I remember my father’s first threshing machine. It was the only thresher in the community and neighbors depended on it to thresh their grain too.
The inner mechanism had the usual choppers, beaters, and screens to separate the grain from the straw and chaff. But the exterior had a few details that were different when compared to later models.
For instance, the machine had a long low platform at the front of it to accommodate the engine that ran the machine. Tractors were not yet available. The platform also provided a stand for the person who manually fed the sheaves into the machine. That person had a knife made by Fred. An old mower blade fastened to the end of a piece of wood did the job. With the knife the twine around each sheaf was cut and the grain slowly and evenly pushed by hand towards the beaters. When threshing on our farm with only family help, Maria often did that job because the impatience of a young person often blocked the machine. To get it working again took precious time. There was no pulley to pull the sheaves up into the machine as in later models.
Horses hitched to the pole at the front end of the platform, moved the machine and engine from farm to farm or field to field.
As well, whereas later threshers had blowers to blow the straw to a pile far from the machine, the first thresher had a twelve to fifteen foot long table that was folded in the middle during transport. When extended at threshing time, a pulley led the straw up to the top of the stretched out table. Then it flopped to the ground. When the straw pile reached the top of the pulley, a person was required to pull the straw away lest it be caught in the pulley and cause problems. When I was little Gladys often did that job. I wondered why she always wore a kerchief over her head. One day I climbed up the pile to help but also to have fun. However, dust and bits of straw fell on my hair and behind my neck. The clanking noises hurt my ears. “I’m outta here,” I yelled to Gladys. In my estimation, it was the most unpleasant job. But it had to be done.
The farmer where the thresher worked, plus other farmers who would need help made up the crew; men with racks brought in the sheaves and unloaded them to the person who did the ‘feeding’. Spike pitchers stayed on the field to help fill the empty racks that returned from the thresher. As well, when a wagon was full of grain, it was taken to a granary and unloaded with a grain shovel; by hand, of course.
Fred looked after the maintenance of the machine and the overall threshing process. He pitched in where help was needed.
Often while a farmer helped as part of the crew, his family at home (wife and older children) brought sheaves off their fields to a location where they wanted their straw pile to be and stacked them. It was important to stack dry sheaves and with the grain end towards the middle. In that way, if it snowed, the grain was protected from moisture. Also, even if it snowed, Fred was able to pull the thresher next to the stack(s), brush snow off the top and threshed as usual. In those cases a large crew was not needed. Because threshing stacked sheaves could continue in spite of the snow, some years Fred did not get back home until near Christmas.
While Fred was away, it was necessary for Maria, with the help of the children, to prepare for winter – dig and store the potatoes, fill cracks in log buildings with clay, make cheese and sauerkraut, get winter clothes mended and ready, and other jobs that crept up unexpectedly.
Years later, when threshing methods had changed, I remember her recalling the early threshing days. She said that she was so glad when her husband finally got home for good.
Most often Fred was not paid in cash but with a few sacks of grain.
In later years when threshers were improved, and other farmers invested in them, Fred, with the help of his family, did only his own threshing. He preferred it that way. It became a family project. His large family was an asset especially during harvest time.
Today’s harvest is quite different. Swaths of grain lie on the ground and wait to be threshed by combines. Straw is not saved in piles but baled or burned. Grain is hauled with trucks and unloaded with augers.
Cutting grain with a binder, stooking it and hauling sheaves to a thresher required much manual work. But it was a harvest method that in some ways had advantages over today’s methods. A pile of straw was a fine place for cows to feed and sleep all winter.
Memories of rows of stooks on a large field, horses pulling loads of sheaves to the thresher, the hum of the machine and the excitement of threshing time linger with me. But those days are gone. Times have changed. However, in spite of the hard work of the old days, the experience was fulfilling and remains a wonderful memory.
God bless – Pearl
Note: A few days after I forwarded the last installment (#10 re the Spanish flu), an article in the Edmonton Journal suggested that sauerkraut might be helpful in fighting the flu. Certainly, the homesteaders had sauerkraut in their diets. So to protect ourselves if the flu strikes we might adopt the homesteaders’ theories. Eat lots of sauerkraut and wear garlic beads!
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