Reinhold Farm - Harvesting Hay using 10/20 Tractor

Place: Medford, Wisconsin
Date: c. 1944

Description

Carl Oscar and Carl Oliver making hay using a hay loader. Nora Reinhold drove the puddle jumper. This photo is significant as it demonstrates the transition from horse power to motorized power. People could not afford to buy tractors so they converted cars to tractors. Carl Oliver built the puddle jumper from a 1926 Buick. He used the puddle jumper prior to his marriage to Josephine and for some time after. As reported by son, Richard, "they used it for many little jobs such as racking hay, making fence, and picking rock. It was the second tractor as I remember. Like you say, it was
faster. It was so fast that it worked the shit out of the guy on the hay wagon moving the loose hay from the back of the hay rack to the front and then stacking it to get a full load."

The hay was loaded using a hay-loader. The hay-loader was a relatively new machine. It had a pick-up head that picked the hay off the ground and rope apron that pushed the hay up into the hay wagon. This operation was accomplished by hooking a wagon to the puddle jumper (earlier it was hooked to two or three horses) and then hooking the hay loader to the back of the wagon. As the puddle jumper moved along, straddling the windrow, the hay-loader picked up the hay. Carl Oscar stood in the wagon and loaded the hay with a pitch fork as the hay came up the loader and into the wagon. Haying was generally done between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. This of course was due to the dew lifting and setting. The dew generally burned off by 10:00 a.m. and began setting by 6:00 p.m.