Hay stack and automobile of peach pickers, Delta County, Colorado (LOC)

Comments and faves

1. ★

   zsoltika, anindya c, marek4, KarlJE, and 81 other people added this photo to their favorites.

2. 

   Wade Griffith (59 months ago | reply)

   Why would you want to climb way up on that bail of hay? And couldn't that be a bad place to park if a strong wind came from the opposite direction?

3. 

   Edwin's Paint Bucket (59 months ago | reply)

   It is a great place to get naughty.

4. 

   Prairie Bluestem (59 months ago | reply)

   The ladder may still be in place from the process of making the haystack. A well-made, evenly shaped haystack, with the hay firmly packed into place from the ground up, could withstand most winds without damage.

   I am curious about the oblong shape of this haystack. The shape is unlike the round haystacks that were usually made inside a large cage . Yet, the sides of this haystack are quite straight and it's very tall so if it was done freeform, it's a masterpiece.

5. 

   perfgeek (59 months ago | reply)

   And here I thought they were putting the finishing touches on the country drive-in theater :)

   There are enough bulges here and there that I'd believe it was free-form - what strikes this city-boy's eyes is that is a lot of hay to have stacked outside without any cover?

6. 

   Prairie Bluestem (59 months ago | reply)

   I'm a generation younger than this photo, but I grew up on a ranch in northern Nebraska where we made haystacks. The haystacks were kept outside, and they were shaped to shed water. If they were used during the first winter after they were made, rotting of the hay from moisture was minimal. It wouldn't have been practical to keep all the hay inside because such a great quantity of hay was harvested each year to see the cattle through the long winter. I think this was probably true in 1940 in Colorado also. Also, keep in mind that the annual rainfall isn't that much in Colorado. The main reason to keep hay inside is to avoid water damage.

7. 

   Peter Baer (59 months ago | reply)

   This looks a lot like the haystacks my father made when I was a kid. He had a large rectangular form on wheels that resembled a large cage with vertical bars on the side where the entire back section butterflied open to allow pulling the form away once the hay was stacked inside - leaving a nice rectangular stack that very much resembles the one in this photo.
   The form is very similar to the one in this photo from John Means Whatever's photostream

8. 

   Colorado Kid 42 (59 months ago | reply)

   Prairie Bluestem is right on. Each area of the country had their own system of haying. This stack could have been put up with either an overshot or beaver slide stacker. After the stack reached a certain height the stacker was drug several feet and continued, although it does appear to have been stacked in distinct layers.

   One reason for the heigth was to get more tons protected with the smallest surface area, leaving little to the elements. If you go by the Haythorn Ranch at Arthur, NE you can see this still done with horses.

9. 

   Colorado Kid 42 (59 months ago | reply)

   I want to amend my comments on the hay stack listed just above. With the above mentioned stackers the guys on top had to spread the hay with forks to the end and edges of the stack. It took some doing, but but with care the sides could be kept straight.

10. 

    Dave`s Eye (58 months ago | reply)

    This is one reason why I LOVE old photographs! I take it this was taken in summer, instead of just seeing the season, you can almost feel the heat of summer coming off this picture, the colour is so vibrant, it`s hard to explain. Lovely picture! Thank You!

11. 

    The Library of Congress (58 months ago | reply)

    A co-worker mentioned that we have 16mm movie footage showing hay being stacked in the 1940s on the Ninety-Six Ranch in Nevada, with a locally made derrick. Accompanied by explanations and new technology videotaped in the 1980s by the Library's American Folklife Center.

    To check it out: memory.loc.gov/ammem/ncrhtml/crmenu3.html

    (Searching this American Memory collection using the word "hay" gets you a lot of stills too: memory.loc.gov/ammem/ncrquery.html )

12. 

    artpease (58 months ago | reply)

    As Colorado Kid 42 says, this could be stacked by folks who knew what they were doing. It is a larger scale of what my father did on a hayrack pulled by horses in the fields of our NH hill farm. Placing each pitched-on fork-full of hay in the right place and then treading it down kept it on for the sometimes bumpy ride to the barn. Then, the hay was unloaded with a pitchfork and pitched into the haymows in the barn. Very hot work in a humid NH summer.

13. 

    Amberd Design Studio | www.AmberdDesign.com (58 months ago | reply)

    wow very n ice

14. 

    Armagan Orki (58 months ago | reply)

    Hi, let's share this great photo with Günün En İyisi - The Best of Day (Post 1 - Comment 3)
    www.flickr.com/groups/iyibest/
    
    Günün En İyisi - The Best of Day
    Please tag your photo: GününEnİyisi, TheBestOfDay

15. 

    George (55 months ago | reply)

    Stumbled on this photo from Wales in 1910. Not sure if they're connected particularly, but...

    

16. 

    Zsofia Nagy (49 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called HAYSTACKS, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

17. 

    trusteemails (47 months ago | reply)

    Very unique pictures you have taken. I wish I could get you to take pictures so I could sell my car faster since I would have great pictures. Keep up the good work.

18. 

    striatic (47 months ago | reply)

    This image has been used in the indicommons.org post: Flickring across the Library of Congress

    
    

19. 

    Le.Sanchez (15 months ago | reply)

    cool

20. 

    Hubert K. Olivera (5 weeks ago | reply)

    nice shot!

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