Traditional Haymaking by hand in the early United States (1800-1900). An Overview
- Year On the Field Project
- Apr 29
- 6 min read
Imagine yourself as a farmer before the invention of tractors and bailers, or perhaps a small farmer who prefers the light touch on your small farm. You enter a quiet field of tall grass. The wind gently blows across the strands of grass. You stride up to the grass, scythe in hand. A scythe is a long piece of wood with a curved blade at the end. You hold the piece of wood farthest from the blade, and swing the blade almost noiselessly in a big circle around your feet; if you are right handed, the blade swings from right to left in a big arc near the base of the ground. The blade cuts the grass in the same arc, and the stroke ends on the left side of your body. The grass falls to the left side. You take one step forward, swinging the blade again, and repeat the effort. Swish-swish, swish-swish. You leave cut grass in one long line the opposite side from which the blade started.
Most modern western people in urban or suburban regions cut their lawns with power-mowers, not realizing the nutritional value that grass has given to so many animals over time. Grass doesn’t just look good; it is the main nutrition for herbivores such as cattle, horses, sheep, and rabbits. Grass hay offers a mix of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and fiber; there are different grasses which give different nutritional profiles.
Haymaking has been performed “by hand” for a millenia: cutting long grass with a scythe or sickle, collecting the fresh grass in big piles, lightly drying in the sun, collecting the grass into manageable stacks, then placing the stacks in a location where farmers can feed livestock through the winter when the grass is dormant.
In modern times, and in the most modern of locations, hay is gathered by machine; bales in squares or rounds, and placed where a farmer can retrieve the collected materials for the winter season. Perhaps we are accustomed to the sound of tractors, whether of modern tractors or hard-working older tractors. We may consider this collection of grasses as loud, instrusive, and part of the countryside. But not every haymaking operation is commercial; smaller farms, looking to feed their own small-holdings from their own land, can choose to save an area for long summer growth to make their own hay.
However if we peel away technology, haymaking was simply cutting, drying, and saving grass for livestock for winter food. Hay is simply grass saved for seasons when there is no living grass. In fact, anyone looking to feed his or her grass-eating animals can cut fresh grass, dry it before storing, and place it in a safe space - away from rain, damp, or rot. Paintings or old photos of farming in past centuries show hayricks (towers of hay), high hay wagons, or tall barns full of hay stored in the top levels, while animals rest in the shady areas below.
The following pictures and videos feature how many practicioners of the hand methods are teaching each other how to make hay. Most often, people are finding the joys of “mowing” with a scythe instead of using a lawnmower - note the similarities of the verb “to mow”, which means to cut the standing herbage (such as grass) (Merriam-Webster dictionary). Cutting with a scythe is quiet and allows the human body to move, a life-giving exercise which brings blood to all the limbs and raises the circulation.
Haymaking by hand is relatively easy, is good for the body, simple in labor, but complex enough to keep one’s mind working.
Organizations around the world teach traditional skills, simply and with passion, before they are lost. Several organizations teach educators to understand and demonstrate those skills to the public, or learn these skills for use in their own farms or lots.
To help the wider audience understand haymaking by hand, here are the basic steps of the actions. Each step has small details to help the farmer, protect the hay crop, or to protect the tools. This is a quick overview of the main steps.
1) Prepare the Scythe
A scythe is a stick, usually with handles, with a curved blade attached at an angle perpendicular to the main body of the stick. Sticks may be straight or curved, depending on the culture and/or landscape where the scythe is being used. Each part of the stick and blade has their own names: for example, the “snath” is the long part of the stick. However this article is an introduction, so here is a simple video which explains about preparing a blade for cutting the grass.
2) Mow quickly, low to the ground, keep moving
Cutting the grass is often called mowing. Mowing with a scythe is a rotation of the body with the blade kept close to the ground. At the back end of the movement, the grass is deposited on the other side of the body. As the mower walks forward, each successive line of grass is cut and then deposited on the other side, making a long line of grass. A scythe is sharpened again when the mower doesn’t feel the blade slice smoothly and quickly through the grass; sharpening takes about 30 seconds.
3) Multiple people can mow in staggered rows
While it may look daunting to mow an entire field alone, several people working together in staggered rows can make faster work of mowing. While this video shows a workshop of learners working at different paces to each perfect his or her swing, experienced mowers can move swiftly to cut grass very quickly for the next steps. A patient teacher can help a mower fine-tune a scythe movement in just moments.
4) Rake the cut grass into long rows, which turns the drying hay
As the hay is loosely strewn around the site, the hay is forked (turned) over and then raked into long lines. This effort turns the hay over in the drying sun, and positions it to be ready for cocking.
5) The drying hay is forked into small piles
The drying hay is forked into small, cone-shaped piles called “cocks”. Cocks are made to allow loose hay to continue drying, but to reduce the layout against dew or rain. A good cock sheds water and allows only its topmost layer to get wet, whether in overnight dew or even a brief rainshower. Dry weather after these summer incidents will allow the moisture to evaporate quickly from these cocks.
6) Pick up the hay for final storage
The hay isn’t left on the field in rows or small cocks, as it may burn in the sun, losing its nutritional value. Hay is often gathered and placed in a location for feeding the animals though the winter, when the grass is dormant and/or all eaten down. This loose hay is loaded onto a horse drawn wagon, carefully placing each cock to lock the hay together so it stays secure in the wagon during loading, and stay locked together for the journey back to the barn. At the barn, the wagons are often unloaded for storage all winter.
Sometimes storage is made in the field, protected by a top layer of fleece or hay, which protects the underneath hay from rain, dew, or snow.
Videos from:
Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) Haymaking Workshop and participants, June 2024, Howell Living History Farm, Lambertville, NJ USA
Instructor and scythe master:
Dave Hruska, Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA, USA
Wagon driver: Katelyn Pogue, Howell Living History Farm, Lambertville, NJ USA
For detailed thoughts on haymaking by hand, refer to the chapter on haymaking: “Craeft”, by Alexander Langlands, 2019, W.W. Norton & Co, Publisher
For details on setting up and using a scythe: “The Scythe Book: Mowing Hay, Cutting Weeds, and harvesting Small Grains with Hand Tools, with an Addendum in the Practical Use of the Scythe by Peter Vido”, by David Tresemer. Second edition. 2001. Alan C. Hood & Company, Inc, Chambersburg, PA.
About the Author:
Lauren Muney is an enthusiast of historical processes of agriculture, especially using hand tools such as the sickle and scythe, as well as working with animals. She is an active member of the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), the Association of International Museums of Agriculture (AIMA), and EXARC, a major experimental archeology association. Her profession is of a rare traditional art form: silhouette portraits, cut with scissors, for which she travels worldwide for public and private events and museums.
Comments