The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-19
CITY MAN IN THE COUNTRY.
Farmers MILK in the old Way, But
Everything Else Is Modern.


Everything Else Is Modern.
From the Chicago Record.
''We who live in the cities never know
about the country. We imagine that we
are the only ones who get the advantages
of modern inventions, and that the farmer
plays around in the mud the same as
he did when we were boys.
''Why, 1 learned more during those two
days on the farm than ever expected to
know about farming. Now, you helped
to thrash when you were a boy. I did,
1 know. I can't date back to the time
when the men used 10 cradle the grain
and then beat it out with fails, but
happened along IN the time Of the reaping
machines. The self binder hadn't come in
yet. We used to thrash the grain with one
of those horsepower separators that you
could hear two miles away when 1t got
to grinding. You know the kind, 1 sup
pose-five or six team of horses going
around on the power and a man.up on the
big cogwheel platform in the center crack
ing a whip over them. That kind of
machine was a horse killer and no mis-
take 1t took above FIVE minutes of dig
cling to get started and IL was hard pull
ing all the time. Then If the feeder hap
pened to let a wet sheaf get In cross
wise the cylinder would stick and every
horse would go up In the air. You prob
ably remember that when the traction en-
CINE came in every one said that IL was
the final improvement. II knocked out so
much grain that the separator had to be
fed from both sides-two hand cutters.
two men to'put the grain into the wagons
and three or four men to- stack the straw.
Did you ever work at the 'tail-end of the
machine as they used to call 1t? Had
to wear goggles, you know. Chan fly
ing so thick that IL got into your ears,
nose and mouth, down your back, sticking
to you and tickling wherever you were
wet with perspiration, which was every.
where; straw piling up around you and
threatening to bury you unless you work.
ed your way out; sun about 98 and no
shade! And yet the agricultural papers
used to wonder why boys left the farm!
well, when was at Ezra's / went over
with him to look at an improved thresher.
1 wouldn't have believed 1t. They don't
need any one at the tail end of the ma
chine any more. Instead Of the old-fash-
Toned straw carrier, with its belts and
Stats, the improved separator Is provided
with a blower shaped just like a big
smokestack, and all the straw and chaff
is forced through this by powerful fans.
This blower carries all the dust and chaff
away from the machine. In the Old days
of dust surrounding it. But, as / started
to tell you, there are no men on the straw
stack any more. That big blower swings
around and distributes the straw, making
a good scmi-crcular stack. There are
no men at the other end of the machine,
either. The twine bands are cut by
patent cutter and the sheaves are car
ried to the cylinder by an automatic feed
er. All the men have to do is to pitch
the sheaves up on the platform and the
machine does tho rest. After the oats
are threshed out they are carried to the
top of the machine, weighed and measured
and dumpd into the wagon. All that the
man at the wagon has to do is to keep the
grain scooped away.
THE way that grain comes out is
caution. II takes very few minutes to
fill a wagon. AS a matetr of fact about
the only labor in threshing nowadays is
the hauling to and from the machine. You
can probably remember the time, Miller,
when coo bushels was considered a big
days threshing; but / understand that
nowadays they can knock out $500 to
1900 bushels If they could only invent
some device to keep grain at a good price
they'd be all right. wouldn't they?"
'It's remarkable" said Miller. II didn't
know that the machinery had been i'm
proved to that extent"
IT'S the same with most kinds of farm
work." said Goodwin. Ezra was showing
me his haystacker. 1t seems that there
isn't much pitching any more. And you
know how they plant corn now, don't you?
l don't but l understand you don't have
to pull a lever to drop the corn. They've
got everything now except a corn hugker,
but Ezra says that a man wants TO sell
him one for this fall, SO If / go back next
year Ezra viii probably be sitting in the
house reading paper, while the machine
is out husking his corn. Yes, everything
different. Ezra's wife did her cooking on a