windrow

1. A row or line of hay raked together for the purpose of being rolled into cocks or heaps. 2. Sheaves of grain set up in a row, one against the other, that the wind may blow between them. / To arrange in lines, as hay when newly made. — Webster, 1882

Always as he crossed the filed, Pa made the rake full of hay drop at the end of the rake full before so, when the raking was finished, the hay lay in long windrows across the hayfield. – Hard Winter manuscript

     
In Farmer Boy, hay was cut and spread out in order to dry. The next day, it was raked into windrows, then into haycocks. Mowing machines leave the hay in windrows, while hand-cut hay must be raked.

A windrow may also be made of leaves, dirt, rocks, manure, or anything arranged in lines.

In The Long Winter, Charles Ingalls uses a mowing machine to cut his hay, but must rake the hay into windrows by hand. The historical photo above is from the Walnut Grove Museum and shows windrows of hay at left, and the hay raked into haycocks at right.

     

windrow (FB 19; TLW 1)