Men on the Farm

Have you used any of these tools? Dug a drain? Tidied up a hedge? Thrown bales? Tell us how implements were used, or what life was like at the time they were used, or any real-life amusing story you may have to pass on.

(left) Well-known gunmaker Bernard Chaplin in 1949 with a hedging tool. Photo courtesy of Jennie Hill (nee Chaplin)

The Deer Saddle

Hamish Ferguson has emailed (July 2020) about the Deer Saddle:

I recognised the saddle as I owned it at one time. I had it recovered in leather by a retired saddler in Forfar for £20. The saddle is not a deer saddle but a converted Cavalry saddle. Wood has been fitted to the pommel on front to keep deer going forward. If I am correct this saddle belonged to a Major Pilkington who stalked at Mar Lodge with Bob Scott for many years. I have been a deer stalker, starting on Balmoral, then with the Nature Conservancy on Red Deer Research.

Regards, Hamish.

Haymaking - March 2011

Near Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the 1950s

I used to make hay using a tumbling rake.

One of the things I remember most about my summers in Ireland was making hay. Around 1950, haymaking hadn't progressed much for 1,000 years, except that a mower had replaced the sickle. About the time you got out of school for the summer, the farmers started making hay around early July. Timing was critical. Farmers watched the sky, listened to the weatherman, and then took their chances. So volatile were the changes in the weather in Ireland, that making hay was so risky that it was often referred to as "saving the hay." They would need three good days of drying weather. Before you knew it, a mowing machine would show up in the farmer's field next to our home. Sometimes it was a tractor towing a mowing machine, with one person on the tractor, and someone on the mower, to lift and lower the cutting blade, or it was a horse drawn mower. In later years, a mower that was integrated with the tractor became available, thanks to Harry Ferguson, using his famous and patented three-point hitch.

If the grass was cut early in the morning, we could be in the field that afternoon, turning it. Turning was done best by using a rake. This was a wooden tool, with wooden pegs for teeth. Since the mower laid down the hay in the form of a swath, you could give it a tug at the right place and at the right angle, and you could go around the field rolling over the hay at close to walking pace. That was the job for Charlie, the farmer's son, my younger brother Herb and me. When you did it together with others, conducting a lively conversation as you went, time flew. A dead frog or a bee's nest provided a distraction here and there.

In less than a day we were back in the same field shaking it out. This was a job for a two-prong fork, and was more time consuming. Often clumps would have to be well shaken out so that the sun and the wind could do its job. Sometimes if you were cursed with a rain shower you might have to shake out the hay a second time. Around 1954, the local farmer got himself a brand new "shaker" to tow behind his tractor to do this labor-intensive work.

On the third day the hay was usually ready to make into haycocks. Here's where the hay rake, towed after the tractor, went to work and deposited the hay where you wanted to make the haycock. A rope connected from the rake to the tractor was pulled at the right time by the driver. The best spots were on high ground. You started collecting hay into a pile about six to seven feet in diameter. When the pile was three to four feet high someone got on top of the pile and started "building" the haycock. Around the age of fifteen, I worked my way up from hay-gatherer to haycock-builder. With a rake in hand, I would stand on top of the mound of hay, reach out fully with the rake, and pull it into my feet before someone accidentally stabbed me in the legs with their pitchfork. I would shake the hay out well around my feet, lifting my feet and tucking some hay under my feet as I went. Little did I know that all these techniques would be those used in the random-laid nonwoven technology used to replace knitted fabrics. If you didn't do this, you would hear from farmer Bob and you wouldn't make a "good haycock." You probably would fall or slide off before completion. Others would pull loose hay all the way around the bottom of the cock. Another important job was going around the haycock with a rake and raking it into the proper shape. This was farmer Bob's job, in addition to directing the operation. Bob was like a broken record with, "Move your feet. Don't just stand there. Shake it around. Tuck some under your feet." I hear him still.

When you had tapered the haycock off to a peak, you knew it. It was now time to get off, or fall off. But first, you needed to tie the haycock down. One rope would be thrown through your legs as you straddled the peak, and then tied down. Then another rope at 90 degrees diagonally. Now you could dismount. With someone holding the haycock with a rake, you would slide down the haycock feet first ever so gently. Hopefully it remained standing. If it didn't then you wouldn't hear the end of it from farmer Bob.

