Memories of the Calls 16 - Farming
Farm Machinery
Father's first Reaping machine was a reaper and mower combined. I think he bought that when we went to the Ives place. It took two to operate it. The second man sate behind the driver sideways, and raked the bundles off by hand so they would be out of the way when the machine came around again.
When driving the team on this machine, I had a narrow escape with my life, It was here (Prospect Farm) in the field on the corner east. I stood up and struck one of the horses with the end of the lines. The team started to run. The man behind me made some quick moves, swung around, jumped off, succeeded in running up past the machine and managed to stop the team. When they stopped, I was gripping the tongue with one leg and hanging on to the end of the evening with both hands. My body hung right in front of one of the big wheels. My only injury was a bad cut on the third finger of my left hand. The scar remains to remind me of the affair.
Threshing
We threshed with horse power in the early days, til perhaps 1874-5. Five teams were used, the threshers furnished two, the farmer the other three. The farmer's teams were used to have do most of the pulling, as the thresher's teams were on every day, and they learned to keep the tugs straight without pulling very much. I used to try to unhitch my team as quickly as the threshers could theirs, but I never succeeded. The track made by the horses as they went round and round would sometimes look very deep and in dry weather, it would become very dusty.
Planting Corn
When I was a boy we used to plant corn in hills. We used a hoe, and carried the seed in a bag tied around the waist, dropping the corn in as we made the hole with the hoe. We planted four to six kernels. Tom Squires, who worked for father several summers by the day, worked with us boys in planting corn. He was always good-naturedly chiding us if we spilled our bags or lost any corn when we filled our bags, and would help us pick it up.
Planting Potatoes
When we first planted potatoes the ground was marked both ways with a marker. We boys dropped the potatoes in the intersections of the marks, and they were afterwards covered with a hoe. Soon father made a one-horse plow. The field would be marked with the marker as before. Father would follow the marker with his plow throwing out a little furrow. We would drop the potatoes in the furrow in the intersection. He would plow out two or three furrows one way, then after the potatoes were dropped he would cover the plow as he went back, spreading fresh dirt over the potatoes. One running the plow and two dropping would plant about three acres a day. This method was used for several years. Then the potato coverer was introduced and was used generally. The potatoes were dropped the same as when covered with a hoe. Then a team on the coverer covered a row at a time. From six to eight acres a day could be covered this way. About 1915 potato planters came into use. Originally, we dug potatoes with forks, The Elevated digger came into use about 1885. Before that had the Innes digger. This was a shovel blade supported by two arms on the outside with a number of rods which dragged on the ground behind the blade to get the potatoes out of the ground. The operator walked behind with handles similar to cultivator handles to the guide the machine. The large growers now, 1934, are using two-row Planters, two row tractor Cultivators and two row Elevated diggers. In early days we plated them about three fee each way, using ten or twelve bushels of seed to the acre. Now they are planted from nine to eighteen inches apart, using from eighteen to twenty bushels of see per acre. Mr. North once said potato growing was revolutionized by the introduction of the potato crate, about 1890's.
When we first grew beans they were pulled by hand. No one liked the job. Once in a while an expert could pull two acres a day but that was about four times what an ordinary hand would do. The bean puller or cutter came into use in the '90s. This transformed bean raising. The bean vines were forked out behind the puller. Later the Side-delivery rake was used to some extent.
The hay-fork, hay-slings, hay loader, manure spreader, Grain-and-corn-binders were introduced during my life time which have some of the drudgery out of farming.
The hand corn-planter was another decided improvement. Father was so skeptical at first that he made us plant some with a hoe when we used a planter. As no one could see any difference in the crop, the planter came into general use.
Threshing
Formerly all grain was drawn from the field into the barn, or if the barns wouldn't hold it all it was stacked. There were times when we would have to wait several weeks before we could get machines to thresh it. Now most of the grain is drawn direct to the threshing machine, either in the field or at the barn. After horse power, threshers were operated by steam power. The first engines were moved from farm to farm by horses. Soon the tractor part was added, which enables the engine and separator to be moved without horses. Now gasoline is used almost altogether. This makes a great saving in operating the machine. Where it took four men to operate the steam engine, it now takes only two.
