Mike Rookstool driving the 1894
sulky rake with Orville Jackson's mules, Jack and Jill.
The Barre Historical Society would like to acquire a photo of a salesman's sample of a full-sized New England Champion
sulky rake built by Chas.
"In due time, the spring-tooth sulky rake was perfected.
It is difficult to rake the hay with an ordinary sulky rake so that it will lie in long windrows convenient for the hay loader to take it up, and inventors have been seeking a new form of rake that would leave a continuous windrow at the side."
In the next issue of Farm Collector, the second segment of this series traces the evolution of the
sulky rake.
When I was a green cowboy in Alberta, Canada, in 1947, fresh out of high school, I spent most summer days haying with a
sulky rake and a team of Percheron horses.
In 1849, Calvin Delano of Maine patented his
sulky rake. These early rakes had wooden teeth, which the operator raised with a lever.
My first job was to drive the
sulky rake. Dad cut the alfalfa with a S-foot sickle mower.