As late as 1950, I remember that the ropes used to tie off the haycock were made of hay, by two people, with one person using a twisting tool, and the other feeding hay in the right amount as it was twisted. With the coming of the baler, and its baler twine, grass rope was on its way out.

If the hayfield was distant from the farmhouse, the farmer's wife, Annie, would bring "tea" in two large baskets to the field. "Come on, let's eat, an empty bag can't stand," farmer Bob would say. There was always a favorite for everyone, sandwiches of lettuce, tomato, scallions, banana, jam, roast beef, or ham, and of course, wheaten bread and plenty of tea. The exact menu depended on whether Annie had been to town recently. Sometimes Charlie would challenge me to one of his favorites, "stabs." We sat on the grass, facing each other, feet against each other's, both holding on to the handle of a pitch fork. Charlie easily pulled me over his head. When I got older, around seventeen, I had more strength in my arms, legs, and back, and we had longer-lasting duels. When every one had enough, Bob would stand up and say, "We're not going to get this hay made this way," thereby signalling us all back to work.

Sounds in the hayfield in those days ranged from the corncrake getting out of the way of the mower, to the cuckoo in the distance, probably eating some other bird's eggs and laying her own as she sang her famous song.

Around 1950 1 remember helping my Grandfather and Uncle George make their hay. They had a donkey and a rake called a "tumbling-paddy," a unique contraption made of wood, probably invented in Ireland, Scotland, or England around 1850. As a young boy of age ten, it was fun learning how to operate it, having it pulled by a donkey, which often had a mind of its own. The tumbling-paddy was really a large comb, with handles. You took off with the comb horizontal, picking up whatever hay was in its path. When it was full, you steered the donkey towards the haycock. At the right time you jerked upon the handles. The front teeth got stuck in the ground, and with the donkey continuing to pull, the tumbling-paddy would tumble over, deposit its load of hay, and right itself ready to go after another load. You had to watch not to get hit with the teeth as it tumbled, and then you had to jump over the pile of hay just deposited. This was a very simple tool that put man and beast to work in a wonderful way (see animation of the tumbling-paddy in action). I was intrigued by it. I wonder who invented it, if it was patented at all.

Later on, I found out that over in the U.S.A., around 1850 someone invented a wooden rake, called "the revolving rake." The teeth of it turned half a revolution each time. It was more complicated. The tumbling paddy design doesn't appear to have been used in North America, probably because of NIH (not invented here). Both designs became obsolete when the steel rake came along, with curved teeth (tines) big wheels, and a tripping mechanism. The concept of making haycocks and leaving them out on the field to dry further and to "weather" was a good one in one sense. In the event that the hay in any haycock had not been dry enough when the haycock was made, this dampness would cause bacteria to grow rapidly, and in turn would generate so much heat that the haycock would catch on fire. Better that one haycock perish in the field than a whole barn and its contents go up in smoke. I learned this from Charlie next door, after I questioned him as to why he would stick his arm into a haycock, up to his elbow, as we walked past his haycocks. He was checking to make sure there were no high temperatures or mildew type smells that would mean big trouble.

By late August, it was time to bring the haycocks into the hayshed. Here's where the "hay shifter" was used, with its tilt bed. In a tilted mode, the hay shifter was backed into and under the haycock as far as it would go. The winch at the front of the hay shifter incorporated a ratchet mechanism with a release so that cables can be pulled off and placed around the haycock and clasped together. Then the haycock would be winched onto the body of the hay shifter using a hand-crank, a lever, or a turning wheel, with the ratchet now in the proper position. When the haycock was about halfway on, the tilt bed would drop to the horizontal position and lock in this position for safe travel to the farmyard. With a bit of luck, there was enough room at the back for us kids to sit, on the way home. Of course, you had to keep your legs up, so you wouldn't get hurt by getting your feet caught between the uneven ground and the hay shifter, as it bounced in and out of the ruts. Going for rides on the hay shifter was something we loved to do with Tommy Morrow, because his hay shifter was horse drawn. His field was close by over the "Bark Loanin."

