Figure 145.—Buck Rake. When hay is stacked in the field a four-horse buck rake is the quickest way to bring the hay to the stack. The buck rake shown is 16 feet wide and the 2 x 4 teeth are 11 feet long. Two horses are hitched to each end and two drivers stand on the ends of the buck rake to operate it. The load is pushed under the horse fork, the horses are swung outward and the buck rake is dragged backward.
HAY-TEDDER
The hay-tedder is an English invention, which has been adopted by farmers in rainy sections of the United States. It is an energetic kicker that scatters the hay swaths and drops the hay loosely to dry between showers. Hay may be made quickly by starting the tedder an hour behind the mowing machine.
It is quite possible to cut timothy hay in the morning and put it in the mow in the afternoon, by shaking it up thoroughly once or twice with the hay-tedder. When clover is mixed with the timothy, it is necessary to leave it in the field until the next day, but the time between cutting and mowing is shortened materially by the use of the tedder.
Grass cut for hay may be kicked apart in the field early during the wilting process without shattering the leaves. If left too long, then the hay-tedder is a damage because it kicks the leaves loose from the stems and the most valuable feeding material is wasted. But it is a good implement if rightly used. In catchy weather it often means the difference between bright, valuable hay and black, musty stuff, that is hardly fit to feed.
Hay-tedders are expensive. Where two farmers neighbor together the expense may be shared, because the tedder does its work in two or three hours’ time. Careful farmers do not cut down much grass at one time. The tedder scatters two mowing swaths at once. In fact the mowing machine, hay-tedder and horserake should all fit together for team work so they will follow each other without skips or unnecessary laps. The dividing board of the mowing-machine marks a path for one of the horses to follow and it is difficult to keep him out of it. But two horses pulling a hay-tedder will straddle the open strip between the swaths when the tedder is twice the width of the cut.