Hay season is formally under way on my northerly Wisconsin farm . We started a few workweek ago with some of the quicker - growing force field , but that was a relatively modest projectcompared with last workweek , when we put up about 600 small square bales in two days , with plenty more still to come up .
You know the vulgar dirge that they do n’t make tools and machines the way they used to ? peradventure there is something to it , because I ’ve found sometime farm machinery to be remarkably durable and useful . One of our independent tractors for make hay is aMassey Ferguson 135 that ’s near 50 year erstwhile , and one of our hay rakes — which works attractively — is aJohn Deere 594 , which is so old that you could conform it for economic consumption with horses .
An Inherited Machine
Our 594 came with the farm . Its “ John Deere Green ” pigment wear down off long ago ( it ’s more of a “ rusty brown ” people of colour these twenty-four hours . But that does n’t impact its public presentation , which is hard to complain about .
Dating back to at least the fifties if not earlier — this model was cook up for many year — the 594 is describe as a “ side rescue ” rake and differs from other blood . It has two large steel driving wheels at the front and two smaller wheels at the back . The rake is corroborate whole by its own wheels and does n’t require a tractor to apply up the front ending . This is understandable because parts were uncommitted that would change the tractor hitch into a horse hitch ( pure with the addition of a seat for the machine driver ) , and having the profligate reenforcement itself would have taken an unnecessary variant off the buck tear the rake .
Of naturally , there are some elements of the 594 that could be a slight bit better . Its steel wheel do n’t grip very well on balmy slopes . And it on occasion has trouble skim through the thick section of hay . But for a rake that could very well be close in on 75 year old , it ’s do praiseworthily . It is a worthful piece of our hay - make accumulation .
Built Tough
It ’s also knotty enough and simple enough that on the rare occasion when it does have an issue , it ’s relatively easy to cook . One summertime , the tongue give way in half the mean solar day before a major day of haying . Fortunately , one of our friends come to the rescue with his welding equipment . We play into the night to repair the rakehell in metre for the following morning . The weld worked perfectly , the rip did its job , and it continue to attend us well .
On a humorous note , I was of late walking through the back woods on our farm , exploring one of the large rock pilesleft behind from make the fields many years ago , and I hit across a with child pile of busted rake tine for the 594 . They had evidently been situate there age ago by the premature possessor of the farm . That ’s further grounds ( if any was want ) of the hard work that our rake has perform for decades .
