The one I used was made by Lilliston Corporation in Albany, Georgia. Lilliston made some of the first peanut pickers (stationary combines) and related equipment used in the south. Long Manufacturing Company also made them.
Our Lilliston Hay baler was similar to the one Rich referenced. It had a one-cylinder water cooled International Harvester motor with an internal gear reduction that ran about 1000 rpm at best. The motor had an enormous exposed flywheel. It was designed to run at only one speed, so the carburetor was fixed. To start it you closed the choke and retarded the spark with a lever connected to the flywheel magneto. Then you turned a hand crank a lot, and then some more! When it finally started, you eased off the choke and it would speed up just a bit. Then you advanced the spark and it wound up to its full 1000 rpm. I must have been at least 30 years old when I used it in the mid 1950's and it still ran without a skip (once you started it).
I remember arguments between the man who tied the bales and the hay haulers. If the operator tightened down on the spring loaded shafts holding the top and botton of the bale chute together, it took more pressure to push the hay along the chute and therefore it would pack much tighter. It was possible with very green hay to get a bale that weighed well over 100#. That doesn't sound like much until you realize that you have to first toss it up onto the top tier of the hay wagon, and then toss it another eight feet or so into the hay loft.