When Albert was operating the Sweetland Farm, now Pleasant Grove, he ha to move the engine one night after supper, from there to South Byron. The separator with water tank attached was ahead drawn by the thresher's team. These had crossed the bridge over Black Creek safely, but when Albert, with three horses drawing the engine, about the middle of the bridge the boards on one side gave way, throwing the horses and engine to the creek bottom. Albert slid off the engine seat and caught on the side of the bridge that did not fall, and escaped injury. There was but little water in the creek, and the horses, by cutting some of the harness, were soon brought out without sustaining any serious injury.
______
Patty's notes on this entry
The five sections of this post are separate posts in the original manuscript. However, since I know absolutely nothing about farming (much less farming in the 1800s), I've combined them into one and tried to supplement it with information about 19th century farming.
Farm Machinery
I don't know the exact model of combination reaper and mower the Call family used after the Civil War. The Champion Reaper and Mower No. 2 was introduced in about 1865, so they may have used something like it. The family moved to the Ives place in 1865.
Threshing
This threshing machine from 1881 may be similar to what was used on the Call farm in the 1870
Image from the Encyclopedic and biographical dictionary of industry and industrial arts by Eugène-Oscar Lami, and Alfred Tharel.
Planting Potatoes
The Victor Potato Coverer was in use in Western New York in the 1880's and 1890's so may be similar to what the Call's used
Image from Theodore Brainard Terry's The A B C of Potato Culture, 1893.
The Aspinwall Potato-Planter was in use by 1893 so may be similar to what the Call's used
Image from Theodore Brainard Terry's The A B C of Potato Culture, 1893.
The Hoover Potato Digger was in use by 1893 so again may be similar to what the Call family used
Image from Theodore Brainard Terry's The A B C of Potato Culture, 1893.
Image from Theodore Brainard Terry's The A B C of Potato Culture, 1893.
Before potatoes were packed and shipped in crates, they were shipped in barrels. The crates provided several advantages over the barrels, including
Father's first Reaping machine was a reaper and mower combined. I think he bought that when we went to the Ives place. It took two to operate it. The second man sate behind the driver sideways, and raked the bundles off by hand so they would be out of the way when the machine came around again.
When driving the team on this machine, I had a narrow escape with my life, It was here (Prospect Farm) in the field on the corner east. I stood up and struck one of the horses with the end of the lines. The team started to run. The man behind me made some quick moves, swung around, jumped off, succeeded in running up past the machine and managed to stop the team. When they stopped, I was gripping the tongue with one leg and hanging on to the end of the evening with both hands. My body hung right in front of one of the big wheels. My only injury was a bad cut on the third finger of my left hand. The scar remains to remind me of the affair.
Threshing
We threshed with horse power in the early days, til perhaps 1874-5. Five teams were used, the threshers furnished two, the farmer the other three. The farmer's teams were used to have do most of the pulling, as the thresher's teams were on every day, and they learned to keep the tugs straight without pulling very much. I used to try to unhitch my team as quickly as the threshers could theirs, but I never succeeded. The track made by the horses as they went round and round would sometimes look very deep and in dry weather, it would become very dusty.
Planting Corn
When I was a boy we used to plant corn in hills. We used a hoe, and carried the seed in a bag tied around the waist, dropping the corn in as we made the hole with the hoe. We planted four to six kernels. Tom Squires, who worked for father several summers by the day, worked with us boys in planting corn. He was always good-naturedly chiding us if we spilled our bags or lost any corn when we filled our bags, and would help us pick it up.
