This antiquated farming implement has a rich past and is still in use today, albeit with some modifications. I am speaking of the simple steel or iron hay hook, which has been around since the 1800s, if not before. It was essential to farming long before modern machinery arrived.
Hay hooks made it easy for users to hold and transfer bales of hay, greatly streamlining the process. This instrument was especially important when farming involved a lot more human labor in the past. Even though farming still requires a lot of work, much of the hard lifting is now done by advanced machines.
This was a multipurpose instrument that was used for moving, stacking, and hauling bales of hay. It was a necessary item.