One of my best summer memories was riding on the dump rake! I don't remember driving the tractor for it. I think one of my brothers usually was on the tractor. I'd sit on the seat, turning back to watch how much hay accumulated in the teeth. When it looked pretty bulging full, I'd stomp on the pedal to trip the lever of the dump. The teeth, or tines, would spring up and dump the hay in a pile. I loved it! Later, Dad or my brothers would pick these piles up with the "Farmhand loader" forks on the tractor and then we'd build haystacks.
These next two pictures are from a display in Montana.
My brother Dan said the teeth, or tines, were made out of "spring steel" which gave the metal some flexibility. They would bounce along the rough ground, without breaking. The top of each tooth has a little round spring-like circle that gave it some "give." The seat was comfortable even on rough prairie grass, so the flat piece of steel holding the seat must also have been spring steel.
Dan remembers that Dad had a McCormick-Deering dump rake. Dad rigged a rope to pull the lever of the foot pedal, so a driver on the tractor could pull the rope. But Dan said it made a boy's arm sore, so we kids often took turns riding the rake.
This picture below is a dump rake on my brother Carl's farm.
Before tractors, the farmers would hitch up a couple of horses to the rake, sit on the seat, guiding the horses with the reins besides managing the foot pedal.
This is a picture of a steel sculpture made by Frank Jensen of Augusta, Kansas.
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