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 They have since been superseded by spring-tooth horse rakes, except for certain purposes.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.
Figure 143.—Grass Hook, for working around borders where the lawn-mower is too clumsy.
Figure 144.—Revolving Hayrake. The center piece is 4″ x 6″ x 12′ long. The teeth are double enders 13⁄8″ square and 4′ 6″ long, which allows 24″ of rake tooth clear of the center timber. Every stick in the rake is carefully selected. It is drawn by one horse. If the center teeth stick into the ground either the horse must stop instantly, or the rake must flop over, or there will be a repair job. This invention has never been improved upon for pulling Canada peas.
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.