October, 2008 - Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum

October, 2008
John Frank, President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410-531-2569
Chuck Coles, Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410-489-4717
Donna Haugh, Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410-489-4728
Doug Creswell, Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410-489-5832
Allan Bandel, Newsletter Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410-489-7875
Museum Telephone — 410-489-2345
Club web site — www.farmheritage.org
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President’s Report
by John W. Frank
Museum Work Update. A lot has been
accomplished at the museum since the last
issue of The Rusted Plow. The final grading of
the James Clark Main Display Building,
seeding and straw spreading of the site around
the building, windows of the dairy barn and
large display shed have been completed.
The roof and exterior walls of the large display
shed were painted, a flag pole, park bench and
interior additions to the One Room
Schoolhouse, addition of an herb garden,
additional displays in the Dairy Barn and
outside grounds and weekly mowing and
grooming of the grounds have all been
completed in the past few months.
The number of projects completed is nothing
short of fantastic. If you haven’t been by lately,
please stop in and see for yourself how great
things are looking. Thanks to all the members
who have made all of these accomplishments
possible. Keep up the great work!
Howard County Living Farm Heritage
Museum Goes International. Seven
governmental representatives from Korea, who
have been in the United States participating in a
program with Towson University, visited the
Living Farm Heritage Museum on September
15. I presented a Power Point program and
conducted a tour of the museum.
The Korean delegation was very impressed with
the museum and it’s displays. They enjoyed the
bus ride around the museum grounds and all
had dozens of questions about agricultural
related activities, equipment and tools. To
conclude the visit, we contacted, in advance, the
University of Maryland’s Central Maryland
Research and Education Center (CMREC),
Clarksville Facility, so that our guests could
contrast some of the old ways with the new.
Our Korean guests spent the morning at the
museum and then visited CMREC. They were
pleased with their visit. The representative from
Towson University expressed her sincere
appreciation for our hospitality and also
commented on how impressed she was with all
that the museum had to offer. The visit ended
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with everyone exchanging gifts and ideas for
future partnerships and activities.
The Howard County Fair. Another year for us
at the Howard County Fair is now history along
with the many presentations, displays and
demonstrations put on by members of the
Howard County Antique Farm Machinery Club.
We had a good turn-out of helpers throughout
the week. Between manning the raffle sales
tent, the threshing and baling demonstration,
corn shelling, equipment displays and the
Thursday and Friday evening entertainment by
the Southwestern Blue Grass Band and the
Lone Mountain Band, everyone seemed to
have a great time.
We did experience one unfortunate incident
during the Fair in which a tractor rolled from it’s
parking space and struck a parked automobile
belonging to one of our club members. The
grandfather of the little boy who was seated on
the tractor at the time, received minor injuries
while attempting to stop the tractor. Thankfully,
there were no serious injuries and repairs to
the car and the tractor have been completed at
this time.
The final outcome of this unfortunate incident
is currently in the hands of the insurance
companies and is not known at this time. We
need to accept this incident as a “wake up call”
for us all, and use it as incentive to maintain a
constant awareness of, and be on the lookout
for, all situations that are in any way safety
related. This is true whether we are just
attending or are actively participating in a
public show, whether we simply have
equipment on display, whether we are
operating equipment around the museum
grounds (as in a parade for instance), or
whether we are operating equipment on-site
during one of our many work sessions. Let’s
always keep safety first!
Too Wet to Thresh. The “Cutting of the
Wheat” scheduled for July 5 was rained out
this year. The day was wet and overcast. Even
though we did not cut any wheat that day, did
not have any horse or mule teams present and
we had to call off our food concession
personnel, we still hosted a number of visitors
who braved the weather to spend some time at
the museum.
We provided several bus tours throughout the
museum grounds, generated some new interest
in the museum, recruited some new club
members and received some cash donations,
as well. All together, it was not a bad day on the
farm.
The next week, calls went out to available
members to come out and help cut and stack
the wheat. We had a good crop of wheat this
year and thanks to all those who helped, we put
up three good wagon loads to be used at the
Howard County Fair and at Farm Heritage Days,
for our “old time threshing” demonstrations.
Thanks again to all of those who helped. It was
a fun day and the many hands present helped to
make the work go much faster.
Farm Heritage Days. As this edition of The
Rusted Plow rolls off the press, the images of
this year’s Farm Heritage Days are still a fresh
memory. Each aspect of the show from the
planning meetings to the execution of the three
school days to the rainy Friday and Saturday,
and even our Sunday show days had been
orchestrated with pinpoint precision .
Although it would be easy to feel a sense of
disappointment due to the wet weather’s effect
on the overall attendance of the show, I find
myself feeling a sense of pride and renewal of
enthusiasm. The reason for this strange
perspective, I believe, is due to the
overwhelming good presentation that we all
made with the show. The museum and grounds
were in great shape, and looked it.
We had a respectable turnout of displays in
spite of the weather. The food concession and
entertainment was great. The sale went off
flawlessly, and the positive help and support
was a constant throughout the weekend. Our
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cleanup was quick and more efficient than
ever.
The positive outlook and congenial demeanor
of all the workers was fantastic. Although we
may not have had the turnout of visitors that
we all would have hoped for, the fact of the
matter is that we were willing and ready for a
big turnout and will be all the more prepared in
the future. Thanks to all and all that you do!
_____________________________________
search the fairground crowd in an attempt to find
the ladies and pass along this good news. After
criss-crossing most of the Fair’s many buildings
and ongoing events, I finally located them in one
of the cattle barns. The ladies were thrilled to
hear about Abe’s generous offer.
