Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1932-07-28
THRESHIN0 WITH A GRUBBER
(Ry Silas Thorla)

age'' will enable you to take ret
respective glance back to Civil war
times. However you can hand il
over to old Grandad Wayback,
maybe he can get little .'kick'' out
of it, Much has been said about
the Mccormick reaper that took the
place of the cradle in harvesting
wheat, but what has been said about
| the first threshing machine called
| the "grubber?"
Painters delight to portray an
cient ''threshing floors" with oxen
| or donkeys tramping the grain, or
! men and women beating it out with
| fails, but how many have seen a
picture of threshing with a grub
Der? If possible we would like to
give a word picture of such a scene
Here they come! Two wagons,
team of horses to each, and they are
approaching wheat stack. The man
ahead is hauling heavy boxed up
affair not SO large as one horse
sleigh, but the thing has two cog
| wheels on one side. Inside is the
| toothed cylinder that beats out the
grain same as threshing machines
nowadays This is the grubber.
The rear man has no bed on his
wagon, but is hauling a long awk-
ward looking thing with a massive
cog wheel, called master wheel,
at the front end of a long wooden
frame that sticks away out over the
rear end of the wagon, and on this
tail-end is another cog-gear called
the pit wheel This is the horse
power.
There are four levers that are
called sweeps, to which the horses
are hitched, that go with this horse
| power, but We see them sticking out
of the hind end of the front wagon.
If an air-man, passing over this
horsepower when set up with the
four sweeps in the master-wheel,
ready to hitch to, he might take it
spider family. The driver who is
hauling this outfit is sitting over
the master wheel, on board plat
form about four feet square, and
called the "stand board" It's pur
pose will be seen later.
The head man with the grubber
drives up close to the stack and be-
gins throwing out long wooden
stakes, mauls, hand-spikes, and
"other things too numerous to men,
ton" He pulls the sweeps out
from the rear, and also "tumbling
shaft" this connects the horse
power to the grubber. This first
man, "the boss" lays two sweeps
up to his wagon, and,-'here boys
three or four of you help us slide
this thing down." By the time the
grubber is on the ground, the 9th
er man has his wagon in position,
the linch-pin out Of one front wheel,
a sweep for lever, the wheel is
taken off, axle lowered, and a cou-
pie of the sweeps for skids, and the
men with hand-spikes, and soon the
horsepower is on the ground. A
hole is dug for the pit-Wheel, stakes
are driven, braces here and there,
and "whoop, hurrah, boys, we'll
soon have her SET It's all hard
work, but what a jolly set working
at it. To one side we observe a
high rail pen, open on the near
side, poles across the top. Wonder
what that is for? Well see later.
Some of the men have wooden
hand rakes, and scoop shovels are
in evidence The horses are being
hitched to the sweeps, the band cut
ter is whetting his knife, and "the
boss" who feeds the grubber, is
hooking on the feed-board. The
driver steps up on the stand-board
with long lash whip in his hand.
"All ready yells the boss, "get
your places!" Enthusiasm with
some excitement prevails just now.
"Roll up! Roll up!" The feeder
is moving the cylinder with his
hands on the large gear wheel,
while the driver is seeing that the |
horses don't start with jerk, as
all this cog-gear must be put in mo-
ton gradually. AS the speed in
creases and the horses begin to step |
to their regular gait, "My stars!'
what a Glitter, clatter,-did you
ever hear such an ear splitting,
nerve racking noise? The driver is
swinging that long lash, and the
feeder is poking in the sheaves, and
Just look coming out t,-straw, wheat
and chaff like cyclone. Men with +
rakes are separating the straw, and
he first thing is to stuff it in the
cracks of this rail-pen. The men
with scoop shovels are going to
)ank the wheat and chaff in this
)en, and if the weather is unfavor-
able it will be covered over with
straw.
The farmers who were fortunate
,nough to have barn to store
heir wheat crop in, would quite
frequently let the threshing go un-
il late in the fall. We have seen
hreshing being done in snow
torn.
Now they have threshed run,
hey stop to give the horses and
nen rest Water is passed around.
lso a jug. It's dirty, lively
lunch, and somebody is always
racking a joke. 1t seemed that
ONE men were in the height OF
heir glory when around thresh-
ng machine. Later, perhaps in the
in of this noise and dust, white
10th is flung to the air at the
arm house. What does it mean? ,
ONE one is sure to see it, and the
eeder's attention is drawn to 1t,
nd he, in turn, holds up his hand