Hello from Hazard!
Bill Swanson calls it a “cow poke,” or a calf’s yoke, but the same gizmo – only in varying sizes – was also used for poultry.
Item No. 649 was used around the neck of poultry or livestock to prevent the animals and birds from getting through fences. The U-shaped piece went around the neck, and the long, curved piece went between the front legs, preventing the calf from kneeling and crawling through the fence.
Others had two steel springs wrapped around the wood pin, which would have metal prongs that pushed into the calf’s neck if it leaned against the fence, or an elongated horseshoe-shaped piece of wood that went around the neck and extended down along the legs. Some had a chain around the neck and nails that would hit the cow’s knees to discourage their explorations.
Wayne Cooper of Fombell, Pa., adds that a neighbor simply used a pole dragging between the cow’s legs, attached to the neck chain.
Our thanks to Bill and Wayne, and Barry Cornell of Gnadenhutten, Ohio, for their responses.
This week’s Item No. 650 comes from Donald Hiet of New Springfield, Ohio. Anyone want to hazard a guess?
Send your ideas to: Hazard a Guess, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or via e-mail to: editorial@farmanddairy.com.
The paper will have an early deadline on Friday, May 24, for the May 30 issue, because of the Memorial Day holiday, so we probably won’t receive many of your answers by the deadline.
Between bites of hot dogs and potato salad next Monday, pause to remember the efforts of those who fought to protect our country. Freedom isn’t free.