The Real Value
of a 100-Year-Old Corn Sheller
by Doug Creswell
Our corn shelling and grinding exhibit at the
Howard County Fair was a big hit this year, as
always. The children love to crank those
wheels – especially the little boys, showing off
their muscles.
Amidst this fun, however, something unusual
occurred. Two ladies approached our pedal
tractor raffle ticket sales table and expressed
great interest in the antique corn shelling
machines. One of the ladies, Jeannie Niebel,
was fairly local, from Silver Spring in
Montgomery County. The other lady, Mary
Njovu, was from Petauke, Zambia. She said
that her village back in Africa could really use
a device like that to shell corn. The local
people have no such equipment. They have to
shell their corn the hard way – by hand. She
asked if we would sell her one of the shellers.
Abe McCracken said that those on display
were antiques and were not for sale. But he
offered some information on where she might
find one at several antique dealers in the area.
He gave her a Maryland map and showed her
where the dealers were generally located.
Grateful for this information, the two ladies
departed and went on into the fairgrounds.
A bit later, Abe got to thinking about the
situation and decided that he would give her
one of the extra shellers that he had at home.
He could bring it to the fairgrounds the next
morning. I (Doug Creswell) volunteered to
Mary Njovu and her friend Jeannie Niebel.
The lady from Montgomery County quickly
arranged for her daughter, who lives in Mount
Airy, to come by the fairgrounds the next
morning to pick up the sheller. The lady from
Zambia told us that she would be pleased to
send pictures from her village when the corn
sheller got there and was in use.
At the close of the evening as people were
exiting the Fair, we happened to see the two
ladies leaving in the crowd. The lady from
Zambia, Mary Njovu, looked our way, then with
a grateful smile waved her hand. She was
obviously very thankful and touched by Abe’s
kind generosity. When Abe arrived the next
morning, he brought two shellers, which he
made sure were in good working condition.
But, the story doesn’t end there. About a month
later, in early September, Abe received an
envelope in the mail in which were two letters one from the Montgomery County lady who
expressed her thanks to Abe for his generosity
and thoughtfulness. The other letter was from
Mary Njovu. It turns out that Mary serves as the
nanny to Jeannie Niebel’s grandchildren. A part
of the money that Mary earns working here she
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is sending back to Zambia where it is being
used to help in the building of her village. Mary
plans to carry the two hand-driven corn
shellers back with her when she goes home on
leave in January. She has never seen handdriven corn shellers in any of the African
villages that she has visited ... they are so
needed!
According to Mary’s handwritten letter to Abe,
(in good, but somewhat slightly broken English)
she wrote that she has “a small village. Right
now I have six acres for my corn field in Petauke,
Zambia. These corn shellers (that you so generously
gave to me) will be helpful to me because last time
we were using hands.
(In) Zambia, what you do when you want to start the
land, we cut the trees down with an axe. Then you
cut the trees in small pieces and take them away
from the field. Then you put the field on fire. Then
you plow your land with ox. It’s a big job. You need
to work hard. October 1st we put the seeds and the
fertilizer in the ground. We start weeding in
November. If there is money, we put fertilizer on top
of soil when the corn is two feet. We start harvest
end of May when corn is dry. We harvest with our
hands. My field is not very close to my village. So
next year, I will try and buy an ox wagon to bring
my corn to my village.
Next year, we will use the corn sheller you gave me.
In my past, you take corn. You put it in sack. You tie
the sack. You take a big stick. Then, you smash the
sack to make corn come out of husk. When you are
done, you put the corn in a big basket. You take out
that husk, and put the corn in a different bag. We
keep that in African storage and use for food.
I am feeding twenty family members with that corn.
Left over corn is sold to the National Milling
Company in Lusaka, Zambia.
I thank you so much. It is hard to put into words.
There was no dream that when I was going to the
Fair that something like this was going to happen.
You know (that) everything is planned from God.
Without love, you cannot give this. You are a loving
person who cares.
Thank you again and again. God bless you.” (Signed)
Mary Njovu
Through the good deeds of members like Abe
McCracken, the fine reputation of the Howard
County Antique Farm Machinery Club continues
to spread, not just here locally, but, around the
world as well!
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Club Fund Raising Summary:
2008 Howard County Fair
by Doug Creswell
After deducting expenses, the financial gain
from our fund raising efforts at the Howard
County Fair this year totaled $2,678.62. The
biggest sources of income were the toy tractor
ticket sales ($1,612.00) and cold drink sales
($830.62). Other contributors included Club
clothing sales, the toy tractor display by Mel and
Barbara Dielmann, and the $500 fee that we
received from the Howard County Fair
Association for our antique equipment displays,
the wheat threshing, and the straw baling
demonstrations.
Many thanks to all the Club members who
worked diligently throughout the week at our
tables, the corn shelling and grinding stand
(always a big hit with the kids), the mobile drink
sales concession, and simply interacting with
the many interested visitors to our site.
_____________________________________
Site Development Committee Report
by Glen Webb
A detailed site development plan for the
museum has been put into electronic format by
the Howard County Department of Recreation
and Parks. It is available now in pdf format. If
you would like to have a copy of the plan,
please e-mail me, Glen Webb, with your
request, at webbglen@hotmail.com and I will be
glad to make one available for you.
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The plan identifies and locates 25 existing and
future building sites on the museum grounds.
It also specifies the approximate size of the
structures.
A new trail that is approximately one mile long
and which leads to a scenic overlook spot, has
been established in the wooded area behind
the Senator James Clark, Jr. Display Building.
The trail was built under the leadership of
Eagle Scout Eric Goff. Eric worked closely with
the county in selecting the best location for the
trail. We owe Eric many thanks for his hard
work in completing this project.
