Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-06-20
FLOWING CORN YESTERDAY.


comfortable seat just back of the
shovels of his plow and guided the
lcultivating steel thru the soil with his
feet. Unless he grew tried Of riding
he was not obliged to set foot to the
ground And the other man who
doesn't plow corn but knows all about
ieyerythins said that the man could do
better work and more Of it riding than
walking and that if anything the rid
ing cultivator is easier on the horses
than the walking plow. Anyway it
Now what do you know about that.
You who dropped corn by hand for
two men TO cover with a hoe and
plowed it after il came up with a
double shovel and one horse. The
corn blowing youth of today probably
never saw a double shovel pillow. 1t
wasn't much to see 1t consisted OF
two shovels and a pair of handles and
place to hitch a horse. With il you
went up one side of a row and down
the other, making a full half mile TO an
eighty rod row or four miles and
half to an acre of corn. 1t took all
Your attention, for lacking wheels or
anything else to steady it. il bobbed
and dived with every step Of the horse
! and had TO be held close to the hills by
main strength and skill. Hammering
| old Fan" alcng across corn field be-
tween rows under d hot sun from in
the morning to at night was no
bright holiday. 1t is not one OF the
! tender memories of the barefoot boy
who had the job and whose father
could see covered hill or bad piece
of blowing across an eighty.
! But at that as boy killer it was
an implement of sport compared to the
"straddie5us" that succeeded It. The
/ "straddlebug' was the invention or
discovery Of some fellow who con-
ceived the idea Of putting two double
! shovels together, hisching two horses
to his nightmare contraption and thus
plowing one whole row of corn where
but half row had been plowed before.
That was about all there was to
straddlebug. 1t was a frame with four
shoyels and a tongue II leaped and
skidded and skirmished here and there
and took all the strength of youth to
/ hold it out of the corn hill on one side
and keep II close on the other and II
tore at the necks OF the team until
they fought the collar in the morning
when you went to harness and
squeezed the luckless lout who har-
messed them, against the manger to the
fear of his life. But it doubled the
corn one man could tend.
| Then some benefactor Of men and
horses thought of wheels and movable
shovel beams and life took on a
happier phase in the corn field. From
thence the transition came easier.
Somebody else fixed springs on the
shovel beams at last to take off the
| jerk" on the necks of the team and
make ca sier handling for the man and
from that to fixing a seat on the frame
and stirrups on the shovel beam was
( out step father.
| And so the man who plowed corn
Yesterday rode at his work. Some day
perhaps he will despinse with old Kit
and Doll and guide motor driven
plow across the corn fields. Who
knows? He has lifted his pillow shoes
| from the ground from spring to fall.
] He rides a gang pillow in the spring,
/ he sits on a mower, he rides on side
delivery hay rake and the hay loader
has made pitching in the field lost
art.
! Farming nowadays is a little less
fun than going fishing but compared
to those old days when we were young
and dealt with the double shovel fol-
lowed twelve inch stirring plow.
raked hay with a wooden rake that
we followed afoot and which we
/ topped over the wtndrow. pitched hay
from the ground to the wagon with
| one leg over the fork handle and
heaved it from the load to the top of
the stack or thru the four foot door
to the NOV by main strength, bound
stations after an old Seymour and
Morgan self rake reaper, gathered
bundles for shocking. stood behind the
straw carrier of threshing times while
the horse power driver stirred up his
teams in order to give the feeder a
chance to smother US. o, well any of
the processes of farming a generation
ago, compared TO these modern farm
work is holiday and happiness.
However, on the whole lets be glad
the man could ride while he plowed
corn.
i TONES of the Times