A hay wagon full of loose hay is being hoisted with a hay carrier into the loft of the barn at the Fred Steinmeyer farm, five miles south of Alma. This photo, from the 1920s appears courtesy Keith Schultz.

This rare image of men loading a barn loft with loose hay was taken at the Fred Steinmeyer farm, located five miles south of Alma, Kansas. The hay carrier had huge steel jaws which would grab large piles of hay from the loaded wagon, hoisting them to the loft where they would be slid along a rail into the back of the barn until the barn was filled with hay. Until the popularization of the mechanical baler, this was how hay was stored in barns for the winter.