Custom grain harvesting CA 1900. My dad was born in 1895 on a farm in southwestern Minnesota. Follow is his reminiscence of grain harvesting.


I remember when threshing was done by a hand fed machine and the straw was stacked by elevator. The machine was powered, not by a self propelled steam engine, but the engine had to be pulled by horses. Progress was quite rapid. It wasn't long before steam propelled threshing rigs came in and became popular. At first, all the grain was stack threshed. The grain binder tied the grain in bundles which were shocked, about six to eight bundles to a shock.

These shocks, after about a week of drying, providing the weather was favorable, were then loaded on a hay rack, hauled to a central place and stacked, about six or seven hay rack loads to a stack. My dad always did the stacking. It required considerable skill to build the stack so it would shed water. Four stacks made a setting. They were arranged so that the threshing machine could be set so that the grain could be fed from all four stacks without moving the machine. At stacking time my sister Ann and I had the job of driving the team and hay rack from shock to shock and arranging the bundles on the rack. My older brothers pitched the bundles onto the rack. This was the system as long as there were only a few "modern" threshing rigs in the area. As the number increased, shock threshing became the system, thus eliminating one handling of the grain.

Eight or nine neighbors in the area would go together. Each furnished a team of horses and a man or two, and the grain bundles were hauled directly from the field to the machine. The shocks were cleared from the field in a short time, and the machine would move to the next farm. It took a strong, mature man to haul bundles from morning until late in the evening, or to pitch bundles from the stack into the machine.

My first job, before I was old enough to pitch bundles, was to haul water and straw to the steam engine. Most of the steam engines were "straw burners." It took about three or four tanks of water a day for the engine, and about two or three loads of straw to fire the engine. We loaded the straw for the engine by driving the straw cart (a little bigger than the bundle racks) under the straw blower. This was easy, but hauling the water wasn't so easy. The tanks were hauled from a nearby lake, creek or water hole, and had to be pumped into the tank by hand. The pump was mounted on the tank. If, at times, you had to go along way for water, you would have to hurry like everything to get back to the engine before the supply ran out. Four long whistles on the
engine meant the supply was running low and for you to got going - fast! I was paid two dollars a day for this, which was the going wage at the time. Most of the bundle pitchers were the farmers themselves, or their boys. It took almost an army of men to keep an outfit busy at
capacity, eight or nine bundle haulers, one fireman who started work at four thirty in the morning to get the steam up in the engine by the starting time in the morning. An engineer who had to have a boilers license and a thrasher-manager who was usually the owner. He set the machine so the grain came out clean and no grain was wasted. He also did the oiling and kept things from breaking down. Then also, there were the grain hauler, about three men and two teams. The waterman was called "tanky". In all, a crew of about sixteen man and twentytwo to twentyfour horses, with no easy jobs. Every one took care of his own team of horses. The women's responsibility, of course, was feeding all the men. This meant days of preparation before the threshers arrived. Then, if threshing was delayed by rain or unexpected breakdowns, this increased their problems. With no refrigeration or freezers, none of the already prepared foods could be saved until things got rolling again, but if all want well, there was breakfast to be served to all but the bundle haulers. At about 9:30 each morning, a substantial lunch was taken out to the field where the machine was operating. Then, at noon, dinner was served to all. This was always a tremendous meal consisting of several kinds of meat, potatoes, breads, home grown vegetables and, of course, pies for dessert. All the men had hearty appetites after the long hours of hard work, and the expression "eating like thrashers" developed. Before coming into the house to eat, the hours of hot, dusty work required that the men wash up thoroughly. Facilities were provided out doors. A bench was set up with pails of water, home made soap, wash basins and the ever dependable roller towels and comb to slick down the thoroughly soaked hair. By three or four o'clock in the afternoon, lunch was again served at the machine. This usually consisted of sandwiches and "tweback" and huge pieces of cake, with gallons of hot
coffee to wash it all down. Supper was served to all except the bundle haulers, and some of those would stay if they lived some distance away. This was served after dark. Needless to say, eight hour work days weren't even a dream in those days. Some of the outfits had a bunk house which they brought with them for the hired hands. Otherwise, each farmer had to provide sleeping quarters for the men. Most farm houses were small and the men slept in the hay mow, on mattresses or ticks filled with straw. Unless they ran into a rainy spell, one or two days, or at the most three days, was all the time it took at one farm, and it was always a relief to have it over with. But for the women, who helped each other, it was a chance to hear some gossip and catch up on the news in the community. The men, of course, talked farming and a good time was had by all.