grass-cock
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: grass-cocks
Etymology: From grass + cock.
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonyms: haycock, hay-cock (broadly synonymous)
text: Grass-cock (s. in husbandry) A small heap of mown grass laid to dry the first day.
ref: 1775, John Ash, The New And Complete Dictionary Of The English Language, In Which All The Words are Introduced ... To Which Is Prefixed, A Comprehensive Grammar; In Two Volumes, volume I:
text: Case 56. Tithes of hay ought to be paid in grass-cocks. S. C. 2. Eq. Ab. 733. Carth. 264. Smithson and Others against Dodson. THIS was a bill brought by the parishioners of Gargrave, in Yorkshire, against the defendant, their VICAR, to produce an ancient terrier in his custody, which shews the method of payment of tithes in that parish, which they suggest to be a modus, VIZ. for hay the vicar is to have the tenth grass-cock (a), and three half-pence for every milch-cow, and a penny for every swarm of bees, and sixpence for every orchard.
ref: 1795, Modern Reports; or Select Cases Adjudged in the Courts of King's Bench, Chancery, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, volume 9, London, England:
text: "[…] Second Day.—The business of this day commences with tedding all the grass that was mown the first day after nine o'clock, and all that was mown this day before nine o'clock. Next, the grass-cocks are to be well shaken out into staddles, or separate plats, of five or six yards in diameter. If the crop should be so thin and light, as to leave the spaces between these staddles rather large, such spaces must be immediately raked clean, and the rakings mixed with the other hay, in order to its all drying of an uniform odour. The next business is to turn the staddles, and after that, to turn the grass that was tedded in the first part of the morning, once or twice, in the manner described for the first day. This should all be done before twelve or one o'clock, so that the whole may lie to dry while the work-people are at dinner. After dinner, the first thing to be done is to rake the staddles into double windrows—in doing which, every two persons rake the hay in opposite directions, or towards each other, and by that means form a row between them of double the size of a single windrow. Each of these double windrows is about six or eight feet distant from the other. The next operation is to rake the grass into single windrows; then the double windrows are put into bastard-cocks; and lastly, the single windrows are put into grass-cocks; this completes the work of the day. "Third Day.—The grass mown, and not spread on the second day, and also, that mown in the carly part of this day, is first to be tedded, and then the grass-cocks are to be spread into staddles as before, and the bastard-cocks into staddles of less extent. These lesser staddles, though last spread, are first turned, then those which were in grass cocks, and next, the grass is turned once or twice before twelve or one o'clock, when the people go to dinner as usual. If the weather has proved sunny and fine, the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks, will this afternoon be in a proper state to be carried. It seldom happens in dry weather, but that it may be carried in the third day; but if the weather should, on the contrary, have been cool and cloudy, no part of it probably will be fit to carry. In that case, the first thing set about after dinner, is to rake that which was in grass-cocks last night, into double windrows. After this, the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks is made up into full-sized cocks, and care taken to rake the hay up clean, and also to put the rakings upon the top of each cock. Next, the double windrows are put into bastard-cocks and the single windrow into grass-cocks, as on the preceding days. "Fourth Day.—On this day, the great cocks just mentioned are usually carried before dinner. The other operations of the day are such, and in the order as before described, and are continued daily until the hay harvest is completed. In the course of haymaking, the grass should, as much as possible, be protected, both day and night, against rain and dew, by cocking. […]"
ref: 1848 [1794], unknown author, widely requoted, with alterations, quotee, “Haymaking”, in Rev. John M. Wilson, editor, The rural cyclopedia, or, a general dictionary of agriculture and of the arts, sciences, instruments, and practice, necessary to the farmer, stockfarmer, gardener, forester, landsteward, farrier, &c, volumes II: D–I, Edinburgh, Scotland: A. Fullarton and Co, page 608:
text: "When, says he, the crops of clover are large and heavy, it is necessary that the swaths should be turned over at the making, the stalks of this grass being very replete with juices. This may be done the next day after the mowing, or the second day after, as the weather is more or less farourable, observing that, as the chief virtue of this hay resides in the leaf and blossom, the less they are disturbed, the more valuable will be the fodder: on which account the tedding of this hay abroad, as is practised by some people, cannot fail to be of the greatest injury. From the windrows, it should be made up into grass-cocks, which, having enjoyed the influence of the sun and air for a day or two, may be thrown into large cocks for carting. But, if wet weather prevail during the season for making this hay, it causes an infinite deal of trouble to the farmer; and the clover, from having been frequently shaken abroad, is deprived of its most nutritious particles, namely, the blossom and the leaf."
ref: 1807, Mr. Banister, quotee, “Hay”, in The Complete Farmer; Or, General Dictionary of Agriculture and Husbandry: Comprehending the Most Improved Methods of Cultivation; the Different Modes of Raising Timber, Fruit, and Other Trees; and the Modern Management of Live-stock: with Descriptions of the Most Approved Implements, Machinery, and Farm-buildings, 5 edition, volume I, London, England:
topics: agriculture
business
lifestyle
hypernyms: cock
glosses: A cock (small pile) of grass (cut, gathered, and piled).