Connecticut western news., 1885-03-04

ing at the same time, at a speed of to | 8 miles an hour His furrows were 17 | miles long. A large number of headers | and 10 steam threshers were at work from the first of June until late in Oc- | tober before the crop was secured; this crop paid very we'll but subsequent ones were nearly failures, from lack of sufti cient rain to start them with and the heavy expense incurred in harvesting them. In 1879 or 80 the Doctor died. The estate was insolvent and his widow has 8, Id of good many small farms of 150 to 300 acres.
 After the grain is cut and stacked it IS allowed to stand four to six weeks t. sweat and dry out. Then along comes the threshing outfit. First comes the derrick wagon which is heavily built, with pole or mast in the center big enough for small schooner. The mast is kept in place by four guys of of rope secured to iron bars driven in the ground. At the foot of the mast is boom or pole guYed to the top of the mast at an angle of 45o and on which are fastened the big forks with suitable pulleys and blocks. These forks are op- erated sometimes from spools connect cd to the engine, but usually by horses .lriven by boys. The derrick is placed as close to the south side of the stack ] as possible. The stacks are always placed as near southeast and north west as possible, for this reason the wind always blows in one direction, from west to east, from the time the dry sea- son commences until the rainy season comes, and the engine is placed to the northwest so that all sparks or fire that may come from the stack of the engine will be blown away from the grain stack and still another reason is that the cloud of dust and chaff from the separator Is blown away instead of toward the men. Next in order comes the separator or tnreshing machine which is placed di- rectly ill front of the derrick and about I2 feet away from it. The space be- ] tween the derrick and separator IS now covered over with a movable floor 12 IA feet square, and level with the mouth of the hopper. When all is ready 8 man mounts the stack and sticking the big fork in the top of the stack, locks the fork, then steps back with small rope in his hand which is attached to the fork; the engineer starts the engine, which is on wheels, and is in line of, and one hundred feet northwest of the sep arator. The boy starts the derrick horse and pulls up large fork full of grain and swings it over the 12x14 foot floor, where stand two men who have common pitch forks in their hands, and keep & constant, steady stream of grain going 1 into the mouth of the machine, where it is caught by revolving iron cylin- der full of steel teeth, under which Is 8 concave piece of iron with steel teeth in it. This concave Is movable, raising or lowering, as the case' may require. The grain going between these teeth rolls out all the wheat, cuts up the straw quite fine, and It is all dropped on an apron or endless belt and carried to the riddles, where it is all separated-the straw and chaff all blown out, the crack ed wheat and cheat going into box and the good wheat down a spout to & box where man stands ready to hook emp ty sacks on the box and take away the full one, which he does by grasping the two corners by which it hangs and swing ing it around behind him. There sits or stands man with big four-inch nee- dle in his hand and a large hank of twine around hls neck; he grabs one corner of the sack, sticks the needle through it, takes single loop over the ear thus fprmt d, then elght stitches across the end, makes another ear and drops it, all done quicker than it takes to tell it. A good mschine is expected to turn out from 2,80O to 5000 bushels day. It makes lively work for the sack filler and sewer. These sacks are made to hold two bushels or 120 fbs of prime wheat and are piled up four sacks deep and left there until sold, which is sometimes two or three months. The straw and chaff is kept out of the way by a boy with horse and square stick or pole. The pole is dropped between the ma chine and the chaff; the boy starts up the horse, gets on the pole and away goes the whole business in three min utes he wants to call again.
 It requires 13 men to run 0 threshing outfit to good advantage. The engineer is usually the head man. He holds the most responsible and dangerous place of all and gets the most pay-$5 day Next is the sack-sewer, getting S5 day if he piles his own sacks, but usually there are two sewers at S2.50 and each piles his own sacks. There are but few men who can stand the strain to sew and pile up what a good machine will turn out. Then come the two stackmen or forkers with pay of S3 day. Four tablemen. those who feed the grain to the seperator, taking half hour turns on the table, at S2.50 a day, and last comes the dirty, dusty boy, dubbed ''Strawbuck, at S1.50 a day. From sunrise until sundown constitutes day, and the rancher whose grain you are threshing feeds all hands while on his place, and you can sleep anywhere you please outside the house. usually on the stacks.
 The engines used are the common 4an.kni, i,la a., ,ruiana hA.siA IA Ahn .a.AnAa.