This fall, another Eagle Scout will be working to
build a new three-board fence along a portion
of the long road that leads back from the Hebb
House area to the Harless Farm site.
_____________________________________
small dairy herd of milk cows that provided us
with fresh milk every day.
In addition to the farm, I also have many fond
memories of going to school. Soon after I
celebrated my sixth birthday in 1938, I started
my formal education by attending the one-room
Glenelg Schoolhouse. The small frame building
that was once located at the corner of
Triadelphia and Sharp Roads, next to the old
Providence Methodist Church which most
recently housed Tatiana’s art studios, is long
gone now. (This little school building had
nothing to do with the present Glenelg School.)
We had no fancy bathrooms, just a crude little
outhouse behind the school. And let me tell you,
this modest little building was very cold in the
winter.
Fond Memories of Attending
a One-Room Schoolhouse
by Dorothy Lucille (Brown) Frank
I have many fond memories of when I was a
young girl growing up on my parent’s Howard
County farm in the 1930s and 1940s. Some of
those memories were of our family farm itself
where we raised all of the food that we needed
for the year. There was a big garden where we
planted, weeded and harvested our
vegetables. There was a small orchard with
apple, cherry and peach trees for fruit. There
was always a big “patch” of potatoes nearby.
We had potatoes on the table three times a
day.
What fresh vegetables we didn’t eat in the
summer months, my mother would can (or
preserve) so that they would not spoil during
the winter months. My father always stored a
bin full of potatoes in the basement to prevent
them from freezing.
We also kept a flock of chickens on the farm
for meat and eggs. In addition, we raised our
own beef and hogs for meat. There was a
Dorothy Frank portraying the role of ‘teacher’ in the
little one-room schoolhouse.
I had to walk three miles to the school because
there was no school bus to take me there. It
wasn’t until I was in about the 4th or 5th grade,
and after my father had repeatedly petitioned
the County Commissioners about the lack of
school student transportation, that they finally
arranged for a bus to come along the road by
my house and take me to school.
We did have a cloak room at the one-room
school in which we hung our winter coats and
stored our galoshes which we wore during
snowy and rainy weather. We also kept our
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lunch boxes in the cloakroom. We had to carry
our lunches every day because there was no
fancy kitchen at the school nor people there to
prepare our lunches for us.
My first grade teacher was Miss Rachel Ellis.
She also taught six other grades. There were
perhaps three 1st graders, four 2nd graders, six
3rd graders, etc. right on up to the 7th grade.
The small children were in the lower grades,
obviously. But when you got to the 6th and 7th
grades, a lot of the students were big boys.
The big boys were given the responsibility of
making sure that there was plenty of dry wood
in the back of the school room to keep the pot
bellied stove going in the winter months.
When Miss Ellis was working with the 5th
grade, for instance, the rest of the grades had
to be very quiet and do their homework, or
read a book, or work on their penmanship.
When I began school in the 2nd grade, I
discovered that I had a new teacher, Miss
Frances Larrimer (Sharp). She stayed through
1941. The Glenelg one-room School was
closed soon thereafter (and later demolished)
and the children were transferred to Dayton
where there was a two-room school. Dayton is
where I completed the 4th, 5th and 6th grades.
For the 7th grade, we were transferred again, to
Clarksville. The Clarksville School was a big
three-story brick building which accommodated
grades one through eleven. I went to school for
eleven years and graduated in 1949. My class
was the last to graduate after just eleven years.
There was no graduating class in 1950
because those students, upon completing the
11th grade were required to stay one more
year. They were members of the senior class
for two years. Members of the class of 1951
then, were the first to be required to attend
school for twelve years instead of eleven in
order to earn their high school diplomas.
Having to attend school one more year than
their slightly older friends made some of the
students very unhappy, at least at first.
When you visit the one-room schoolhouse at the
Living Farm Heritage Museum, I hope that you
will gain a better appreciation of what it was like
to attend school here in Howard County just a
few decades ago, and how fortunate we are to
have some of the finest schools in the country
today, right here in Howard County.
Also, please notice that there are only 48 stars
on our flag in the one-room schoolhouse. No,
that’s not a mistake!
_____________________________________
Making Loose Hay in the 1940's
by Allan Bandel
Historically, haymaking has always been a dirty,
dusty, back-breaking job. But back in the 1940s,
and of course prior to that, it was a really dirty,
dusty, sweaty, labor intensive process. Because
most of the hay made back then was not put in
bales, but was harvested and stored loose, and
most of the work was done by manual labor,
haymaking could be an especially dirty and
unpleasant experience. The widespread use of
labor-saving auto-tying pick-up balers with bale
kickers, bale elevators, hydraulic bale wagons
and stackers, and other labor saving devices
was still several years into the future.
Fortunately for persons of my generation, we
were spared much of that more extreme
hardship. During the 1940s, our generation was
still too young and physically too small to be of
much assistance with the heavy side of hay
making. It was more a time of excitement for us.
My brother and I were often allowed to ride
along in the cab of the truck during haymaking,
or to participate in a few other minor, yet very
important, ways. We were spared the heavy
work, but were sometimes assigned the task of
carrying a tin cup and a covered bucket of ice
water out to the field to help quench the thirst of
workers toiling in the hot sun.
According to my earliest memories, after the hay
had been mowed and allowed a couple of days
to cure, Dad used a horse-drawn dump rake to
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gather the hay into rough windrows. This
usually took place several days after mowing
because hay conditioning equipment that is
now used routinely to shorten curing time was
still unknown. If the hay was slow to cure
because of a heavy crop or high humidity, then
before raking, Dad might harness a horse to
the hay tedder. This simple machine “fluffed
up” the hay with a series of rear-facing twopronged forks that kicked backwards. Spread
more loosely, more air could flow through the
hay and hasten the drying process. As you
might expect though, this not-too-gentle
procedure was not very conducive to saving
the important, but fragile, leaves that were
prone to break off and fall to the ground.
