay
from which he can make several
cuttings, or harvests, each
season. In California, for
example, the long growing
season enables farmers to get
seven or eight cuttings per year.
In less warm climates four
cuttings is average.
But this increases crop inure-
haymaking even more
backbraking than in earlier days.
Then, the breakthrough came
that took the heavy work out of
haymaking. Revolutionary
automatic bale wagons put the
final touch on effortless
haymaking. These futuristic
machines zip through fields
picking up bales and
hydraulically stacking them on
the wagon body. When loaded,
the wagon is driven to a storage
area where the operator flips a
lever to tilt the wagon bed and
place the entire stack of hay
bales exactly where he wants it.
With some models he 'can unload
the bales one at a tithe onto an
elevator which carries them to a
ha mow. s ss With the addition &The bale
wagon to his equipment line, the
Modern haymaker is able to
produce his Valuable crop alMost
si nglehanded without the
back breaking effort that
accompanied the development
Of this top crop down through
the ages. Today, finding an area
of the country where Modem
haymaking Isn't an important
part of the farm Scene Would,
indeed, be likes looking for a
needle in a hayStack,