Farm Accident!

       The farm on which I grew up wasn't very mechanized. There was a tractor on it and eventually two. These were used, almost exclusively, for pulling. Neither was equipped with a loader. This meant that much of haying required manual labor. Mowing was done with a tractor mower, once the second tractor arrived to replace the horse mower. After the mown hay had cured it was raked into piles using a horse rake modified to be pulled by a tractor. It was a two person job, one driving the tractor and the other riding the rake to operate it. Then the fun began!

     The hay, alfalfa, was destined for the haymow in the barn. Here there was a modicum of mechanization. A sling, consisting of 2"X 2" boards, almost as wide as the hayrack. and connected by ropes, was laid on the floor of the hayrack. The ropes came together at the ends of the hayrack ending in a metal ring. Hay was loaded into the hayrack via men or boys using pitch forks. Once the hay on the sling was about three feet deep, a second sling was lad over it and the pitching continued.

   A full hayrack was pulled next to the barn and below the big open barn door. The tractor was unhitched from the hayrack and connected to the hay rope, This was a large rope that ran over a series of pulleys to the far end of the barn and back to the big door. It was then fastened to the top sling. When the tractor pulled the rope the sling bunched up lifting the hay that had been placed upon it. It climbed to the peak of the barn. At the peak it engaged a metal trolley that was on a track just below the roof. When the sling reached that trolley a mechanism in it released and allowed the sling, filled with hay, to move into the barn. At a place determined by someone in the barn he pulled a trip rope and the sling split in two and the hay spilled out. The empty sling was pulled back through the barn door, the trolley tripped a mechanism and the sling descended to the hayrack, put aside and the second sling put in the barn.

    One day Dad and I were haying alone. Being the nimble one I was in charge of the process with the slings. Dad drove the tractor attached to the hay rope. In my adolescent wisdom I decided that if I stood on the threshold of the open hay door I could both, signal Dad, and drop the hay where I wanted in the haymow. That meant less forking the hay to get it where it was wanted.

   Standing in the barn door I signaled Dad to stop and gave the trip rope a good pull. The rope broke and I fell backwards out the door and down, landing on the side of the hayrack. Perhaps it was a good thing that the top slat of the hayrack broke as I was only scratched and bruised. The slat was a 1"X 6" board.

Takk for alt,

Al

Notice the horses hooked to the hayrack and the woman driving mules to lift the hay. This barn has an elevated hayloft, i.e., on the second floor. Our barn was not that style. The haymow was on the ground level, with the horse barn on one side and the cow barn on the other. Therefore, the door, from which I feel was lower than the one pictured.

Using this rake the first task was to rake the hay into long windrows. When the rider approached the windrow, with hay in the rake, he'd kick a lever. That activated a lifting mechanism in the wheels that the tines raking the hay would life allowing the hay to remain, then the tines would return to the ground to continue raking. After raking the field into long windrows then the rake was pulled down those rows to bunch the hay. When the hay was being pitched into the wagon the wagon would stop by the bunch, haycock, to facilitate pitching it into the wagon.