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Implement Alley Discussion Forum

First baled hay?

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rossow (mn)

01-13-2005 05:25:59




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Any idea when hay and straw were first baled? It's my sense that tractor-drawn balers appeared in the late 1930s, and that stationary balers were used before then, but I wonder how early? It's a trivial question, but I'm always skeptical when I see bales of hay and straw in old shows like Bonanza. I saw mention of baled straw in a TV show portraying Chicago in 1871 and said no way. Any ag historians out there?

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MMark

01-13-2005 10:03:07




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
I purchased a hand powered wooden baler this past summer. It uses a ratchet that turns a rack and pinion that pushes the plunger. The top has doors(2) that lift up to fill and latch down when pressing. The opposite end has a door that drops down to pull out the bale. It stands about waist high, overall length about 10 feet with plunger extended and 6 feet with plunger retracted. It works horizontally not vertical. Wire ties up from the bottom to the top. It is made by the Findlay Baler Company, Findlay, Ohio. We are in the process of restoring it and will be finished for this seasons tractor shows. It appears to have been made around the turn of the century with what type of hardware and woodworking techniques that were used in it construction. This is a very unusual piece of equiptment. We have talked to a few people that have heard of balers like this but they have never seen one in person.

Mark Damewood
Spingfield, Ohio

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JMS/MN

01-13-2005 09:12:42




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
I've often wondered the same thing, and enjoyed the responses below. I noticed something similar in the movie 'Bonnie and Clyde'. The setting is the mid- 30s, and in one outdoor scene they park their car by a hayfield. In the background are big round bales!



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lrs

01-13-2005 08:41:45




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
Hay presses built in the 1820s still exist. These surviving examples were built into barns. They were basically a vertically-oriented wooden frame, somewhat like a hay chute. They were a two-story affair, in some cases. Hay was pitched in to top and pressed with a large weight block that tamped down the hay. It was something like a cotton bale press. The purpose was to pack hay for shipment. The bales were rather larger than made by the later portable metal hay presses and even later field balers. I believe these early stationary hay presses when out of use in the 1880s, for the most part, and the portable metal presses -- which we call stationary presses today -- rather quickly replaced them. These too were used mainly for hay that was destined for shipment. Their use declined after the general adoption of automobiles and trucks, and the concurrent disappearance of "urban" horses. Field balers were developed in the 1930s, but general adoption dates from the later 1940s.

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Bkeepr

01-13-2005 07:08:10




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
Not sure if it is the earliest, but I found the U.S. patent registration for a Hay Press below:

12/19/1862 John Henson of Fork Union, VA for Hay Press

Tom A



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older yet....

01-13-2005 07:12:23




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to Bkeepr, 01-13-2005 07:08:10  
Found this in an 1935 history book transcribed on the web...time period for hay press is around 1830:

"They had a store and were engaged in general mercantile trade, receiving and exporting large freights of flagging stone, and they also ran a hay press. The farmers for some distance away carried their hay to that press for packing.

At that date the Upper Landing and Upper Village transacted about all the business of the town. This was about the year 1830, but some few years preceding that date Judge Anthony Van Bergen was the pioneer in that hay packing business in this town. He used the old-fashioned screw press, which made heavy bales for shipping. Farmers for miles away drew their hay up to the farm of Van Bergen, he being the only buyer of that staple at that time. He was a large exporter of hay to Southern ports and the West Indies, and was known very generally in New York as a man of enterprise and wealth. His paper in Wall Street was just as negotiable as that of any well-known man in the city."

Bkeepr

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Michael Soldan

01-13-2005 06:33:01




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
Rossow, I've seen the same thing in movies depicting by gone days and wondered how authentic the movie was. Then I discovered the "Hay Press" at an antique display at the International Plowing Match at an Ontario site. The hay press produced what we would recognize as a bale. It wasn't very sophisticated but has the elements of a modern day baler. It was being run by a small steam engine and used wire to tie the bales. I believe that they could also bale wood shavings with them. The bales were hand tied then released from the machine. The hay press had the hay brought to it and I would guess it was a two man job to feed hay into it, tie the bale and release it. I think you would be hard pressed to do 100-200 bales a day. I believe hay presses were around for a long time, guessing 1870's-1880's...I am sure to be corrected if I'm wrong but the era of grain binders, hay loaders and hay presses all seemed to evolve with the opening of the west both in Canada and the United States. I'd be interested to see more discussion about Hay Presses. Mike in Exeter Ontario

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Ross

01-13-2005 06:29:27




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
I'm not sure how factual it is but, in one of the Little House on the Prairie books; the one about Laura's husband growing up. There's a chapter about his father baling extra hay to sell in town with a horse powered stationary baler.
That would have been in the mid 19th century.
Ross



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R Wyler

01-13-2005 06:02:49




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 Re: First baled hay? in reply to rossow (mn), 01-13-2005 05:25:59  
Well they had very old stationary steam powered balers and they problably had them in the later part of the 19th century. I could be wrong.



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