Finally, once dried and raked, laborers used
three-pronged pitch forks to manually gather
the hay into small piles for later pick-up.
After bunching the hay into small piles, we
used our stake-body farm truck or a steelwheeled wagon equipped with tall racks front
and rear to haul the loose hay to the barn.
Often, when no one else was available, our
mother was recruited to drive the truck from
pile to pile. Later, when my brother and I were
old enough, Dad would set the truck in its
lowest gear, adjust the hand throttle on the
dash just fast enough to prevent the engine
from stalling, and then one of us would steer
from pile to pile while he and a hired man
walked from pile to pile and loaded the hay. At
first, before our legs were long enough to reach
the pedals, we often gripped the steering wheel
from a kneeling position on the seat. Since we
were unable to easily reach the pedals and
stop the truck’s forward motion, excitement in
the cab sometimes reached a feverish pitch as
the truck approached a fence or a steep
ravine.
The worker(s) on the ground pitched the hay
onto the truck using extra-long-handled threepronged pitchforks. The job required these
unusually long-handled forks so that the hay
could be lifted high up onto the load. Upon
occasion, excitement was generated,
especially for the person up on the load, when a
slithering black snake that had taken refuge
under the hay pile, was inadvertently tossed
aboard with the hay. When this happened, there
were usually some excited exclamations by the
person(s) building the load accompanied by a
quick descent off the front, side, or back of the
truck, whichever route afforded the quickest
path to the ground. Fear of falling was not an
issue. Fortunately, such incidents were rare, but
definitely memorable.
When the load was complete, Dad normally took
over the driving job and steered the truck back
to the barn. Here, an old-fashioned two-pronged
hay fork was plunged into the loosely stacked
hay for hoisting into the mow. Eventually, the
older two-prong fork was replaced with a higher
capacity four-prong model which significantly
sped up the unloading process. Sometimes, if
the four hay prongs were properly placed, nearly
half of the load could be lifted into the mow at
one time.
Initially, elevating the hay into the mow was
accomplished by harnessing a horse or mule to a
“single-tree” attached to one end of a long,
approximately one-inch diameter rope. The other
end of the rope was attached to the hay fork. The
long rope passed through a series of strategically
placed heavy-duty wooden pulleys that were
firmly attached to the frame of the barn.
Sometimes, we kids were allowed to ride
bareback on the horse to “guide” him. It wasn’t
long though before the horse learned exactly how
far to pull the rope before turning back to the
starting point. Afterwards, the horse required very
little input from us. But, riding him was still fun.
Later, when tractors became more common, they
replaced the horse in this job. To prevent the
tractor from running over the rope when backing
up after each pull, and in preparation for hoisting
the next load, one of us kids was usually given
the important task of helping to drag the rope
back to the starting point.
There were times when neither a horse nor a
tractor was available to pull the hay up into the
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mow. In those cases, one of our neighbors
sometimes offered the use of his family car. I
remember one such elderly neighbor, a retired
farmer whose health was not too good, who
wanted to help and regularly offered to tie the
tow rope to the rear bumper of his 1936
Chevrolet sedan.
Family cars were obviously not built to do the
heavy work of farm tractors. Low gear in the car
was not nearly slow and powerful enough for
lifting hay off the wagon and into the mow.
Therefore, to prevent the car from traveling too
fast, and also to keep the engine from stalling,
the driver had to “slip-the-clutch”, quite a lot.
Considering how some of these old cars were
frequently abused like this, it is not much wonder
that many of these over-worked vehicles did not
survive for more than a few thousand miles
before they were ready for the repair shop, or
the junk yard.
The fork-load of loose hay was lifted slowly off
the truck and elevated to the peak of the barn
roof where there was a large open door leading
into the hay mow. At its highest point, the fork
would automatically engage with the hay mow
trolley, or “car”, which rolled along on a steel
track suspended just beneath the peak of the
roof. From the moment that the fork engaged the
trolley, the fork load of hay moved swiftly along
the track and into the barn, sometimes going
nearly to the far end. W hen the trolley reached
the point along the track where workers in the
mow wanted the hay dropped, they would shout
to the person outside who gave a sharp tug on a
long thin trip rope. The person driving the tow
vehicle or tractor also had to be signaled to stop
to prevent the trolley and its load of hay from
traveling too far along the track. If everything
worked properly, the fork released its load of hay
and was then manually pulled back along the
track until it was outside the barn. Once outside
the barn, the trolley disengaged from the fork,
allowing the fork to descend and be made ready
for lifting another load.
The pile of hay falling from a height near the
peak of the roof always created a minor “wind
storm” inside the mow, stirring up a swirling
cloud of hay dust. After working a short time in the
mow though, you learned what to expect. The
wise turned their backs to the falling hay, held
onto their straw hats and covered their eyes and
noses for protection against the dust.
For a few years during the 1940s, adding salt
(sodium chloride) to the new hay as it was being
stored in the mow was a standard practice on
many Maryland farms. I clearly remember helping
to hand spread several hands-full of loose finely
ground salt over the hay after each load was in
place. The purpose of the salt, theoretically,
according to the University of Maryland
Cooperative Extension Service, was to inhibit
bacterial fermentation and molds. Extensive
experimentation eventually proved that unless
applied in excessive and physiologically harmful
quantities, salt was ineffective for this purpose. If
more than 20 pounds of salt per ton were applied,
it was actually found to be objectionable to the
animals.
