Dern Sodbusters

[Delmonico]

One studying "Old West" history will often run into stories about the conflict between the sodbusters (farmers) and the cattlemen.  We think of sodbusters with a team of horses and a grasshopper plow tuning one strip of grass over at a time. 

This is Dated 1910 and is out of the Northern Great Plains collection of photos from the Dakotas, on American Memory.  www.memory.loc.gov  But this scene could be late 1880's or 1890's.


http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?ngp:6:./temp/~ammem_AdWo::displayType=1:m856sd=ndfapaza:m856sf=067:@@@


Thats 14 furrows at once, it's working a bit, notice the smoke.

[Big Hext Finnigan]

Man.. what a beast!
Monte Walsh woulda really hated that thing.

The clash of cultures found in the western expansion is the fascinating undercurrent of our history.
Adios,

[Delmonico]

Gophergrease and I sometimes set the cook camp up at a fairly large antique tractor show near Lincoln.  One day when it was pushin' 105 degrees we had the tarp off my soogun rigged up fer shade.  When we didn't have ta be at the fire tendin' the cookin' we were under the tarp.

We were watchin' some fellows with one of the coal burnin' monsters belted up to a threshin' machine and they were threshin' oats out in the sun with no shade.  Gopher Grease and I were glad we were just a couple of cosineros instead of a couple of derned old sodbusters.

[Delmonico]

Now all you folks with a farmin' background:  Don't this look like more fun ta get tagether with yer friends and neighbors than ta just ride around in the air conditioned cab of yer modern combine with the sterioo cranked up.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/award/nbhips/lca/124&topImages=12457r.jpg&topLinks=12457v.jpg&displayProfile=0&title=J.H.%20Deets,%20Kearney,%20Buffalo%20County,%20Nebraska.&m856s=$dnbhips$f12457&dir=ammem&itemLink=D?psbib:8:./temp/~ammem_7BVh:

[Delmonico]

Of course even dern sodbuster can have a bad day.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/award/nbhips/lca/140&topImages=14008r.jpg&topLinks=14008v.jpg&displayProfile=0&title=Threshing%20machine%20went%20through%20bridge%20at%20Miller,%20Buffalo%20County,%20Nebraska&m856s=$dnbhips$f14008&dir=ammem&itemLink=D?psbib:24:./temp/~ammem_2vGo:

Bout now Monte rides up, threshin' crew says Mr. can you pull us out with yer horse? 

[Brazos Bucky Smith]

Delmonico, I think I heard a loud, resounding "NO!" way out here in the Oregon Territory.  No wonder the average life expectancy was somewheres around 40/50 back then!  Up workin' at dawn. meals, and bed about dark. Doesn't get any better than that!!  NOT!  but probably beat life in the cities and factories of the east.

BB

[Delmonico]

Wheat and oats needed threshed in the summer when It was hot.  the older varieties of corn were not picked till late in the fall when it was cooler or durn right cold.  The corn was picked by hand and often husked as it was picked, it was thrown in a wagon like the one in this link.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/award/nbhips/lca/100&topImages=10008r.jpg&topLinks=10008v.jpg&displayProfile=0&title=Corn%20picking%20near%20Lexington,%20Dawson%20County,%20Nebraska.&m856s=$dnbhips$f10008&dir=ammem&itemLink=D?psbib:5:./temp/~ammem_Q1IO:

The higher board on the one side is a bang board, it kept ya from throwin' yer ear inta the next row.   There is still a dedecated group of folks who keep this tradition alive and have contests to see who can pick and husk their row the fastest.

[Delmonico]

After the corn was picked and husked it had to be shelled.  Well here ya go, a corn shellin'.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/award/nbhips/lca/124&topImages=12466r.jpg&topLinks=12466v.jpg&displayProfile=0&title=Shelling%20corn%20out%20of%20a%20Nebraska%20corn%20crib,%20twelve%20miles%20north%20of%20Kearney,%20Nebraska.&m856s=$dnbhips$f12466&dir=ammem&itemLink=D?psbib:4:./temp/~ammem_wHFC:

The piles by the back of the steam tractor are already shelled, the other is the one to be shelled.  Look at the piles of shelled cops, think how much media fer yer tumbler that would make if ground up.   Sorry, on the fuel starved prairie I got a dollar says most end up in the cook stove and heatin' stove,  course they'll also work good in the tank heater ta give the cows and horses a drink some cold mornin"

[Uncle Eph]

when my dad was a boy he started driving headerbox when he was 8 years old and was working on a 33 mule combine by the time he was 14, as far as he was concerned that greatest invention was the the self propelled combine and when we got our first self leveling combine he was in heaven.

Dad grew up cowboying and farming and as far as he was concerned a horse was a tool that you had to care for more then a tractor.

[Calamity Jane]

Humm, fer years I used ta run one of them smoke-breathin metal monsters FER FUN, 'til I got smart 'n' built one 1/2 size soz I kin sit under a shade tree 'n' run it 

[Delmonico]

Just watched a Modern Marvels on the History Channel that was a new one on harvestin' crops.

It had some black and white film clips with what they said was a 40 horse combine.  Was busy eatin' a big ol' samwhich and didn't cout the horse's but it was awsome lookin'.  I'd be right proud ta cook fer a bunch that was runnin' one a them taday.  Perhaps someday the crew of such a rig as that and me will cross paths somewhere. 

[Delmonico]

PS.  Is anyone else havin' trouble with that first link on this thread, I have heard a few have.  It is a different collection than the others and may not work as good.  If so I found one almost as good in the other link.  Let me know and I'll change it.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Del, The first two you posted didn't work for me, the rest did..........Buck