Friday, July 31, 2020

Haying




It takes a lot of land to make a little hay.

I remember the excitement of haying the few times I go to go as a boy.  Not much haying in a mill city like Manchester, but my grandfather was the egg man for Chelmsford and parts of Lowell, and many of his neighbors had hay fields.  It was an adventure, and in retrospect, more risk of breaking your neck than we would allow now. Children were in the bed of the truck, theoretically helping stack bales in an orderly fashion but mostly hanging off the side and whooping.  I never heard of anyone getting hurt, but then, we wouldn't, because we would have chalked it up to "acting like a jerk when there was work to be done" as opposed to "engaging in a dangerous activity where children shouldn't be allowed."


7 comments:

Douglas2 said...

I was speaking to a friend a week ago, her nephew is now cropping "all hay" on his owned and leased fields. He also works as a truck driver, so a crop that needs no attention between planting and harvest (and doesn't have such a critical harvest timescale) is appealing to him. The lower income-per-acre is more than made up with by the lower labor input.

In my vague memory, about 3 years ago there was a NE US drought induced hay shortage. My impression from driving around is that in response the farmers really went overboard on hay in the following years, but a google search indicates that there is still shortage and prices are still double what they were not too many years ago.

Douglas2

Jerry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jerry said...

Haying is a brutal way to make a few dollars if you are a teenager in a small town with few other cash jobs in the summer.

Between 1957 -1961 haying paid a crew $0.10 per bale. The owner of the truck got a nickel. The two guys on the ground and the two on the tuck split the other nickel. 1 1/4 cents per bale. A thousand bales (which was a tough goal in the heat of the summer) meant you made $12.50.

Gasoline was $0.29. Burgers and a drive-in date set you back about $3.00 plus gas money. Everything is relative when it comes to the pay and the cost of living.

But what haying gave me was a healthy respect for hard work and a burning desire to get my college degree so I never had to do that again.

Every teen should hay haul for a day or two. It is a real motivator.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I liked the comment, Jerry. i hope you bring some version of it back.

I usually find a factor of ten for prices in the mid-60s is about right. There is wide variety, certainly, as some things have gotten comparatively much cheaper over the years. Then you look at how much we make today and it gives a clear picture of how wealthy we have become.

Jerry said...

When I did graduate from college in 1965, I took a job as a Cost Accountant for an ITT plant at $85 per week.

My wife who only went to college 2 years was an H.R. clerk for $1.40 per hour. With no overtime, we made $141 per week, paid off our college, my 57 Chevy (Yes I let it go), and got ready to start a family.

A little help along the way from both sets of parents, but no student loan forgiveness, and no marching and protesting. Viet Nam was going on, but we stood for the flag.

We had a life to build, didn't have the luxury of holding a sign. Probably wouldn't have done it anyway.

Donna B. said...

Again, a contrast between New Hampshire and other parts of the country. Jerry's comment makes a whole lot more sense to me, but not entirely. Where I grew up a few years later, it was labor paid by the hour. An improvement? Possibly.

Jerry said...

Donna B: A lot of difference as you move to different parts of the country, but all still held together by the bond of freedom, regardless of the tensions of the current day. Those tensions are only made possible because of the glue of freedom - the blood spilled for this country.

But to the concept of haying, hourly jobs and such. When I took a position as a Cost Accountant it was because at that time we were in a pretty serious downturn in the workplace and jobs were hard to come by. (I later became an HR/LR Manager/Director) Because I had a degree and a title, I was considered exempt salaried and could work as many hours as needed to get the job accomplished. My wife, on the other hand, was considered to be clerical and since she didn't meet the qualifications under the Fair Labor Standards Act, she could be paid at an hourly rate, but if she worked over 40, she was on OT. Capiche?