Very old photo of harvesting grain.

farmerjohn · Dec 20, 2012

This photo is from a stereoscope card I got from my grandmother years ago, the text is the description on the back of the card.

rrlund · Dec 20, 2012

The text is as interesting as the picture.

JMOR · Dec 20, 2012

Looks like a little 24 horsepower combine? :wink:

bigboreG · Dec 20, 2012

Very very interesting piece. And in great condition too I might add. Love seeing old looks and methods of days gone by! With so many horses, it would take half the days bushels just to feed them all!

RGMartin · Dec 20, 2012

(quoted from post at 11:23:36 12/20/12) Looks like a little 24 horsepower combine? :wink:

I see 33.

6 abreast, 5 deep, 3 out front

rustred · Dec 20, 2012

just think of the work just to feed those horses.

thurlow · Dec 20, 2012

Very interesting......picture and text; gotta wonder about the person who wrote the text; 60--125 acres per day?

Greg K · Dec 20, 2012

Very Nice.

PaGlenn · Dec 20, 2012

looks like that team of horses are harvesting and fertilizing at the same time. Talk about an efficient operation.

fixerupper · Dec 20, 2012

I have a feeling that's one of the first Holt or Best combines. Could be wrong on that. Maybe bull wheel drive? The first ones were run by steam. Can you imagine a straw fired steam engine on a combine harvesting tinder dry wheat? With a header that size I doubt if bull wheel drive would be enough but??? Just typing random thoughts. Jim

Bill(Wis) · Dec 20, 2012

That's prime wheat growing country. Nowaday's they're reporting yields up around 80 bpa on non-irrigated land. Back then, according to the text, they were reporting 24-28 bpa yields. For 2010/11 USA was 45th in yield worldwide with 46.4 bpa. Netherlands topped everybody with 132.5 bpa. (All three acres (;>))

Tony in Mass. · Dec 20, 2012

12 hour days, lots of water breaks- and break downs- in perfect conditions and lotsa luck 10 acres an hour average with this operation sounds right. I bet there were more 6 acre an hour days than 10 or 12.
95 cents a bushel when a day's pay was one dollar... now that was worth farming!

JMOR · Dec 20, 2012

(quoted from post at 11:32:10 12/20/12)

(quoted from post at 11:23:36 12/20/12) Looks like a little 24 horsepower combine? :wink:

Click to expand...

I see 33.

6 abreast, 5 deep, 3 out front

ell, you know there are always the slackers among horses/mules, as well as humans! Actually, I can't count or see or hear........what's next??

I do love the old pictures, though!

Paul from MI · Dec 20, 2012

Wonder how long it took to start the engine on that combine every day? I bet shutting it off was treat too.

Russ from MN · Dec 20, 2012

I had an Aunt that lived in Pullman WA and spoke very fondly of the Palouse valley, that's another very productive area to the north.

mmoon · Dec 20, 2012

My DAD told me that when he moved to the eastern shore of MD that he drove a team of 16 horses disking ground in 1943 on the HERBERT FORD farm in GALENA MD --Iwould like to have a picirue of that -this team of 33 is just amazing - cannot even image putting the harness on them -really like seeing old pictures like this--thanks

thurlow · Dec 20, 2012

Acreage just sounds unrealistic to me; farmer's old rule-of-thumb: width in feet (width would appear to be about 15 ft, based on height of men in photo) times speed in mph divided by 10 equals acres per hour.

flying belgian · Dec 20, 2012

Could possibly be a bull wheel as there are lugs on the wheel. However the lugs should be the other direction so hard to say. Anyone else find any clues?

flying belgian · Dec 20, 2012

Sustainable ag----.

rustred · Dec 20, 2012

the horses tell the story.. they must be running the machine with a bull wheel cause it would not take that many horses to just "pull" the machine empty.

Larry NEIL · Dec 20, 2012

I may not complain so much next year when I have to dig out my Oliver and hook up to the haybine!

Adirondack case guy · Dec 20, 2012

Here is a broader view of the harvest.
Loren, the Acg.

flying belgian · Dec 20, 2012

You know I wondered about that but having no experience with horses I have no idea what they can pull.

Wheat Farmer · Dec 20, 2012

My Grandda had two old case combines but maybe a little bit newer and pulled by an oil pull rummly. I can't find the photos of them setting in the junk row. They went for skrap in 2007.

Thanks for posting. This is just.........

Adirondack case guy · Dec 20, 2012

Forgot to mention, they were 28 Horse hitches which is stated in the comentary that I have. 5 Rows, 5 Abrest, 3 lead Horses. Photo courtisey of Historical Society of Wisconsin. Arcive pic# WHi(x3)8391. The harvest did take place in the NW. I copied the pic. from a book Titled "The Growing Of America."
Loren, the Acg.

Walt Davies · Dec 20, 2012

My grandparents had several hundred acres of wheat in 1918 they were the last to get harvested and the government guy who was buying the wheat said that they must get to the train depot before midnight to get top pay or the government is going to lock in the price for the war effort.
Grandmother who 5 ft tall always talked about driving one of the big wagons with 8 horses pulling it. This was in Wheatland, CA just north of Sacramento
Walt

Adirondack case guy · Dec 20, 2012

Here's another pic. of a BEST&BROWN Combined Harvester with 26 Horse hitch. Pic from the Higgins collection.

fixerupper · Dec 20, 2012

I'm pretty sure the furst combine was steam powered and pulled by I think 20 teams of mules. Maybe pulling the sheer weight of a steam powered machine required just as much power as pulling a bull wheel machine without a steam engine hung on it

Tommy Railsback · Dec 20, 2012

In the museum in Walla Walla, WA, they have one of those combines set up with the 33 horse hitch.

