Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-09-02
THE FEAST OF THE THRAsHERs.
How Farmers Manage to Get Fun Out OF the
Wheat Harvest

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 Burke
county IN. C.s 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 mp-meetings. fishing excursions,
court week, and Sunday-school 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 ii 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. dozen or more neigh
y
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. a stalwart ne
gro, whip in hand, steps on the stationary
center of this merry-Go-round, the men
place themselves, one begins throwing
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 cloud of chat dusts the
two men who toss it out of the way for
two others TO build into n 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 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 neighbor
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 Il thrasher' gives an appetite, and
they provide accordingly. An hours
incoming, aud 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 its 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.