The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1912-09-06
All The Grain Is
Cut With a Seythe'
CORRESPONDENT IN France Writes En-
tertaininglY Of Threshing Opera
tions in That Country

The Cando Herald published an inter-
esting letter about the way the grain
is harvested in France. 1t may be a
surprise to many to know how far be-
hind the times the people are in that
country. The letter follows:
Oyonnax, France, August 9.
Dear Herald: l am sure that by the
time this reaches you, everybody will
be basy with the harvest; yet perhaps
not teSS5 busy to read something about
the harvest in France.
Just here, the principal harvest is
hay, but there is a little wheat, oats
and barley. Some weeks ago.. had
occasion to go to Paris, traversing
parts of the valleys of the Loire and
the Siene. There found grain worth
mentioning. Great tall wheat, some
cut, some standing, showed the. fertility
of the soil; but was more interested
in the method of harvesting than in the
grain itself. think most of the fields
saw even there were being Graded,
but did see one binder at work, drawn
by yoke of oxen. How the machine
ever worked in such wheat with such a
motion is mystery to me, wish l
could have stopped to watch the work
ibut could not.
Here the patches are quite small, and
the farmers do their work very de-
liberately. The hay they NOW with
the scythe, following 'one another
swiftly enough during the early morn
ling. Then the hay is spread for drying,
/ and later raked again, all by hand.
The scythe they use is broad and short
of blade, but light and keen, as l found
1 on trying it. lam sure the work is
not hard I can NOV grass with a
scythe alright, but the wheat is diff
ferent proposition.
For cutting that the peasants use the
same scythe, with slight. addition.
They fasten green stick to the base
of the scythe, then bend it UP and over
SO as to form loop with the snathe.
A couple such loops form a crude device
for carrying the wheat along with the
scythe in its motion. A good workman
will cut and lay the wheat inneat rows,
with the heads all one way, and even
enough. tried to do the same thing
but was much ashamed of the result.
l realize again that a skilled laborer
with a poor tool can do as well as a
poor laborer with good tool.
After the wheat Is cut, the next
operation is to rake it into punches.
This is of course done by hand and
quickly enough. / expected to SEE
hand binding, but never thought of any
thing but the regular straw. band.
What was my surprise to find man
binding wheat with hazel brush and
slough grass. He would lay a hazel
branch about six feet long down on the
ground, then pile lot of wheat on
it, about enough for three Deering
sheayes. That done, he would twist a
bunch of green slough grass around the
brush end of the hazel, and form a
loop in the end oft through which he
afterwards passed the stem of the
withe. After getting this loop into
position, he set his foot against it and
pulled on his hazel brush until it was
tight, then fastened it. Even the
fastening Of it was enough Of a job.
First he bent about eight inches of it
over for a handle by means Of which he
4 twisted the woody stem until it kinked
like rope, just above the grass loop.
When he was certain the ,kink was big
enough to keep the loop from slipping,
be carefully stuck the handle down into
I the bundle 30 it couldn't get loose.
Tight? OF course it was. but slow as
] am, could bind three times as much
by hand in the same time, and as well.
4 / showed several of them how to bind
with straw, and they were much pleased
to see, but they never thought Of
changing. This is 9 very conservative
community, and new ideas are not in
demand.
As for the threshing, don't know
+ how they do it, haven't heard any
whistles yet, nor seen any engine tracks.
Think they thresh by oxen power. !
must not close without mentioning 2
machine that saw the other day cut
ing some grain in Switzerland. twas
A x1r,.wxn ~ thyee horses but it did nothing