The hay knife was used to cut portions off a larger haystack, often to feed livestock. A hay knife had to be kept very sharp or it made for very hard work, especially on soft hay.
In summertime many of the convicts were haymaking including raking and cocking (piling) and carting it to the haystacks.
In January 1830 William Archer was displeased that loads of hay were brought “up to the stack at sunsetting the men all struck leaving the stack the waggons and the floor round about the stack in a very littered and unsafe state, nearly 3 loads still to unload.”
