Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-09-02
THE FEAST OF THE THRASHERS.
How Farmers Manage to Get Fun Out of til
Wheat Hopyact

How Farmers Manage to Get Fun Out of the
Wheat Harvest.
To the urban citizen life on Piedmont
farm would doubtless seem dull and I'M
eventful; but it is not, writes a Burke
county On. c. correspondent of The
New York Commercial Advertiser. There
is no end of excitement and amusements
for old and young. From fall to spring
hunting parties, corn-husking, singing
schools, social merry makings, and revival
meetings fill up the spare time. In sum-
mer camp-meetings, fishing excursions,
court week, and Sundayschool picnics
relieve the mOnotony of field work.
They even manage to get any amount of
fun out Of the wheat harvest, for every
thrashing field is place where work and
pleasure are combined. Mowers or reapers
are but few; grass is generally cut with
the scythe, grain with the cradle. The
latter is stacked in the field to await the
coming of the thrashing machine An
appointment is made for each settlement
and the order in which it shall proceed
from one farm to another is arranged
On the designated day the machine, with
its eight mules and eight men, appears
upon the scene. A dozen or moro neigh
bors armed with grain forks hurry to the
field. The machine is planted near the
stacks, the connections with the horse
power are made, the eight mules are har-
messed to the four levers. stalwart ne
gro, whip in hand steps on the stationary
center of this merry-go-round, the men
| place themselves, one begins THROWN g
down sheaves from the stack, the driver
cracks his whip, the mules start on their
round, and the whir-r-r of the thrasher
begins.
The straw pours out of the tail of the
machine, and a cloud of chaff dusts the
two men who toss it ont of the way for
two others to build into a rick. A small
darky attends bushel measures into which
the grain falls, while two others fill the
waiting sacks, notching a stick for every
bushel measured. Two stout fellows with
buckskin gloves on their hands unbind
the sheaves and crowd them into the
machine, while two others ride mules be-
tween the field and the granary, where
they empty the sacks. Jokes, laughter,
occasional outburts of song, usually negro
church melodies, accompany the monot-
onous whirring. By and by a tin horn
sounds the dinner signal. Work stops,
the mules are given their fodder, and the
workers go to the house, where the family
and some OF the girls OF the ne1ghbor-
hood have been working since daylight.
It's real country dinner, and plenty of
it. And how those men and boys enjoy
it! The women folks know that tend
ing a thrasher' gives an appetite, and
they provide accordingly. An hours
incoming, and then the work is resumed
and continued until shutdown. A supper
equal to the dinner and then the farmers
go home, and the eight thrasher men are
lodged IN the farmhouse Or the barn. So
for six weeks the thrasher goes it's rounds,
until all the grain-growers have been
| served. No money changes hands; the
machines owner gets one bushel in
! fifteen of the grain, board for himself
and crew, and fodder for his stock. The
farmers have their thrashing DONE
their fodder stacks built, and employed a
good neighborly interchange of work and
| hospitality.