Mike (WA) · Dec 20, 2012

College friend of mine farms wheat west of Spokane- he has a similar photo, and two of the guys on the combine are his grandfather and great-grandfather. He's farming the same ground, a hundred years later.

The acreage per day was pretty optimistic. And imagine trying to keep that many harnesses straight! Talk about your "Mule Skinner Blues-"

Dick2 · Dec 20, 2012

In several of the pics that I've seen of similar rigs, that platform for the horse driver did not look very safe. I wonder how many guys fell or where pulled off of that platform by an unruly team? I'm sure somebody was hurt having that job. Seat belt and a guard railing were sorely needed for that operator.

Greg K · Dec 20, 2012

tried todownload some pics, but my Wildblue is a bit slow.

The Dukester · Dec 20, 2012

Paul, some of those earliest combines were ground drive just like a binder. Bet them nags had to work pretty hard to drag that thing up some of those hills. Yee Hahh CCrracck, CCrrraaccckkk!! Wouldn't you love to harness them nags every morning and curry 'em down every night...He!! No!

Greg K · Dec 20, 2012

try this

The Dukester · Dec 20, 2012

Personally I'd rather run all that wheat with an Allis B and a 40 All Crop...Yeah, Right! Well, maybe a UC and a 60 All Crop.

Bob in Australia · Dec 20, 2012

I am sure you are right. Both my grand fathers were wheat farmers and used horses until switching to tractors in the early 1920s.

Their harvesters where 'ground drive' and they were modified to be pulled by tractors. We still had one of the 'ground drive' harvesters on the farm when I was a child (1940s to 50s) but most the 'new' harvesters were PTO driven although we had one Case 'engine functioned' all crop harvester.

showcrop · Dec 20, 2012

(quoted from post at 08:52:48 12/20/12) I have a feeling that's one of the first Holt or Best combines. Could be wrong on that. Maybe bull wheel drive? The first ones were run by steam. Can you imagine a straw fired steam engine on a combine harvesting tinder dry wheat? With a header that size I doubt if bull wheel drive would be enough but??? Just typing random thoughts. Jim

You have probably seen the story about the early steam powered Holt that I am thinking of. With the smoke coming out of the stack and all of the roofs and shade tarps the front view made it look like a town coming across the prairie.

Tony in Mass. · Dec 20, 2012

Yeah I heard of guys calculating plowing time like that, but never take in account rocks, breakdowns, getting stuck...
So 15 feet, times... how fast a mule go? When swept up with this tide of other mules?? 4 or 5 mph? more? 15x5=75 div by 10 = 7 1/2 acres and hour? So to do 120 acres? man and beast put in a 16 or 18 hour day... which was normal back then too. And this wasn't/ couldn't be a family thing, but custom harvesters, so time was money....Yep. Good old days....

Adirondack case guy · Dec 20, 2012

Judging by the shape of the engine, and position on the harvester that is a Holt Harvester. Here is a pic. of it being pulled by a HoltJr. Steam "Round Wheel" tractor. This pic was taken on the Kern County Land Company's ranch in Bakersfield Cal. There were 7 of these rigs, comissioned to set a new record. They were able to cut and threshed a standing acer of grain every miniute and a half/32A/hr.
Loren, the Acg.

John in Cache Valley · Dec 20, 2012

I have some of these old pics from my dad's collection. He was a farmhand near Pendleton, OR in 1917-1920 and loved to talk about combining with the old Holt combines. They were ground-powered by the bull wheel and the team was driven by the fellow perched high in the front. His pictures are of mule teams (24) controlled by a jerkline, a single rein to the mule on the "off" (right) front. There is a nice description of how this all worked, not for combines, but for the famed 20 mule team borax teams at http://www.muleteamkits.com/. Same principle
Untitled URL Link

Bob in Australia · Dec 20, 2012

Both grandfathers farmed with horses as did my dad when he started farming about 1920

Horse teams here in Australia averaged about 2 miles an hour. A good team could work for 5 to 6 hours a day. So a farmer needed at least two teams and then some spares to do long hours at harvest time.

Dad's harvester (tractor pulled from the time that I can remember) was 10 foot cut 'ground drive'. It really loaded a 1936 Model C Case doing about 2 miles an hour—did not do many acres in a day.

Just finished our harvest here, used a Case with 45 foot cut—was getting up close to 10 mph at times. It harvested 3000 acres in less than 10 days.

SweetFeet · Dec 20, 2012

Really interesting. Amazing photo - I literally did not know they ever hitched that many horses up at once.

No wonder farmers liked tractors when they were invented.

J.Wondergem · Dec 21, 2012

Thanks to everyone on here that posts these old pictures. I really enjoy them. My Grandfather and uncles farmed with horses, but only with teams and three horse hooks. We farmed with 1930's tractors and converted horse drawn equipment.

farmerjohn · Dec 23, 2012

Just foung this picture of the same harvester from a different angle.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Combine_harvester_pulled_by_33_horses,_Walla_Walla,_ca._1902_c.jpg

Very old photo of harvesting grain.

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