Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 173, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1911 — HARVEST TIME ON THE FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HARVEST TIME ON THE FARM

HE? most vivid recollections of every man and woman brought up on & farm must be of the golden harvest time. Even the persons whose farm experience has been limited to protracted visits to tbe country are likely to retain mental pictures of the gathering of the grain as tbe most lasting impressions of such intervals —provided, of course,

they remained In the rural domain long enough to witness all phases of the harvest-time activity and long enough to contrast the rush and bustle of this busy period with the more placid existence of more normal times “down on the farm." The average city dweller whose early years were spent on a farm harks back to nothing so fondly as the picturesque annual drama of the bringing in the sheaves. And the city dweller—

country-bred or not—lndicates the fascination of this phase of farm operations by his longing to ••pitch hay" When he invades the agricultural reg- ' lon for his vacation. That is, he is enthusiastic about pitching hay until he tries it. Perhaps he would not deem it quite ao much fun if he had to do It for a livelihood and If he could not quit his job whenever he happened to get tired. So, too, tho farmer boy, transformed into a city dweller who looks back so longingly at the good old harvest times on the old homestead, is very probably, after the fashion of mankind, remembering the pleasant things only and

forgetting the disadvantages of the harvest season. It has quite escaped hiß memory, most likely, how he was routed out of bed st daybreak or earlier when there was harvesting to be done and how he turned in with the chickens and slept like a log from sheer exhaustion. He has lost all recollection of the nerve-racking anxiety, shared by every member of the family, lest it rain before the harvesting was finished, and he passes lightly over the reminiscences of those weary hours under a scorching sun with no protection save a broad-brimmed straw hat, its lofty peak filled with leaves to help break the force of old Sol's shafts. Harvest time on the farm, past and present, marks the climax of the year in hard work and in worry—in short, in nerve and muscular strain generally. Of course, it will be understood that reference is made to the season of the grain harvest. To be sure, there are what might be termed harvest seasons at intervals all through the season, from the time the strawberries are ripe in the spring, only the fanner never thinks of dignifying the garnering of these crops by the name of harvest. In the eyes of the tiller of the soil harvest, time means the crucial juncture for gathering the grain—particularly the wheat —and storing it away in barns and elevators, or mayhap loading it direct on the railroad cars that are to carry it to the flour mills or to the ship which will carry it overseas to supply the breadeaters of Europe and the Orient In the old days practically every farm in the land had its harvest time and it held the secret of the profits of the whole year’s work on the farm. That this is true no longer ib due ■imply to that tendency to specialisation which has invaded the farmer's occupation as it has every other field. Nowadays we have chicken farms and truck farms and fruit farms and other kinds of farms, where attention is so concentrated upon the one product in hand that the proprietors do not raise enough grain for the needs of their own stock. On such special farms the once universal “harvest time” la unknown. But to make up for them we have vast farms in the and on the Pacific slope, where wheat is the product specialised, and in consequence we see on these big farms harvesting operations which In magnitude and picturesque features so far overshadow the corresponding operations on the old-fashioned farm east of the Mississippi that there is literally no comparison. One odd thing about harvesting is that almost all methods are yet in vogue in one section or another of the country. The explanation is found, of course, in the fact that the first cost and the operating expense of the great steam harvesting outfits designed for the bonanza farms of the west are such as to make them Impracticable for the farmers controlling small areas. Consequently, these fanners are getting along, and getting along very well, with the old-time equipment, modernised by the introduction of some of the improvements devised originally for the big fMrer machines. We are not any loncer harLc.> MMHUjsZKraoii . ,-l- • - • . J'vWt. i

