buck rake n
1 = bull rake n 1.
1865 Amer. Agric. 24.213, The Buck Rake.—The illustration herewith given represents a very convenient and useful rake, for raking light hay or for gathering the scattering hay while a load is being put on the cart or wagon. The sketch was sent by Trevor Yates, Otsego Co., N. Y., who calls it a “shoulder rake,” who says that an active boy or girl, 10 or 12 years old, will do more with it than a man with an ordinary hand rake. 1895 DN 1.396 eMA, Bull rake: very heavy hand rake. N. Y. c. [DN Ed: Buck rake, Mass. e.]
2 = hay sweep n. chiefly Upper MW, West Cf buck v1 B7a, buck-rake v, hay buck n 1
1886 Cultivator & Country Gentleman 58.531 IA, I will mention first the “go-devil” or “buck-rake.” Some farmers use a home-made affair, while others buy a patent one. . . The home-made one has a head about sixteen feet long, with the teeth projecting forward eight or ten feet, and others standing upright on the head, four or five feet high, to prevent the hay from falling over behind. It is hauled by a horse at each end, and when the stack or rick is reached, the horses are swung around or unhitched, and hitched on anew, and pull it back from under its burden of hay. The patent buck-rake is like the California “header” in one respect, it does its work ahead of the horses. 1908 Woodland Daily Democrat (CA) [5 May 2]/3 (newspaperarchive.com), [Advt:] Dain Alfalfa Power Lift Buck Rakes. The only buck rake on the market today that will absolutely carry up when crossing levees, making it indispensable for the farmer. 1939 Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 9 Oct 9/4, In the western sections of both states [=CO and WY], horses are being moved from behind the buck rakes that bring the hay from the windrows to the stacks, and the buck rakes are being pushed by trucks rebuilt in various manners to push the hay around. 1943 Sun (Baltimore MD) 15 Mar 6/3, A buck rake picks up hay in the field and carries it to the barn without having to be touched by hand. 1950 WELS WI (What . . you do to hay in the field after it has been cut) 1 Inf, Rake with side delivery or dump rake into winrows, buck with buck rake; load into hay rack with loader; (Tools and machines used . . in handling hay) 1 Inf, Buck rake; 1 Inf, Buck rake—tractor-drawn (hay rack if no buck rake is used). 1958 AmSp 33.269 eWA [Ranching terms], Buck rake. A huge wooden fork pushed ahead of a team (or a tractor) used to collect cut hay. 1965–70 DARE (Qu. L16, . . Machines used . . in handling hay) Infs CA18, CO19, IN63, MT5, Buck rake; AZ10, Buck rake—to push the hay around; CA36, Buck rake—picks up six shocks or more at a time; CA63, Buck rake—four horses; shovels hay to hay press that bales it; ND9, Old days: buck rake, stacker; OK1, Mowing machine—previously used with a sulky rig and a buck rake; OK43, Sulky rake (put into windrows); buck rake (takes windrows to bales); WY4, Buck rake or push rake—not used here anymore; (Qu. L23) Inf OR10, Buck rake. 1981 DARE File WY, A buck rake for collecting bales of hay is sort of a front-end loader put on the chassis of an old truck. It has an hydraulic lift so that the operator can move it up and down while he’s charging toward another bale and can collect about a dozen bales almost without stopping. He unloads them in a pile out in the field, where they’re stored. You need these out west, where the fields are too big to load all the bales by hand. Ibid csWI,The buck rake was for gathering hay that was already in winrows. After you had a load, you could dump it by pushing a pedal with your foot. The loader would then come and pick up the piles. Ibid eOR, In ’23 or ’24 I worked on a horse-drawn combine in eastern Oregon. There I saw a horse-pushed buck rake. It had the teeth . . inset a couple of feet from each end. Shafts extended back, four shafts for a three horse team if I remember rightly. When used, singletrees would pull against the ends of the shafts—turning would be slow. 1994 Hutchinson News (KS) 21 Aug 29/6, [Advt:] Hydraulic operated buck rake or hay sweep. 2014 Iola Reg. (KS) 13 Mar sec B 2/1, [Advt:] Vintage Farm Equipment. . .Set of 15 Buck rake teeth.