The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-07-31
When Pa Went With a Thresher.

When Pa Went With a Thresher.
"w s9any yi ask a sG 9Sre5 ri !! m ns sees
Perhaps, hell tell you how he used
enjoy telling you all about it.
"Going with a machine" was a
pretty prominent occupation IN me
youths raised on a farm. 1t COM
pared with belonging to the yolun-
teer fire department in small towns,
membership in the national guard in
bigger towns.
argued knowledge of machinery, and
carried with it most measure OF
command.
In the older days a horsepower
furnished the motive force OF all
Oldest days Of small threshers an
eight-horse-power,. and later on ten
and twelve and sixteen, as the sep
arators grew larger. High on the
f%ootboard in the center Of twelve
straining horses which went round
sweeps stood the driver. 1t was a
knack to drive on the horsepower,
getting out Of each team it's just
share Of work, without hearing pro-
test from some of the horse-owners
G Titn : %atoh Two eye "ma ahd g }} ea11s5S
belonging to the thresher's outfit
constituted part of the battery, and
it was generally conceded by farm
ers that they, were favored, WHICH
was indignantly and as generally
"equalizers" determined at a glance
whether one team or another was
tagging, and the accusation was
common that the threshing men
knew what sweep to hitch to, and
fixed in favor Of their teams. It
was a knack to keep up notion"
not too fast or too slow, and there
were famous drivers in the land and
others much criticised and decried.
1T There re were tn three e; Of f. you; .. EaeH
1t Was dirty work feeding with a
tall wind which blew the dust and
mold back into the face Of the feed !
er. With him suffered the two
in thosa aIlie one da on e ehe st SiGs. a tod
perhaps the pitchers, on %threshing
and argued that you couldn't put up
a stack that would shed water.
The feeder was monarch Of all ne
and glared at the boy bandcutter
with the air OF an emperor. He
signalled with authority for more
bundles, and tiercely ordered the
pitchers to quit ."piling them up
His duty and his highest aim was to
dued and steady humming Of the
gears, which assured that the fans
were not blowing the grain yer
into the straw" A green strawstacH
meant another threshing machine
outfit on that farm next threshing
time. But when the stack having
Deakad down toward It's finiSh and |
the man at the tail Of the straw
carrier being in a tight place, no
feeder was proof against the desire
to crowd him to the last straw.
and the carrier, filled to it's limit,
discharged straw faster than any
human being had power to fork it
away. And thus between the feed
er and the man at the end of the
carrier arose feud and %illfeeling
epithet and occasionally resulted in
severe nasal hemorrhages.
But tending separator was the
browning glory of the thresherman's
spectacular career. First off he
lied up" with assnmption Of IN
infinite responsibility for babbit
bearings. His long-spouted oil can
was an insignia and a scepter. He
made it his business to examine belts
with a shrewd eye. He gazed know
these functions had been performed
under the envious eyes of youth he
mounted to the top of the separator
and stood at full height above the
cylinder like a statute of Liberty
that had acquired the habit OF
chewing tobacco.
Eheu! 1t is all over. There are
no more feeders or canny drivers. A
contraption of steel and gearings
now thrusts the grain savagely in
putting snorting tractor has replaced
might have raved over Instead Of
a hasty supper and a hurried heav-
ing out Of sweeps and pulling of
stakes and loading upon wagons
when the outfit moves, now a greasy
person backs the smoke wagon up
to the separator when the job is Ov-
er. The thresherman,s glory is
gone like Ichabod's He lis is Just a
left of the good old days is the emu
lation which still exists among the
women as regards the feeding of
threshers," for woman's desire to
offer a little better meal than her
neighbor is elemental and proof
against change.
But ask pa. He will make the
story personal. You will be proud
of pa when he has done, for he was
the finest driver and the best feeder
and knew more about a separator
than any other man who ever went
with a machine.'-Marshalltown
Times-Republican.
l know of no man God went back
on as completely as he went back on