Young Blonde Girl In The Barn With Hay

Much hay was originally cut by scythe by teams workers, dried in the field and gathered loose on wagons. Later, haying would be done by horse-drawn implements such as mowers. With the invention agricultural machinery such as the tractor and the baler, most hay production became mechanized by the 1930s.
After hay was cut and had dried, the hay was raked or rowed up by raking it into a linear heap by hand or with a horse-drawn implement. Turning hay, when needed, originally was done by hand with a fork or rake. Once the dried hay was rowed up, pitch forks were used to pile it loose, originally onto a horse-drawn cart or wagon, later onto a truck or tractor-drawn trailer, for which a sweep could be used instead pitch forks.
Loose hay was taken to an area designated for storage—usually a slightly raised area for drainage — and built into a hay stack. The stack was made waterpro as it was built (a task considerable skill) and the hay would compress under its own weight and cure by the release heat from the residual moisture in the hay and from the compression forces. The stack was fenced from the rest the paddock in a rick yard, and ten thatched or sheeted to keep it dry. When needed slices hay would be cut using a hay-knife and fed out to animals each day.
On some farms the loose hay was stored in a shed or barn, normally in such a way that it would compress down and cure. Hay could be stored in a specially designed barn with little internal structure to allow more room for the hay. Alternatively an upper storey a cow-shed or stable was used, with hatches in the floor to allow hay to be thrown down into hay-racks below.