Although it was once theorized that salt might
also reduce the possibility of barn fires due to
spontaneous combustion, it was eventually
learned that salt was not effective for this purpose
either. In small amounts though, it was found that
salt did tend to promote a slightly better color to
the hay, gave it a more pleasant aroma, and
made it more tasty for the cattle. W ith the benefits
rather questionable though, this practice soon
died out.
In the early 1940s, Dad took a giant step forward
in modernizing haymaking on our farm by
purchasing a hay loader, a brand new model from
the Montgomery W ard store in Baltimore. At that
time, in addition to the many household and
personal items listed in its sizable mail order
catalogue, Montgomery W ard also sold a variety
of farm supplies, tools, equipment – and even
tractors.
Before we could make use of this marvelous new
labor-saving piece of equipment though, we also
had to acquire a new hay rake to replace the old
dump rake. I do not remember many details about
our first side delivery rake. But I believe that it
was a used McCormick-Deering, originally a
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horse-drawn model that had been converted to
tractor use. It still had a seat on it once used for
driving a team of horses.
As was typical of most horse-drawn rakes, our
new rake had only three angled revolving bars of
rake teeth. Later, when the more efficient,
heavier duty tractor-type side-delivery rakes
became available, they were equipped with four,
or even five bars of rake teeth. This
improvement greatly reduced the amount of hay
that might otherwise have been missed and left
on the ground during the raking process. The
additional bars also allowed more gentle
handling of the hay and reduced losses of the
more valuable and fragile leaves.
Each rake bar had spring-loaded teeth which
were adjustable, but usually maintained in a
near vertical attitude by a hand lever and a gear
arrangement at one end of the bars. Our first
tractor-drawn side delivery rake was a steelwheeled John Deere model 594 purchased new
in the late 1940s from the Ramsburg Supply
Company in Ellicott City. It was similar in style to
traditional horse-drawn side-delivery rakes, but
had no seat, and was a four-bar model. It was
equipped with two large yellow steel wheels at
the front that powered the revolving rake. Two
much smaller bright yellow “crazy” wheels
supported the rear end of the rake.
Before our new hay loader could be used, the
cured hay was raked into long, continuous
windrows. The hay loader was then hitched
behind the farm truck with a short length of
chain. The truck was guided along the windrow
so that its wheels straddled the hay and the hay
loader lifted the hay onto the truck.
The tall bright red Montgomery-W ard hay loader
had two large yellow steel wheels in the front to
carry most of the weight and provide power to
operate its reel and lifting rails. Like the rake,
there was another pair of smaller “crazy” wheels
at the rear which supported the back of the
machine. The wide ground-driven reel at the
base of the hay loader, rotated counter to the
direction of travel. It contained several bars of
teeth that lifted the hay off the ground so that it
could be picked up by the six oscillating lifting
rails that carried the hay upward to the back of
the truck bed.
Making loose hay in the 1940s utilizing one of the
era’s more marvelous labor-saving tools, a hay loader.
This one was sold by Montgomery Ward.
The finished load was usually piled considerably
higher in the front than at the back. W hen there
was no more room for additional hay on the truck,
one of the workers on the load signaled the truck
driver to stop. If the driver had the window rolled
up to keep loose hay leaves from falling into the
cab, and could not hear the signal, then the
worker might “bang” on the top of the truck’s cab
with the blunt end of his wooden pitchfork handle.
For anyone riding inside the cab, the resulting
clamor must have sounded something like being
inside a bass drum during a rousing Sousa
March. Regardless, the loud racket sent a
message to the driver to stop, unhitch the hay
loader, and take the load of loose hay to the barn.
As you might expect, the mechanical hay loader
proved to be a great improvement over hand
loading of loose hay. Nevertheless, making hay
still demanded much hard, dirty, manual labor.
Fortunately, affordable family farm-size pick-up
balers with automatic twine or wire-tying knotters
would come onto the scene in just a few more
years, during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Development of the automatic pickup baler and
portable bale elevators further helped in taking
much, but by no means all, of the heavy physical
drudgery out of hay making on the family farm.
Eventually the process would turn into an
unbelievably efficient one-man operation.
_____________________________________
The Mystery Clock
by Art Boone
My 1959 Ford car had a clock in the dash that
operated in an unusual manner. Using the
following clues, can you find out how it worked.
10
(1) The clock had the typical “ticking” sound of
most clocks of that era, but you didn’t have to
ever wind it up.
(2) On occasion, you might hear a peculiar
“whizzing” sound coming from somewhere
behind the dash. But, it was not clear whether
the sound was coming from the clock or from
something else.
(3) If you removed the battery from the car, the
clock would continue to run – sometimes for
quite a while. So, how did it work? Turn to the
end of the newsletter to find the answer to this
puzzle.
_____________________________________
Some Historic Landmarks
in Agricultural Engineering - II
by Allan Bandel
In the previous issue of The Rusted Plow
(June, 2008) I reported on some of the most
important “landmark” first time events that have
taken place in the agricultural world,
specifically, as recognized by the American
Society of Agricultural and Biological
Engineers. The source of the information for
that article was the ASABE website
http://www.asae.org. Since not all of our
members have convenient access to the web,
I decided to continue with that idea and list
some more of the important “landmark” events
and their locations that began in the last
newsletter. Not all of these events apply to
Maryland, or even to the Mid-Atlantic Region.
But, this in no way diminishes their importance.
Read on and enjoy.
John Johnston Farm, Geneva New York.
John Johnston in 1835 was the first person in
the United States to lay tile to drain wet soils
on a farm field. By 1856 he had laid over 51
miles of drain tile on his farm, enabling wheat
yields to be doubled.
