047
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Title
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047
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Transcription
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HARVEST TIME
In the early 1900s practically all grain was harvested with horse-drawn equipment. A lot of physical labor was required to handle the cut grain. It was cut with a binder, shocked in the field and when the threshing machine was available it would be hauled to the machine. The grain was then put in grain wagons and scooped from the wagon to a bin.
The weather was a very important factor. Usually in late July and August there was little or no rain and the operation would not be interrupted. If there was rain, threshing could be delayed for weeks. When weather conditions were favorable it would mean 12 to 14 hour days and sometimes in 100-degree temperature.
By the time I was 10 years old we were using a McCormick grain blinder that would cut the grain and bind it into bundles tied with twine. The grain binder was pulled by a four horse team. If the threshing were done in the field, the bound bundles would be hauled to the machine in hay wagons. The threshing machine was powered by a steam engine.
It was common practice for 6 or 8 neighbors living in the community to cooperate in the threshing operation, and follow the machine from one farm to another, until all the grain was threshed.
The men were fed at noon by the women of the house where the threshing was being done. Great mounds of mashed potatoes, big kettles of vegetables and 10 to 20 pounds of meat, would be consumed at one meal. Every house wife dreaded to see the threshing crew come to their farm. Verna needs to tell the story, she has helped with it many times. The cooking was done on a wood or coal range. Refrigeration, if there was any, was an old ice box. All the water for cooking and washing had to be hauled from the well that was often some distance from the house.
My Father was skilled in all the tasks needed to do this work and was a hard man for me to follow. He was tireless and no one could ever accuse him of being lazy. He always did his share of the work.
I began following the threshing crew when I was 15 years old. I would work so hard, and be so tired and hungry that I would make myself sick eating too much. It was always a relief to get back to school in September. I swore that when I got thru school that I would never get involved with farming and ranching again.
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
