Hay Fork, Pitch Fork .....know the difference?

 
 Hay fork, pitch fork, do you know the difference? I didn't. This could be a good question for trivial pursuit, but I found that around the garden one was far better than the other.

A hay fork has four prongs and a pitch fork three. Traditionally they both had different uses hence their names apart from just a fork. What I tell you could win you a prize at an agricultural show.



The hay fork was used to gather hay (before baling) and get it up onto the tray of a wagon etc., so it could be carted off the field. The four evenly spaced prongs meant you could move along a windrow "digging it" into the hay lifting the hay load a bit and "digging it" in again and repeating this until you had a load that you could manage lifting onto the tray. In this way you could get reasonable loads with several "digs" and the four prongs would give it stability.

I have found this tool excellent in the garden for picking up piles of weeds or prunings etc. Using the above "digging method" to collect up piles of weeds allows for easy transport to the compost bin if it is not too far away and avoids double handling (into wheel barrow, then out of  it). Just two things to be careful of: Be sure the prongs don't go into the ground, and make sure the load is balanced for both sides otherwise it can be quite a strain on your wrists to keep it stable. For large or bulky  piles, leave them a few days and they will be easier to shift - don't try to move a pile which you struggle to lift or else you might bust your "foofoo" valve as my father used to say.

The Pitch fork was used for pitching (who's the clever dick?). It doesn't happen so much these days but some people still do it and that is build Oat stacks. Oat stacks involve quite an art  to erect correctly which was handed down from generation to generation: Chaff (oaten chaff) is made from an oat crop that is not headed, i.e. the grain is not separated from the stalk unlike the harvesting of  Wheat and Barley which is headed. The Oats is cut, windrowed and allowed to dry and then sheaves (say about an armful) of the cut oats is stooked, which is basically tying a certain amount of  the cut oats into bundles and then standing them in groups (stooking). This further assists in conditioning.

When the oats is ready the stooks are gathered together in one part of the paddock (using the pitch fork and trailers). Then the building of the stack begins. Now as I said the design of the stack is very intricate because it needs to be perfectly symmetrical and well compacted on the inside. It has a conical top with an "eave", where the top meets the sides which extends a wee bit out from the sides. The intricacy of the design was developed because they didn't cover stacks so when it rained the water must run quickly off the stack so the oats inside are protected. This is similar in principle to the thatched roof..

Now about the pitch fork. This was used to pitch the stooks up to the stack builders as the stack grew. It had only three prongs so the stook would be more easily released and fly to the top of the stack. Now one other interesting fact (well I thought so), when the workers pitched the stook they didn't face the stack and try to do it this way, they had their back to the stack and so in effect flicked it up and over their shoulder. Ah ha some of you say.......some of you......one of you? When you go to agricultural shows sometimes there is a competition to see who can pitch the stook (usually a small sack filled with hay) over a high bar for a prize. Now most people who haven't read this excellent post will try to do it face on to the bar - this seems logical to them but now you know it ain't! The probability of success is hugely increased if you put your back to the bar, stand relatively close and throw over your shoulder.

To finish the story, after a certain period the Oat stack is opened up and the stooks are fed into a chaff cutter which cuts each stook into pieces barely a centimeter long that are then pressed, oats and all, into chaff sacks, (in NZ they have a blue stripe down them), sewn up and sold as feed for horses.