Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Farm Collector

Sons undeniably do their share to help their folks, but the daughters of America aren’t exactly spending their days watching the soaps. I know this because of the emails I receive. It is becoming increasingly common for me to get an email that starts, “I am sending this for my father, who does not use email.” The topic generally pertains to the What is it? section in each issue of Farm Collector. Sometimes the daughter is sending a photo of an unknown tool for us to identify, but more often, she acts as personal assistant to her father, who has identified a given mystery tool. There are a lot of things I like about this development. It certainly expedites matters for those who don’t use email, but who want to…

Until herbicides replaced mechanical weed control, corn was planted in check rows in most of the Corn Belt. In western Pennsylvania where I grew up, corn was drilled in 42-inch rows and not checkrowed. The average width of a horse was 42 inches, and a horse had to fit between the rows of corn to pull a cultivator, so the rows were planted 42 inches apart. We originally used a horse-drawn John Deere 919 two-row planter. Later, we cut off the planter’s long tongue and pulled it with a Ford-Ferguson tractor. Ultimately, the planter was converted again for use with a three-point hitch. Although corn drilling was a popular planting method in the eastern U.S., Corn Belt farmers, with their much larger farms, needed a machine to plant the seeds…

When retired high school teacher Joe Wurth learned of a vintage apple cider press tucked away in a barn in his hometown of Marcus, Iowa, he couldn’t have imagined where the history of the piece would take him. Rich details found in the local newspaper and Marcus historic publications revealed that William “Ed” Rose originally owned this no-name junior press. Rose was the first homesteader in Marcus Township in Cherokee County and, in 1869, the first homesteader in the township to build a dwelling. Having served in the Civil War under General George Armstrong Custer, Rose came to Iowa after being discharged from the service. Joe first learned about the press from retired Marcus postmaster Fred Wilkens, who admired Joe’s display of restored apple presses at The Barns Museum in…

For Richard and Carol Taggart, owners of Grandpa’s Place Museum, every day brings a trip down memory lane. “I have a lot of grandkids and I get called ‘grandpa’ a lot, so I decided to go with ‘Grandpa’s Place,’” Rich says. “I’m an active collector. I’m always snooping and looking. Pretty much every night I’m looking on the computer and trying to see what I can find.” The couple lives in Wadena, Minnesota, a small town about an hour west of Brainerd. Situated on their property, Grandpa’s Place is a 6,000-square-foot complex dedicated to all things vintage, ranging from trinket-sized objects to full-scale displays. Displays feature farm equipment and machinery, appliances and housewares, guns, saws, radios, gas station signs, a covered wagon and stagecoach, bicycles, coffee grinders, a shoeshine stand…

Milk played an amazing part in our country’s development. Pioneers moving west regularly took along cows that provided milk daily on the trip and at their final destination. Milking every morning and evening was part of every settler’s life. Milk was consumed by the farm family and livestock, especially pigs. This author’s late father was born in 1906 on an isolated cattle ranch in Idaho’s Sawtooth mountains. Once when talking to him about his upbringing, I asked about their dogs. Like every family, they had several trained to help with the cattle. I asked what the dogs were fed. He had to stop and think. Dog food wasn’t a purchased item. Who knows if it even existed back then? If it was, it would only be available miles away and…

Dad thought he was boss, but hedge posts ruled the farm In 1956, we moved from Peoria to a place north of Edelstein, Illinois. Dad decided he had had enough of the oppressive city life. Every winter for the first couple of years, we got snowed in for several days at a time as we were the only place on this 1-mile stretch of gravel/mud road. One winter in about 1960, we were snowed in for several days. Dad decided he was going to travel across fields to Lawn Ridge, a small, unincorporated town northwest of us. Lawn Ridge was located at the intersection of (then) State Route 88 (now 40) and Blueridge Road. In that town was a tavern. The tavern not only sold the regular tavern articles, but…

I was probably 4 or 5 years old the spring Dad nearly killed me. He was planting corn with a John Deere 919 drill-type planter and a team of horses in the 7-acre field just over the hill from our barn, with my Granddad Moore (who we kids called Nandad) and me as keen observers. The two-row planter was equipped with a marker on each side to scratch a line in the dirt. This line guided the driver so the next two rows were the correct distance from those preceding them. Each marker consisted of a steel disc on the end of a 4-foot-long steel pole that was hinged to each side of the planter. Levers, at the rear and just below the driver’s seat, raised and lowered each marker.…

According to www.ciderculture.com, when the Romans arrived in what is today the U.K. in 55 B.C., residents there were consuming hard cider. No record exists of how they made it, but historians believe hand tools were used to press juice from apples. In the Middle Ages in France, a horse-powered stone mill was used to crush apples. The mill was overtaken by the screw press during the 13th century. With that equipment, manpower was used to process small batches of apples. The screw press design was used to create both home and commercial presses and a very similar design remains in use today. Early season “Armistice Day blizzard” devastates Iowa’s apple crop In 1940, Iowa was a leading fruit-growing region, second only to Michigan in apple production. That year, the…

The genius of pioneer inventors can confound us. Countless contraptions that revolutionized farming in the 19th and early 20th centuries have become contemporary curiosities, or even mysteries. Here are six sent in by readers. Do you know what they are?  Answers to the October 2022 items will appear in the December 2022 issue. Answers for new items in this issue must be received by October 7, 2022. OCTOBER MYSTERY TOOLS To submit photos: Send prints to Farm Collector, 1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609. Send digital images to editor@farmcollector.com. • Photos should be taken in a well-lit area against a plain background. Include dimensions and any markings on the piece. We cannot guarantee every photo will be published, nor can we respond to inquiries regarding when photos will be…