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Jim: My first job as an 8 year old on the farm was driving W4 with 16' wagon pulling hayloader. My dad used the crank and push bar type loader. I remember I was placed in this job as my grandfather then in his early 70's was getting a bit rough on his clutch performance. Hired help on wagon were complaining. I remember, I was told to do as men on wagon instructed and not to knock anyone off the load. Most of the time you ran in 1st or 2nd gear. With side delivery raking these machines would clean the field as well as any modern day baler. I do know that with the W4 and the loader we had you could bury the two men on load, this often made it necessary to stop. Our system was based on a track pitching device at barn, which my dad operated along with two teenagers. one to drive the horse and other to set fork on load. My dad worked the hay mow or loft. In the field, I remember one of the hired men and myself got to sit in the shade of the hayloader, while the other guy took load to barn with W4 and returned with an empty wagon. I can remember these guys building loads of loose hay on an 8' by 16' wagon that would just fit through a 12'x12' door. I can remember a few time the top layer of the load being slid off the back af wagon as it went through the door. There were always guys in a community who had a reputation of being able to build a load of loose hay that wouldn't fall off on way to barn. Some of these guys could build a load twice width of wagon. I remember anything over 15 loads being a good day on a dairy farm with milking to do. I'm thinking we probably got a couple ton on most loads. Those were the good old days. Before we got a baler I did graduate to being one of the guys on load for a year or two. I remember thinking how great it would be to work on a hay crew using a baler. You know something, baler just caused you to work harder. My dad claimed and I agree baler didn't improve a thing until the thrower, or bale basket. Working on a smooth deck of a wagon behind a baler was no picnic. It was a lot easier to stay on your feet on that load of loose hay. Baling hay on ground and picking up later was a step backwards. Yes, one thing is certain, that old hayloader did a very efficient job of picking up hay. My dad's first baler was a IH 45, it didn't increase productivity. We almost parked it and went back to hayloader. Speaking of building loads of hay, I remember an old guy in my home town, who farmed in middle of village. He had sold a lot of his land to housing, but still kept a few cows. He had all his land in pasture. His hay source was back end of all the lots he had sold. He mowed with sythe, worked the hay with fork. He hauled the hay home on a wheel barrow about 3' wide by 5'long. He could put a load of hay on that wheelbarrow that filled one lane of town streets. Caution had to be used in passing him, as you often could not see traffic coming other way.
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