Moore-Hascall Combine. Hiram Moore and
John Hascall developed a machine for mowing,
winnowing, and threshing grain in 1836. A
model of the original machine is housed in the
Michigan State University Museum, East
Lansing, MI.
Old Red, First Commercial Spindle Cotton
Picker. Old Red was one of four mechanical
pickers that moved across the San Joaquin
Valley's west side in 1943, ushering in the
biggest change in the cotton industry since the
cotton gin. Producers Cotton Oil Company, the
original owner, had the machine rebuilt and then
donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1970.
The Track-Type Tractor. The huge
'grandfather' of a variety of off-highway
construction equipment and of the familiar
military tank; developed and patented by the
Holt Brothers of Stockton, California. Located in
the Haggin Museum, Stockton, California.
Holt Brothers Combine. A unique combine
design developed in response to the need for a
method of speedily harvesting grain on the
steep but fertile hillsides of California,
Washington, and Idaho. Located in the Holt
Exhibit, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California.
Cotton Gin. Eli Whitney developed his first
hand operated cotton gin on the General
Nathaniel Greene plantation, near Savannah,
GA. A patent was obtained on March 14, 1794.
The gin was responsible for the survival of the
cotton industry in the south.
Design for Vegetated Waterways. Engineers
of the Soil Conservation Service developed
procedures for vegetating waterways to prevent
erosion at an outdoor laboratory near
Spartanburg, SC in 1935. These concepts,
developed under W.O. Ree's leadership, have
led to design of over 500,000 miles of
waterways that now safely convey runoff from
millions of acres. A plaque recognizing this
development was dedicated in Stillwater, OK,
near Lake Carl Blackwell, where the SC lab is
now located.
Rain Bird Sprinkler. The invention of the
Impact Sprinkler Head by Orton Englehardt in
Glendora, CA, in 1933 contributed greatly to the
expansion of sprinkler irrigation.
Commemorative plaques, dedicated in 1990,
are located at Glendora's Heritage Park (near
11
the original Englehard shed where the sprinkler
was invented) and at the corporate office of
Rain Bird, who commercialized the development.
Tillage and Traction Equipment Design
Criteria. A development that led to new tillage
tools. The pioneering work in soil dynamics
initiated in 1922 by Dr. Mark L. Nichols,
Professor of Agricultural Engineering at Auburn
University, is commemorated with a plaque at
the Farm Tillage Machinery Laboratory (now
the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory) in
Auburn, Alabama.
Corn Silage Harvester. Charles C. Fenno of
Grinnell, Iowa patented the first field corn
silage harvester. Andrean and Adolph
Ronning, of Boyd, MN patented further
improvements in 1915. Plaques dedicated to
recognize two Corn Silage Harvester
developments are located on the Poweshiek
County Fair Grounds in Grinnell, IA and in the
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering
Building on the Twin Cities campus of the
University of Minnesota.
FMC Continuous Rotary Pressure Sterilizer.
The food canning industry was revolutionized
in 1920, when the continuous rotary pressure
sterilizer was introduced by Albert R.
Thompson. Thompson was chief engineer for
the Anderson-Barngrover Co. of San Jose,
California, now the FMC Corporation.
Hume-Love Floating Cutterbar and Pickup
Reel. The flexible floating cutter bar and the
tined pickup reel, patented in 1932 and 1935,
were developed by James E. Love and Horace
D. Hume near Garfield, WA and are used
extensively for harvesting peas, lentils and
soybeans.
introduced a new pole-frame construction that
revolutionized the way barns were built and
gave birth to the pole-frame construction
industry. A plaque recognizing the pole-frame
building was commemorated in St. Joseph, MO
and is located in the NFBA headquarters in
Lawrence, KS.
Agricultural Aviation. Agricultural aviation
began in 1921 when C.R. Neillie used a military
plane to dust catalpa trees near Troy, OH. B.R.
Coad, C.E. Woolman, G.B. Post and Delta Air
Service improved on the development, such that
the quality and safety of foods, fiber and the
health of people worldwide have been greatly
improved. A plaque is located in the National
Agricultural Aviation Association Museum in
Jackson, MS.
Rubber Tires on Tractors. Hoyle Pounds in
Florida in 1926, Hessel Roorda in Iowa in 1929,
and Harry Merritt, of Allis-Chalmers, in
Wisconsin in 1932 pioneered the developments
that led to rubber tires on almost all farm
tractors by 1940. Plaques recognizing those
developments are located in the Orange County
Historical Museum in Orlando, FL; Centennial
Park in Rock Valley, IA; and in Stonefield
Village, Cassville, WI.
Internal Combustion Tractor. In 1902, C. W.
Hart and C. H. Parr, produced and sold the first
Hart-Parr tractor. By 1940 tractors with internal
combustion engines had largely replaced horses
and steam engines. A plaque commemorating
the internal combustion tractor is located at the
Floyd County Museum in Charles City, Iowa.
Center Pivot Irrigator. Frank Zybach, farming
near Strasburg, CO, patented a "Self-Propelled
Sprinkling Irrigating Apparatus" in 1952,
starting an industry with several manufacturers,
including Valley Manufacturing, who first
commercialized the irrigator.
Shielded Snapping Rolls for Corn
Harvesting. Following early developments in
the mid-1800s, C. Morrison of Deere & Co.,
harvested corn with a combine using shielded
snapping rolls in 1952, leading to domination of
corn harvests by combines with safe, efficient,
shielded snap ping ro lls. A plaque
commemorating shielding snapping rolls is
located at the John Deere Des Moines works in
Ankeny, Iowa.
