grass-cock

A grass-cock is a temporary, hand-sized pile of freshly cut grass or clover left standing in the field to begin initial drying. It differs from a full haycock or rick in scale: a grass-cock typically stands 1 to 2 feet high and contains only the amount a single worker can gather and arrange in minutes, whereas a haycock may reach 4 to 6 feet and take hours to construct properly.

The grass-cock served a practical purpose in the workflow of hand-harvested hay. After mowing with a scythe or sickle, workers would quickly gather cut grass into these small piles to expose it to air and sun while keeping it contained enough to prevent loss to wind or scattered grazing. Once the outer surfaces had dried for a day or two, workers would break down these grass-cocks and restack the partially dried material into larger haycocks for further curing before transport to the barn.

The term is now largely obsolete, replaced by mechanical tedding and formal haycocks in the 20th century. In regions with very short haymaking seasons or damp climates, the intermediate grass-cock stage allowed workers to maximize every hour of drying weather. Some agricultural traditions distinguished between a "cock" (a pile) and a "shock" (a bundle stood on end), though usage varied widely by region and dialect.

The etymology is straightforward: "grass" for the crop and "cock" from the Old Norse "kokkr", meaning a heap or lump. The term sits in a family with haycock, shock, and rick, all describing hay piles of increasing formality and permanence. Understanding the grass-cock reveals how pre-mechanical farming broke large labor tasks into small, reversible stages to work around unpredictable weather and human fatigue.