General Use of Automobiles and Electric Street Cars Cuts Sales--Was Used
Mostly in Cities.
The demand for cut, or chopped, hay has diminished to such an extent
during the past decade that at present only an occasional car is bought
by city dealers while only a few shippers prepare this commodity for
market.
But back in the days when phaetons, surreys, and smart traps drawn by
high-stepping trotters and easy-going “family” horses were seen upon the
boulevards, and the heavy hauling was done by big draft horses rather
than by gasoline-eating trucks, many city dealers operated plants for
the preparation and baling of cut hay. Numerous plants also were
situated in the producing sections of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
The advent of the automobile, however, has changed all this, aided
materially by the substitution of electricity for mule power as the
propelling force of street cars.
The kinds of hay usually chopped were timothy and clover mixed. While
hay which had become slightly overripe or which contained a mixture of
grasses frequently was used, only good, sound, and sweet feeding hay was
considered fit for shipping.