Pole-Frame Building. In the mid-1940's,
"B.G." Perkins of Doane Agricultural Services
Slotted Inlet Ventilation. A crucial step in the
evolution of modern animal agri-culture was
12
development of mechanical ventilation
methods for animal housing. In the late 1940s
W. F. Millier, working at Cornell Univ with Prof.
C. Turner developed the concept of the slotted
inlet, which is now widely used for
mechanically ventilated agricultural buildings.
A plaque commemorating slotted inlets is
located at Cornell Univ., Ithica, NY.
Graham-Hoeme Chisel Plow. Fred Hoeme, of
Hooker, OK, developed a heavy-duty chisel
plow in 1933. He made and sold about 2000.
In 1938, W.T. Graham, Amarillo, TX,
purchased manufacturing and distribution
rights. About half of American Great Plains
farmers have owned chisel plows, using them
to control wind erosion.
Look for the final installment of this list in a
future issue of The Rusted Plow.
_____________________________________
Would You Believe it?
by Art Boone
! For years, an apple festival’s main attraction
was making apple cider and selling it. Ladies
halved the apples in period costumes and a
gasoline engine was used to grind up the
apples for pressing. The local health
department shut the practice down for three
reasons: (1) Bees are drawn to cider and one
could sting a child. (2) The cider had to be
pasteurized before being sold to the public.
And (3) The fumes from the engine could
allegedly pollute the cider.
As a result, the operation had to be moved
indoors. The ladies could no longer cut the
apples because they might cut themselves.
Pasteurization had to be done in a sanitary
room, and an electric motor had to be used to
drive the grinder. So much for anything being
authentic anymore!
! Part of a farm life Bed-and-Breakfast
operation involved the youngsters milking a
cow. Everything was going well untill one of the
mothers caught her child drinking the milk –
then she went berserk – and off to the hospital
they went. Doctors assured her that her son
would live.
! A little girl had difficulty peeling her banana for
lunch at school, so she took a small paring knife
with her to alleviate the difficulty. She was
suspended for three days. They call that “zero
tolerance” today. (Note: When I was a
youngster, most of the boys carried a “penknife”
in their pants pocket at all times. It was used to
whittle, to cut fishing line, to eat turnips, to cut
baler twine, to open feed bags, to hurl at a
target, etc. if you had a two-bladed knife, you
were a “cut above” – pardon the pun!)
! And, a little boy at a “Pick-Your-Own” orchard
asked his mother if he could go pick his own
cherries. The boy climbed a tree, fell and broke
his arm. In court, the lady stated that if she had
known that cherries grew on trees, she wouldn’t
have let him go. Her lawyer asked the farmer if
he knew that people could fall out of a cherry
tree and hurt themselves. He admitted that
“Yes”, he did. The farmer had to pay the medical
bill. Isn’t our court system wonderful?
_____________________________________
Committee Report:
Sen. James Clark Main Display Building
by Phil Greenstreet
I hope you all took the opportunity to visit during
Farm Heritage Days and saw the final grading
and seeding. It is the result of lots of hard work
by many of our fellow club members. The work
really adds to the appearance of the building
and so my thanks to all involved.
We are having the sprinkler system design
reworked to better meet our needs and it may
be done by the time you are reading this.
We are in need of an architect to draw up plans
for the interior office space, if you know of one
please give me a name and number.
_____________________________________
Bake Sale/Auction Report
by Dorothy Frank
I am delighted to report that the Bake
Sale/Auction that took place on Sunday
13
afternoon was a huge success. In spite of the
slim crowd in attendance over the weekend
due primarily to the unsettled weather, there
were many enthusiastic bidders present and as
a result, we cleared approximately $1,300 in
profit on the many cakes and pies auctioned
off. Some of the individual items brought as
much as $100 each.
I want to express my appreciation to the many
folks who responded to my request and baked
some very delicious and attractive cakes and
pies. Rather than risk listing names and
possibly missing someone, you know who you
are. Thanks also go to those who participated
in the spirited bidding. A special thanks to Brice
Ridgely who did his usual fine job of serving as
auctioneer, often injecting the right amount of
gentle humor into the proceedings to make the
sale a festive occasion..
____________________________________
Hebb House Committee
by Virginia Frank
The Hebb House was cleaned thoroughly prior
to Farm Heritage Days. But, due to the wet
weather that occurred over the weekend, the
floor will need to be cleaned again. Also, the
back side porch was pressure washed and
allowed to dry. Then, thanks to Art Boone, a
coat of primer and a coat of top coat paint was
applied. The porch looks great now!
The supplies have been delivered for
replacement of the upper deck over the back
porch of the house. Hopefully, the new deck
will be in place by the end of the month.
Mark your calendars now. The holiday Open
House and Train Garden is scheduled for the
consecutive weekends of December 6 & 7 and
December 13 & 14. We will be calling people
for donations of homemade cookies for
refreshments. Please keep us in mind and
stop by to see the Hebb House all decorated
for the holidays.
____________________________________
The Club’s Website
Don’t forget to check out the Club’s website –
www.farmheritage.org . See for yourself what
increasing numbers of visitors are checking out
more and more. While there, if you find that
something should be added or revised, please
contact, or send a note, to any of the officers, or
send an e-mail to the site’s webmaster, Jenny
Frecker, at jenny_frecker@yahoo.com. NOTE:
there is an underline (_) between “jenny” and
“frecker”.
_____________________________________
Basket Bingo Committee
by Virginia Frank
The Basket Bingo Committee has started
already to make plans for our Second Annual
Basket Bingo. The date has been set for Friday,
March 6, 2009. Mark this date on your calendars
now.
If you missed our First Annual Basket Bingo last
year, then you missed a really great time. Plan
on being there this year. More information will
be forthcoming soon.
