The Welsh name of the town is Y Gelli (“the wood”), or formerly in full (Y) Gelli ganddryll (literally “the wood all to pieces”), which roughly corresponds to Sepes Inscissa, by which name Walter Map (a native of the district) designates it. Its Norman name, La Haia (from the Fr. haie, cf. English “hedge”), was probably intended as a translation of Gelli. The same word is found in Urishay and Oldhay, both between Hay and the Golden Valley. The town is still locally called the Hay, as it also is by Leland.
Even down to Leland’s time Hay was surrounded by a “right strong wall,” which had three gates and a postern, but the town within the wall has “wonderfully decayed,” its ruin being ascribed to Owen Glendower, while to the west of it was a flourishing suburb with the church of St Mary on a precipitous eminence overlooking the river. This was rebuilt in 1834. The old parish church of St John within the walls, used as a school-house in the 17th century, has entirely disappeared. The Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists, Congregationalists and Primitive Methodists have a chapel each. The other public buildings are the market house (1833); a masonic hall, formerly the town hall, its basement still serving as a cheese market; a clock tower (1884); parish hall (1890); and a drill hall. The Wye is here crossed by an iron bridge built in 1864. There are also eighteen almshouses for poor women, built and endowed by Miss Frances Harley in 1832–1836, and Gwyn’s almshouses for six aged persons, founded in 1702 and rebuilt in 1878.
Scarcely anything but provisions are sold in the weekly market, the farmers of the district now resorting to the markets of Brecon and Hereford. There are good monthly stock fairs and a hiring fair in May. There is rich agricultural land in the district.
Hay was reputed to be a borough by prescription, but it never had any municipal institutions. Its manor, like that of Talgarth, consisted of an Englishry and a Welshery, the latter, known as Haya Wallensis, comprising the parish of Llanigon with the hamlet of Glynfach, and in this Welsh tenures and customs prevailed. The manor is specially mentioned in the act of Henry VIII. (1535) as one of those which were then taken to constitute the new county of Brecknock. (D. Ll. T.)
HAY (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages;
cf. Ger. Heu, Dutch hooi; the root from which it is derived,
meaning “to cut,” is also seen in “to hew”; cf. “hoe”), grass
mown and dried in the sun and used as fodder for cattle. It is
properly applied only to the grass when cut, but is often also used
of the standing crop. (See Haymaking below). Another word
“hay,” meaning a fence, must be distinguished; the root from
which it is derived is seen in its doublet “hedge,” cf. “haw-thorn,”
i.e. “hedge thorn.” In this sense it survives in legal history in
“hay bote,” i.e. hedge-bote, the right of a tenant, copyholder,
&c. to take wood to repair fences, hedges, &c. (see Estovers),
and also in “hayward,” an official of a manor whose duty was
to protect the enclosed lands from cattle breaking out of the
common land.
Haymaking.—The term “haymaking” signifies the process of drying and curing grass or other herbage so as to fit it for storage in stacks or sheds for future use. As a regular part of farm work it was unknown in ancient times. Before its introduction into Great Britain the animals intended for beef and mutton were slaughtered in autumn and salted down; the others were turned out to fend for themselves, and often lost all the fat in winter they had gained the previous summer. The introduction of haymaking gave unlimited scope for the production of winter food, and improved treatment of live stock became possible.
Though every country has its own methods of haymaking, the principal stages in the process everywhere are: (1) mowing, (2) drying or “making,” (3) “carrying” and storage in stacks or sheds.
In a wet district such as the west of Ireland the “making” is a difficult affair and large quantities of hay are often spoiled, while much labour has to be spent in cocking up, turning over, ricking, &c., before it is fit to be stacked up. On the other hand, in the dry districts of south-eastern England it is often possible to cut and carry the hay without any special “making,” as the sun and wind will dry it quickly enough to fit it for stacking up without the expenditure of much labour. This rule also applies to dry countries like the United States and several of the British colonies, and it is for this reason that most of the modern implements used for quickly handling a bulk of hay have been invented or improved in those countries. Forage of all kinds intended for hay should be cut at or before the flowering stage if possible. The full growth and food value of the plant are reached then, and further change consists in the formation and ripening of the seed at the expense of the leaves and stems, leaving these hard and woody and of less feeding value.
Grass or other forage, when growing, contains a large proportion of water, and after cutting must be left to dry in the sun and wind, a process which may at times be assisted by turning over or shaking up. In fine weather in the south of England grass is sufficiently dried in from two to four days to be stacked straight away. In Scotland or other districts where the rainfall is heavy and the air moist, it is first put into small field-ricks or “pykes” of from 10 to 20 cwt. each. In the drying process the 75% of water usually present in grass should be reduced to approximately 15% in the hay, and in wet or broken weather it is exceedingly difficult to secure this reduction. With a heavy crop or in damp weather grass may need turning in the swathe, raking up into “windrows,” and then making up into cocks or “quiles,” i.e. round beehive-like heaps, before it can be “carried.” A properly made cock will stand bad weather for a week, as only the outside straws are weathered, and therefore the hay is kept fresh and green. Indeed, it is a good rule always to cock hay, for even in sunny weather undue exposure ends in bleaching, which is almost as detrimental to its quality as wet-weathering.
In the last quarter of the 19th century the methods of haymaking were completely changed, and even some of the principles underlying its practice were revised. Generally speaking, before that time the only implements used were the scythe, the rake and the pitchfork; nowadays—with the exception of the pitchfork—these implements are seldom used, except where the work is carried on in a small way. Instead of the scythe, for instance, the mowing machine is employed for cutting the crop, and with a modern improved machine taking a swathe as wide as 5 or 6 ft. some 10 acres per day can easily be mown by one man and a pair of horses (figs. 1 and 2).
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| Fig. 1.—Mower (viewed from above) with enlarged detail of Blade. (Harrison, M‘Gregor & Co.) |
It will be seen from the figures that a mower consists of three principal parts: (1) a truck or carriage on two high wheels carrying the driving gear; (2) the cutting mechanism, comprising a reciprocating knife or sickle operating through slots in the guards or “fingers” fastened to the cutting bar which projects to either the right or left of the truck; and (3) the pole with whippletrees, by which the horses are attached to give the motive power. The reciprocating knife has a separate blade to correspond to each finger, and is driven by a connecting rod and crank on the fore part of the truck. In work the pointed “fingers” pass in between the stalks of grass and the knives shear them off, acting against the fingers as the crank drives them backwards and forwards. In the swathe of grass left
