The Hay Stack

Mowing hay

Narrow Hay Sweep

I am not sure exactly how old I would have been, but I am thinking perhaps only 7 just prior to my 8th birthday. Many tasks on farms took more than just one or two people to accomplish and the age of helpers meant nothing, all that matter was that a person was able. I was able to drive a team of horses at that age, and one horse (especially Jim) was a ‘piece of cake’. My Grandfather, my *Aunt and *Cousin (the one who I am not sure if he purposely didn’t tighten the cinch on Jim or not) had the task of haying. The field had been mowed, and the hay had lain in the field to dry, was raked into rows, and it was now time to stack it. To accomplish this, you needed a ‘hay sweep’, which was a long beam with wooden forks sticking out about 6 feet and separated by about 18 or more inches. You would have either a team or just one horse hitched to each end of the device. My Grandfather had one horse (Molly) at one side, and I had Jim at the other. We would move along the rows of hay (with Grandpa giving me heck once in a while – hehe) and the forks would collect the hay. Once the hay sweep was full we then headed for the ‘stack’. On the stack would be my Aunt and my Cousin, each with a three pronged pitch fork, to shape the stack as it grew. They had to make sure the corners were kept square, otherwise the hay would just slide off and you would end up with a little ‘mound’ and not a stack. At one end of the stack would be a ramp, that as the stack grew, it would be raised. Many farmers would use a hoist to lift the hay to the top, but it seems my Grandfather preferred the ramp. Because we used a ramp, our horses had to be hooked onto heavy ropes at least 20 feet ahead of the hay sweep. This was why you needed two people driving, because with the horses being that far ahead of the hay sweep, the reins would be far too long for one person walking behind the implement. Those farmers that used a hoist could walk behind the hay sweep and control both horses. When my Grandfather and I approached the stack, we would each go on different sides and as we proceeded, the beam would take the hay up the ramp, and once it hit the crest of the hay stack, it would flip, leaving the hay. (The reason for the 20 feet of lead for the horses, as the stack got higher the hay sweep would be higher and hence further away from the horses). The hay sweep would then slide off the other end of the stack. We would then go further out into the field for our next load and at same time, my Aunt and Cousin had to ‘stack’ the load before we got back, to once again repeat the process. Once my Cousin accidentally (he said) hit his mother in the foot with his fork and punctured her shoe and her foot, drawing blood. Her foot was covered with the hay and my cousin could not see it. You had to know my Aunt to really appreciate her reaction – hehehe! Again, one has to wonder if my cousin, perhaps as with the cinch, really did not know her foot was there! I do not remember at this age, but with other haying seasons (as I got older) we would salt the stack and sometimes put  'air passages through the stack, to prevent **instantaneous combustion, as the heat in the middle of a stack could get very high.  It is really amazing when you think about how much I was allowed to do, and it was not a game, but part of being able enough ‘to do’.

* My Aunt was a single mother and lived with my Grandfather, doing the “woman’s” work of the day. This usually meant more than any man would do, as most women did all the cooking, house cleaning, laundry, canning, preserving, etc. and then most were expected to help with the chores and other outside tasks. How many other tasks would depend on how many people were needed to perform them.

**When the internal temperature of hay rises above 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees C), a chemical reaction begins to produce flammable gas that can ignite if the temperature goes high enough.