Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-08-23
WINDROW SYSTEM
IS FINDING FAVOR
(From Montana state College)

| QUITTING grain with binders, leaving 1t
in windows to dry, and harvesting
with a combine harvester-thresher
with pickup attachment, proved the
only way out" on one of the Gilchrist
Farm Company's farms operated by the
| Anderson Brothers in central Montana
last year, and the Gilchrist company is
urging this method of harvesting on all
of its farms where combines are used
this year.
In a recent letter to farm operators.
G.. C. Morton, manager of the company.
tells of the windrow method Of harvest
ing on h Anderson farm in 1927. He
says:
This crop was especially difficult to
handle. The entire acreage had been
seeded to winter wheat. About 400 acres
of winter wheat killed badly and spring
wheat was drilled in. This grain ripened
very unevenly. To make matters worse
practically all of the crop was badly dam
aged by a hail storm on July 4. There
was an abundance of moisture and sucker
shoots came up and headed at various
heights, which ripened much later than
the grain left by the hail. 1t was a
crop which would have been most diff
cult to harvest with binders and the loss
by the ordinary combine method would
have been enormous.
THE grain was 'windrowed' by three
8-foot binders with the binding head re-
moved. The second and third binders
were equipped with extension carriers in
order that the grain could be deposited
in one continuous windrow. The reg
ular hitch for hauling two or more bind
ers with an engine was used. The three
binders and two men, one on the engine
and one on the rear binder. windrowed
rs acres per day.
grain was windrowed at about
the same stage Of rpieness as 1t would
be cut with a binder. The green kernels
matured wonderfully we'll in the windrow
and we found that all the grain com
bined from these windrows retained its
bright color. All this wheat was loaded
into cars Immediately from the combine
and shipped to terminal markets. 1t Is
an interesting fact, and a big argument
in favor of the windrow method. that all
of his grain was graded dark" by the
state grain inspectors. Last harvest sea-
son was unusually wet and much Of this
windrowed wheat was rained on several
times. 1t was found that the windows
dried out faster than shocked grain and
that the grain as not damaged by the
moisture.
"All the green weeds dried in the wind
row were easily separated from the wheat
by the combine. AS a result there was nc
weed or odor or moisture n the total
crop graded no dockage,' except Oh car
load on whcih there was a / per cent
dockage because of weed seed which
would have resulted from any other
method.
"These men used a pickup manu-
featured by the same company that made
their machine. 1t attaches to and sep
arates in front Of the regular platform
1t did good work except In a few places
where the windows lay in the tracks
made by the tractor wheels. and taking
the job as a whole, the amount Of grain
left IN the ground was no greater than
by the regular method. This anne COM
pany and several others are putting out
a new pickup" attachment this season
which is ar improvement over the one
used last season.
Anderson Brothers will windrow al
their crop again this year excepting E
small portion which is suitable for har.
vesting by the ordinary combine method
After last years experiences we are con.
WINGED that this method of harvesting b,
combine is the most practical and profit.
able method for harvesting grain in dis.
tricts where crops do not mature evenly
and where green weeds interfere with
the harvesting"