Heritage Days show youth farming equipment of old

Bill Greenwood spoke May 17, to Cadott students, about early farming and road construction equipment, as part of Heritage Days at the Cadott Historical Society. Submitted Photo

As part of the Cadott Historical Society’s Heritage Days, fourth, fifth and six graders descended on the society May 17, to hear about early methods of farming, in regard to plowing, seeding and harvesting with horses. To help bring that history to life, Tom Chapek donated his collection of horse-drawn machinery to the museum, along with Carl Cronquest’s donation.

Bill Greenwood gave a presentation to the students about those pieces of machinery and actually used them in his younger days. So, he also had to be somewhat of a horsemen, even though it’s known that horses sometimes have minds of their own.

Horse-drawn machinery, in comparison to modern equipment, is miniscule, but it did the job and made the work easier than before – everything prior to that was done by hand. This way, the horses pulled the equipment, which did the labor.

Greenwood described the single horse plow and how it functioned. Even though the horse was pulling the plow, it took a lot of muscle from the farmer to walk behind and steer the plow in a straight line; it was a hot, tiring, dirty job.

In the society’s collection of horse-drawn machinery, there’s a Minnesota No. 3 hay mower, which is a series of six made at correctional facilities in St. Cloud, Minn., and Stillwater, Minn. Inmates once made a wide variety of equipment for the Minnesota line, including side rakes, gravity boxes, wagon running gears and more.

The horse-drawn “riding” cultivator was examined. On that piece of equipment, the tines are raised and lowered from the comfort of the cushioned operator’s seat. A driver operated the foot pedal, which allowed for maneuvering around growing plants.

A cultivator can be into a harrow by adding more shovel on the row. A close watch had to be kept, so only the weeds were cut down, and not the new seeding of corn or grain, which meant no sleeping on the job.

To gather loose hay from the field, a dump rake was used and when full, one would pull a lever and it would drop the hay in a pile. The piles were then pitched on a hay wagon and taken the haymow to be piled there.

A steel road scraper is also on display at the museum. Before Benjamin Slusson patented the invention about 1848, in Sidney, Ohio, road construction and basements were completed, using picks and shovels. The scraper was taken to where the basement had to be dug, the horse would pull it, the scraper loosened the dirt and the dirt filled the cavity of the scraper.

The horse would pull it out to be emptied and the process would be repeated. Greenwood said this was how his father dug the basement of their home.