vesting the grain with sickle and ' flail, as they do to this day in certain European countries, but the small farmer is, perforce, putting a great deal more manual labor Into the gathering of his grain than is the owner of one of the west’s 5,000-acre wheat fields, where combination harvesters, drawn by traction engines or 40 or 50 horses, perform automatically every function from cutting the stalks as they stand in the field to delivering to the waiting wagons the threshed, cleaned and sacked wheat, all ready for the market, without the touch of a human hand. ’ Under the old conditions harvest time on the farm meant hard wdrS for the women folks as well as for the men and this is still the case just in proportion as the old-time conditions yet prevail. The burden of responsi- . bility that fell upon the farmer’s wife and daughters was that of feeding the harvest hands. To be sure the wife had help, for her = neighbors all pitched in and helped even as their husbands and brothers, on a similar cooperative basis, were assisting the farmer in getting in his grain—a s'ervice that would be repaid tb kind as the turn of each came in the round of harvesting activities that embraced the whole countryside. Under this plan, when harvest time meant a continual succession of neighborhood gatherings, there were compensations cf the farmers’ wives in the opportunities for gossipy gatherings that went the time-honored sewing circles one better. whereas the farmer girls might behold romances grow under their eyes as the lads, fresh from the harvest fields, had most convincing evidence as to the prowess ifi cookery of the local belles. \ As a development of this system, that was scarcely an improvement from the feminine standpoint, came the plan of harvesting by means of hired hands—possibly through the medium of a “crew” that accompanied a r portable steam harvester that made Its rounds from farm to farm. Under this plan, which is yet the approved one in most sections, the wife and daughters have to get up three meals a day for a dozen or a score of husky harvest hands and yet they are not so sure of assistance from the other women of the neighborhood as was the case when these latter had no similar duties at home through the presence of the men folk at the common harvesting rendezvous. Worse yet, the young ladies have scarcely the interest that was manifest when the volunteer harvesters to be served were the ellgibles of the neighborhood instead of., as now, nomadic laborers or, at best, college boys working for funds to put them through school. Latterly there has been some relief from that phase of the harvesting system which has meant so much hard work for the fair sex. It has come through the introdqcjlon of cook wagons or kitchens on wheels which accompany the big threshing outfits from farm to farm and serve food to the harvest hands right at the scene of their whrk—thereby saving, bjr the way. the time that was formerly spent In

going to and from the farm house This latter was a considerable item . if the farm house was located several miles from the harvest field In which the men happened to be working at noon. These kitchen cars have been in use to some extent for several years past, but great improvements have been made In them of late. There are now provided for the use of the big traveling harvesting crews “range with several of the largest size kitchen ranges mounted on a truck, and more won-

derful yet is the “steam cooker,” which looks very much like a fire engine, but which performs marvels in quick cooking. Why, in the early morning, for instance, coffee will be ready for all the members of the largest harvesting force within twelve minutes of the time the fires are lighted. This plan rof cooking for the harvesting crews has virtually

become imperative on the large farms of the west, California and the Pacific northwest, owing to the immense force of men needed to garner the grain on these baronial eMates of the “wheat empire.” On one of these big farms in Oklahoma, which may be cited as representative, there are in use twenty-two harvesters and binders, each of which average a cut of 250 acres of wheat per season. Similarly, on some of the Dakota farms one may see in season anywhere from twenty to. forty machines in one far-flung line, charging into the golden sea of undulating grain. Merely the drivers of these machines make a goodly force, to say nothing of the other members of the harvest and when anywhere from fifty to one hundred horses ai% employed in harvesting operations, the care of these aqimals is in itself something of a, chore. Perhaps the mqpt picturesque feature of harvesting on the big farms beyond the Missouri river comes when the operation is carried on at night by means of the illumination of torches and locomotive headlights, supplement-

ing the light of the moon, if the latter be available. Drought and other causes may impel the western farmer to work his harvest crews double time in order to hurry in the sheaves, but as a rule the grain grower in these favored sections of the country is not constantly menaced by thunder storms such as have, from time out of mind, caused anxiety in every eastern farming community until the precious grain is safely in the bayn. The so* curance of adequate help in harvest time is one of the big problems of almost every farmer east or west who raises much grain. The. improved harvesting machines that cut down the

number of men required for the task have helped some, of course, but it requires a certain number of men to operate the and in times of prosperity when labor is scarce the farmer often finds that heavy inroads have been made in his season’s profits by the fancy prices he has had to pay for the hired hands to handle the crop. '