Such were the actions that the farmer and his family took to make hay, so that in the winter his animals could be fed. Within ten years, making hay would never be the same again, with hay shakers, windrowers, and balers, box and roll type, making the process very easy. Also, making silage started gaining more and more popularity. The Taylors up the Farra road made silage. However, to those who knew haymaking as it once was, even though it was work, it was also a celebrated reunion time for family and friends, and a yearly tradition that we all looked forward to. Alas, no more.

Ed Anderson

Haymaking 1 November 2007

recollection of how they made hay in the 1930’s in the North East of England.

The equipment would include a) a scythe, b) a whet stone, c) a horse drawn mower attachment, d) a horse drawn rake, e) pitchfork, f) a hay bogey, g) a hay fork.

When the grass field was ready for harvesting, the farmer would go through the gate into the field and using his scythe (which was two handled) would use his whet stone to sharpen it and then proceed to cut along the edge of the field so that the horse with the mower attachment would be able to travel over cut grass cutting from the field edge to the centre.

To assist in drying the cut grass the pitchfork would be used to turn the grass.

When the grass was dry, the horse-drawn rake would then be used to draw the hay into long lines. The rake had a trip mechanism so that when the curved tines were full the rake was raised and then dropped for collecting again.

The next step was to create hay stacks, these were approximately 6 ft in diameter and 6 ft high. This was a hand operation using the pitch fork. The hay bogey which was a flat bed platform with a winch and chain at the front end, the flat platform was hinged. Backing the bogey up to a hay stack the platform was lowered so that the rear edge was touching the base of the hay stack. A chain from the winch would be taken around the base of the stack and reconnected to the winch. Then, turning a handle on the winch the stack was drawn onto the platform and as it passed its centre of gravity it resumed a horizontal level and self locked. The load was then taken to the Dutch barn in the farm yard where it was drawn up by the side of the barn.

The special hay fork had two long tines which had a hinged section at the extreme ends, this was plunged into the top of the stack and a lever tripped to turn the ends through 90 degrees and using a horse the load was lifted up via a series of pulleys and swung into the barn where it was evenly distributed, several times this was done until the last of the stack was cleared from the bogey.

As can be imagined this was a long and tedious operation and the collection of the stacks and loading into the barn may well have taken more than one day.

n.b. prior to the horse drawn mower attachment, the field would have been hand cut.

Ronnie

Galloways 30 November 2006

In the advert for the 3rd meeting of York races on the Knavesmire in 1733 it shows Mon-Thu as heats for galloping horses from between 100gns and £30 with a list of entries and the Friday will be staged a £20 plate to be run for by Galloways, entries taken on the day before the race.

AJ Kay

Sheep counting 21 March 2006

has anyone compared the Welsh sheep counting with the following - nos. 1 to 10

Ek, do, tin, cha, panchh, che, sat, ath, nau, das.

(OK my spelling is probably not good but it is not a Greco-Roman script anyway)

(WebMin: for comparison, the Welsh numerals:

un, dwy, tair, pedair, pimp, chwe, saith, wyth, naw, deg!)

it looks somewhat close.

What is this count? Hindi! As Hindi is a derivate of Sanskrit, I believe, it indicates that the count may well not be "British" (i.e. around 100 BC and later) but much older.

Alan Clatworthy

Gallowa' ponies: 10 October 2001

When I started working on a farm in West Yorkshire in the 1950s [early] any sturdy, thickset and strong, big pony or small horse, was called a gallowa'. Not Galloway you notice, but the connection is plain. Hundreds of such ponies were used on the milk rounds that many farmers ran in those days, and when the milk was delivered the Gallowa' was amply strong and game enough to tackle such jobs as light carting, harrowing, scruffling [weeding between rowcrops] and of course as a trap pony. Many farmers of my aquaintance relied on their Gallowa' to get them home, the worse for wear after a day at the mart and a little too much of the hard stuff!

Turfing spades

Long handled spades were used to take the top layer of herbage off a peat bog before cutting peat for fuel. These pointed "turfing" spades were not used to cut the peat, which needed to be cut neatly in oblong blocks that were stacked to dry before they could be burned.

In older farming methods something very similar to these spades would have been used as a one-man "breast plough" - pushed along to strip turf off the top of the soil before cultivation. Imagine the effort involved to clear a field this way! The turf was burned and the ash was scattered as fertiliser for the crop.

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