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The first baler that appeared in our neighborhood was a rather impressive machine made by John Deere. It made excellent bales, heavy as lead and bound with wire. The ground crew, who had had an easy time of it ever since the appearance of the hayloader, now had to pay dearly for their holiday. Many of these bales weighed upward of a hundred pounds, and the wire would cut into the palms of your hands in the most painful way. It was best to use bale hooks in handling them.
Of course, the women and children were “out of the game,” except as tractor drivers. That became the era of macho-baling. You really had to be a “hoss” to throw those brutal bales high onto a wagon. The baler, paradoxically, required a great deal more manpower than had the hay-loader it superceded, but it did permit a great deal more hay to be made in a day. We never bought one of these machines. Old Mr. Shuman and his son, who ran a dairy, would come over with theirs.
It wasn’t many years before bales became easier to handle. They were made smaller, not as tight and were tied with twine. The “conditioner” was invented. Sometimes known as a “stem-crusher,” the conditioner would either crush or break the stalks so that the moisture could escape more rapidly, thereby hastening the curing process. The conditioner would follow the mower. The side-delivery rake came next, and finally the baler.
Various hay drying methods were developed, so that hay could be baled the same day it was cut. The dryer I had experience with required special, airtight, steel-sided wagons with slatted bottoms. These were backed into the dryer shed that contained a furnace and a powerful blower connected by ductwork and flexible pipes to large hoods built especially to fit onto the tops of the wagons like lids. Hot air was forced through the hay by the blower.
The mower and the conditioner were eventually combined into one machine, some models of which could also make windrows. That made a lot of sense, eliminating one entire time-consuming, fuel-guzzling operation - or two, if windrows could be made, thereby making the rake unnecessary, except when “doubling up” or throwing two rows together.
On one farm, we picked up the windrowed hay with a silage chopper that blew it into covered-over wagons.
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