____________________________________
Club Officers, Board of Directors
and Committee Chairpersons
Names of club officers and their telephone
numbers are printed under the masthead of The
Rusted Plow. The current Board of Directors
members and Committee Chairs are as follows:
Board of Directors:
Art Boone . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dick Claycomb . . . . . . . . .
Phil Greenstreet . . . . . . . .
Walt Toney . . . . . . . . . . . .
John Mihm . . . . . . . . . . . . .
David Haugh . . . . . . . . . . .
410-531-2644
410-549-2171
410-489-0403
301-854-6398
410-489-7704
410-489-4728
Club committees and chairpersons:
Technology/Web Site — Jennifer Frecker.
(contact her
by e-mail at
jenny_frecker@yahoo.com) (NOTE: There
is an underline (_) between “jenny” and
“frecker”.)
Hebb House —Virginia Frank - (410) 5312569
Site Development & Layout — Glenn Webb (410) 461-9243
14
Bank Barn — David Haugh - (410) 4894728
Main Display Building — Phil Greenstreet (410) 489-0403
Fund Raising & Grants — Paul Miller (410)
461-8335 & Charles Feaga (410) 5315100
Storage and Outbuildings — John Mihm (410) 489-7704 and Dick Claycomb
(410) 549-2171
Sunshine — Dorothy Frank - (410) 5315555 (Notify her regarding the need for
cards in the event of sickness, death,
birth, etc.)
Asset Management — John Foertschbeck
(410) 795-1490
Activities — Art Boone (410) 531-2644
These hard working club leaders would
welcome your ideas, helpful suggestions,
active participation, etc. Please feel free to
contact them.
_____________________________________
Repair Services Available. Tractor magneto
repair (Wico, American Bosch, IH, Fairbanks
Morse). Some exchange units available. All
work guaranteed. Fast service. Also,
carburetor, generator and starter repair
(including Ford Model “A” and Model “T”). Gil
Hilsinger, 1538 Buckhorn Road, Sykesville, MD
21784. Call (410) 795-3734.
except for one difference. The spring was
equipped with moveable contact points that
closed when the spring wound down. When the
contact points closed, current from the car
battery rewound the spring. That’s why the clock
continued to run for a time – even after the car’s
battery was removed.
_____________________________________
Calendar of Events
Sep 23 Oct 4 H o w a r d
County Farm-City
Celebration. For information on
sponsorship and a schedule of
events, please contact Kathy
Zimmerman at (410) 313-6500. Also,
visit the Howard County Antique
Farm Machinery Club website at
www.farmheritage.org.
Oct 4-5
11th Annual Barnyard Jamboree
and Antique Tractor Show. Star
Community Equestrian Center,
Hagerstown, MD.
Oct 4-5
36th Annual Catoctin Antique Gas
Engine Show. Wolfsville, MD.
Oct 11-12 11th Annual Southern Maryland
Farm-Life Festival. Feature: John
Deere. Charlotte Hall, MD.
For Sale. Farmall F-140 tractor with 1-row
mounted cultivators and an integrally attached
single-bottom, 14-inch moldboard plow. All in
excellent condition. $4,500. Call Donald
Baugher at (410) 465-6472.
____________________________________
Nov 17
General Monthly Membership
Meeting. Dining Hall. Howard
County Fairgrounds. W est
Friendship, MD.
Dec
No General Monthly Membership
Meeting in December.
Solution to Mystery Clock Puzzle
Dec 6-7
Holiday Open House & Train
Garden. The Hebb House at the
Howard County Living Farm Heritage
Museum. West Friendship, MD.
The clock in the dash had a helical spring
similar to that in many “wind-up” clocks –
15
And then there was the one about ...
Dec 13-14 Holiday Open House & Train
Garden. The Hebb House at the
Howard County Living Farm
Heritage Museum. W est
Friendship, MD.
------2009------
The young fellow from the farm who was called
up by the draft board and was given a physical
by a doctor who also just happened to be his
family doctor. The young fellow passed easily
and was put in the Army, which really burned
him up.
Jan 19
General Monthly Membership
Meeting. Dining Hall. Howard
County Fairgrounds. W est
Friendship, MD.
When he returned home (after serving his
country), he stormed into his doctor’s office.
“You’re a fine doctor,” he said. “It’s funny how
you could always find something the matter with
me when I was paying you $20 a visit!”
Feb 16
General Monthly Membership
Meeting. Dining Hall. Howard
County Fairgrounds. W est
Friendship, MD.
— from: Country Chuckles, Cracks
& Knee-Slappers
Edited by Mike Lessiter
_____________________________________
Mar 16
General Monthly Membership
Meeting. Dining Hall. Howard
County Fairgrounds. W est
Friendship, MD.
Mar 6
Basket Bingo. Further details to be
announced.
____________________________________
And Finally, A Few Chuckles
to Lighten Your Day
During the war, a bright young farmer in the
Army overseas received a letter from his wife
wanting to know how she was going to plant
the potatoes in the east 40 acres without help.
The farmer wrote back, “Whatever you do,
don’t dig up the east 40. That’s where the guns
are buried.”
As is customary in wartime, his letter was read
by the censor. Not long after, he received a
reply from his upset young wife saying, “A
company of soldiers overran the east 40 and
dug it all up. What should I do now?”
He replied with a short note saying, “Plant the
potatoes!”
Chris Feaga explains some of the finer points about
how the antique stone crusher works to some attentive
visitors at the Farm Heritage Days Show at the Living
Farm Heritage Museum on Sunday, September 28,
2008. The show was open to the public from Friday to
Sunday of that week.