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Threshing
Richard
Bishop
©
Copyright 2012 by Richard Bishop
Harvesting Trilogy:
Part Three - Haying:
Alfalfa
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The
June-July
Issue of
Farm and
Ranch Living
Magazine was
a “mind-bender”
for me
(from Michigan)
and my
Brother-In-Law,
who lives
next door
(from Wisconsin).
One of
the features
of this
particular issue
was the
cover story:
"Threshing Day"
and the related Palouse
Empire
Threshing
Bee in
the “far
North-West”
in Washington
State shown
on pages
20-23.
The
most astonishing
picture was
the one
of "a
swather
pushed by
six very
large mules."
The “swather”
was a
new one
on us.
We checked
up on
it in
the Wikipedia
on-line
encyclopedia and
found out
that it
was a
rather late
invention to
serve as
a transition
from reaper-binders
to the
Combine and
was used
very often
to lay
down a
wind-row
( by cutting
a swath;
hence the name "swather"
) for early
Combines. It
was a
further clever
innovation to
directly load
wagons with
it. Thus
the magazine
text indicates:
"The swather
has a
conveyor that
dumps loose
wheat into
a relay
of horse-drawn
wagons that
load on
the go.
. . . . which are
then unloaded
with the
net and
pulley."
Back
in the
mid-West,
we were
raised on
farms that
used implements
from the
McCormack-Deering
line
of innovations
and a binder or
“reaper-binder”
was the
norm for
cutting grain.
This process
involved a
bull-wheel
to drive
the binder
and was
pulled by
horses or
a tractor
(after just
one easy
modification -- by
shortening the
wooden “wagon-tongue”
by sawing
it off
and installing
a “hitch”).
The
most amazing
thing on
the reaper-binder
(to most
onlookers) was
the “knotter”
(invented by
a John
Appleby, circa
1858) that
looked like
an upside
down “chicken’s-head”
and used
binder-twine
to produce
tied bundles
or “Sheaves.”
These were thrown onto
a “fingers-like”
carrier at
the rear;
accumulated to
an amount
of 6
or 10
bundles and
then with
a foot-lever
near the one-passenger
seat, were
dropped into
a small
pile while
on the
move. The
passenger/attendant
was there:
(1) to
watch how many bundles
went onto
the carrier
before “dropping,”
(2) to
stop everything
and re-load
when it
ran out
of binder-twine,
or (3)
to holler
when the
“knotter” stopped
tying.
Then,
later, the
field-hands
gathered these
little piles
together and
put the
grain-bundles
into teepee-like
“shocks” to
dry for
a while
until the
local Custom-thresher
came around.
During threshing
time, wagons
moved around
the fields
and were
loaded using pitchforks. When
off-loading,
only one
field-hand
was needed
to insure
a steady
flow of
bundles onto
the threshing
machine's conveyer (or
sometimes, from
opposite sides,
two persons
alternately and
synchronously fed
the threshing
machine conveyer using pitchforks).
The threshing
machine was
an Advance-Rumely.
This company
was purchased
by Allis-Chalmers
in
1931 but
they manufactured
such machines
with their
own brand
name continuously
from 1904
to 1936
( Allis-Chalmers
went
out of business in
1985).
The
CASE steam
"traction-engine"
shown in
the magazine
article is
the smallest
and most
compact one
that I’ve
ever seen
. . . really cute!
I don’t
know the
Brand-name,
but the
ones that
came around
to our
farm were
really gigantic
and stood
as high
as a train Locomotive.
We neighborhood
farm children
used to
gather and
chase alongside
it when
it “came
to town”
(it moved
at all of 4
MPH). This
was always
a big
“happening” for
us.
For
those of
you on
the Internet,
try the
following addresses
to see
some really
fascinating steam
"traction-engines:"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traction
Engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam
Tractor
(the
small
CASE
is
shown
here)
There
were also
other reasons
for this
excitement. “Threshing
time” was
always a
welcome diversion.
Later, when
I was
a teen-ager
and old
enough to
work with
a crew
of field-hands,
we found
that the
neighborhood farm
housewives would
really turn out their
best efforts
to feed
us. Ah,
such meals
-- but a
30-minute
nap under
a shade
tree after
such a
repast hardly
put us
back in
shape for
the afternoon’s
work.
Wikipedia
seemingly captured
the essence
of community
"Threshing Days:"
- "On a ' threshing day
', all the neighbors would
gather at that day's
- farmstead to complete a massive job in one day through
- cooperation. The women
and older girls
were in charge
of
- cooking the noon meal and bringing water
to the men. The
- children had various
jobs based upon their age and sex. These
- jobs included driving
the bundle racks,
pitching bundles into
- the threshing machine,
supplying water for the steam
engine,
- hauling away the freshly threshed grain
and scooping it into the
- granary. Steam traction engines
were often too expensive for a
- single farmer to purchase, so
' threshing rings
' were often formed."
Further
information can
be obtained
from the
same Internet
address as
cited above,
namely:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam
Tractor
I
clearly remember,
on occasion,
two wagons
pulling up;
one on
each side
of the
loading conveyer
and two
stout men
with pitchforks
laughingly feeding
the bundles
to the
threshing-machine
as fast
as they
could and
still that
steam traction-engine
would be
making a
loud “pung-pung-pung”
sound under
load - and
could not
be stopped
- it would
have thrown
off the
drive-belt,
first! The
owner of
the
steam-engine
took great
pride in
that.
Much
later, our
neighborhood
Custom-thresher
came around
with a
giant HUBER
6-cylinder
Tractor (that
used Gasoline)
to drive
the Thresher.
This was
a sturdy
arrangement but
it was
never as
dramatic as
the steam-engine.
Besides, it
could be
stopped with
moderately fast
loading. Even
the Tractor
owner
admitted
that this
was a
"wimp"
operation
compared to
his past
rigs !
With
the
passing
of
Steam
technology
as
the
"preferred"
engine
of
progress
and
with
the
advent
of
the
Combine,
a
lot
of
the
romance
went
out
of
the
procedure
called
"threshing"
although
the
object
remained
the
same.
The
labor-saving
aspects were
obvious; there
were no
more field-hand
crews which
had been
recruited from
around the
area (by trading-off"
help between
farms) on
a "threshing
ring." Such
teams for
arranging the
tied bundles
of wheat
onto “shocks”
or for later loading
the wagons
were no
longer necessary.
And
the big,
heavy 10
inch rolls
of binder-twine,
which were
used for
tying the
"Sheaves" as
well as
for tying-up
the 100
lb. sacks
of grain
coming out
of the
threshing machine,
were no
longer in
demand.
The
camaraderie regained
by seeing
neighbors on
this occasion
whom you
hadn't
seen for
weeks or
even months
was now
a thing
of the
past. And
the dining
tables were
no longer
groaning under
the weight
of the
food for
the field-hand
crews ---- which had been
offered with
bashful pride
by the
best neighborhood
cooks around.
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Richard
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