Planting Potatoes
When we first planted potatoes the ground was marked both ways with a marker. We boys dropped the potatoes in the intersections of the marks, and they were afterwards covered with a hoe. Soon father made a one-horse plow. The field would be marked with the marker as before. Father would follow the marker with his plow throwing out a little furrow. We would drop the potatoes in the furrow in the intersection. He would plow out two or three furrows one way, then after the potatoes were dropped he would cover the plow as he went back, spreading fresh dirt over the potatoes. One running the plow and two dropping would plant about three acres a day. This method was used for several years. Then the potato coverer was introduced and was used generally. The potatoes were dropped the same as when covered with a hoe. Then a team on the coverer covered a row at a time. From six to eight acres a day could be covered this way. About 1915 potato planters came into use. Originally, we dug potatoes with forks, The Elevated digger came into use about 1885. Before that had the Innes digger. This was a shovel blade supported by two arms on the outside with a number of rods which dragged on the ground behind the blade to get the potatoes out of the ground. The operator walked behind with handles similar to cultivator handles to the guide the machine. The large growers now, 1934, are using two-row Planters, two row tractor Cultivators and two row Elevated diggers. In early days we plated them about three fee each way, using ten or twelve bushels of seed to the acre. Now they are planted from nine to eighteen inches apart, using from eighteen to twenty bushels of see per acre. Mr. North once said potato growing was revolutionized by the introduction of the potato crate, about 1890's.
When we first grew beans they were pulled by hand. No one liked the job. Once in a while an expert could pull two acres a day but that was about four times what an ordinary hand would do. The bean puller or cutter came into use in the '90s. This transformed bean raising. The bean vines were forked out behind the puller. Later the Side-delivery rake was used to some extent.
The hay-fork, hay-slings, hay loader, manure spreader, Grain-and-corn-binders were introduced during my life time which have some of the drudgery out of farming.
The hand corn-planter was another decided improvement. Father was so skeptical at first that he made us plant some with a hoe when we used a planter. As no one could see any difference in the crop, the planter came into general use.
Threshing
Formerly all grain was drawn from the field into the barn, or if the barns wouldn't hold it all it was stacked. There were times when we would have to wait several weeks before we could get machines to thresh it. Now most of the grain is drawn direct to the threshing machine, either in the field or at the barn. After horse power, threshers were operated by steam power. The first engines were moved from farm to farm by horses. Soon the tractor part was added, which enables the engine and separator to be moved without horses. Now gasoline is used almost altogether. This makes a great saving in operating the machine. Where it took four men to operate the steam engine, it now takes only two.
When Albert was operating the Sweetland Farm, now Pleasant Grove, he ha to move the engine one night after supper, from there to South Byron. The separator with water tank attached was ahead drawn by the thresher's team. These had crossed the bridge over Black Creek safely, but when Albert, with three horses drawing the engine, about the middle of the bridge the boards on one side gave way, throwing the horses and engine to the creek bottom. Albert slid off the engine seat and caught on the side of the bridge that did not fall, and escaped injury. There was but little water in the creek, and the horses, by cutting some of the harness, were soon brought out without sustaining any serious injury.
______
Patty's notes on this entry
The five sections of this post are separate posts in the original manuscript. However, since I know absolutely nothing about farming (much less farming in the 1800s), I've combined them into one and tried to supplement it with information about 19th century farming.
Farm Machinery
I don't know the exact model of combination reaper and mower the Call family used after the Civil War. The Champion Reaper and Mower No. 2 was introduced in about 1865, so they may have used something like it. The family moved to the Ives place in 1865.
Threshing
This threshing machine from 1881 may be similar to what was used on the Call farm in the 1870
Planting Potatoes
The Victor Potato Coverer was in use in Western New York in the 1880's and 1890's so may be similar to what the Call's used
The Aspinwall Potato-Planter was in use by 1893 so may be similar to what the Call's used
The Hoover Potato Digger was in use by 1893 so again may be similar to what the Call family used
Before potatoes were packed and shipped in crates, they were shipped in barrels. The crates provided several advantages over the barrels, including
- they were easier for one person to carry,
- more crates could be stored in the same space than barrels could be stored,
- the crates had better ventilation which helped keep potatoes from rotting, and
- if there was rot, it tended to be contained in just one crate rather than in a barrel - so fewer potatoes rotted
Haying in Western New York in 1907
Image from The Farmer's Museum
Hay loader from 1905
Image from the Farmer's Museum
Manure spreader from about 1910
Image from the Farmer's Museum
Horse drawn grain binder from about 1915
Image from the Farmer's Museum
Corn Planter from about 1906
Image from the Library of Congress
Horse-drawn steam engine thresher from about 1910
Image from The Farmer's Museum
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Next Post in the Series: Memories of the Calls 17 - The "Sweetland Farm" - Pleasant Grove, Built in 1823
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