Environmental Engineering Reference
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applied to them), but their smaller size facilitated packing for railroad ship-
ment. This was particularly important, as up to this point hay was sold
locally; railroads had previously not accepted hay for transport in its loose
form.
Advertisements from the period advised farmers that by baling their hay
they could seek a better price than that paid locally. Similarly, this advan-
tage was promoted in a 1917 International Harvester almanac, accompanied
by an illustration of the hay press in action with the caption “Good Baled
Hay tops the market.” The text below the title “A Good Hay Press Means
Added Profits” reads:
Neat bales of bright, clean hay bring good prices—enough to allow a good profit
on the baling.The owner of a good hay press not only makes profit on his own bal-
ing, but can do the work for others, and thus establish a fine “side line.”When hay
is in the bale, the markets can be watched closely and shipments quickly made
when prices are higher, and then, too, less storage space is required and bales are
easily and quickly handled.The hay keeps better, there being a larger proportion of
the nutrients retained than where the hay is loose.
It is interesting to note that the change in bale scale led to commercial suc-
cess, as the smaller bales could be more easily manipulated by a single per-
son.This same manipulability is also significant in the appeal of straw bales
as an empowering building material in the contemporary straw-bale build-
ing movement. Historically, the larger social context is telling. The late
1800s were the period of the Industrial Revolution. Counterintuitively, this
actually contributed to the increased use of horses for all kinds of transport
and horse power in metropolitan centers.The demand for hay for feed and
straw for bedding was at an all time high at the very period when crop
yields in the eastern United States were declining due to disease and lack
of crop rotation, providing a ready market for grain-belt hay. Dederick's
advertisements illustrate his patented baler, which folded the grain sheaf,
compressing it into separate grain-bundle flakes within the larger bale—a
technique still used in the baling technology of today. The 1881 Dederick
catalogue further points out the convenience of the flaked bale for stable
feeding—small flakes can be removed one at a time from the bale as needed
for feed. Competitors were quick to enter the market, developing both
wooden and steel balers, powered by horse or by steam. Hay presses came
in all shapes and sizes, to fit every pocketbook. By this time, balers powered
by one, two, or more horses existed side by side with belt-driven balers
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