Speaker: Of course now there would be the- what they called the reaper, that came in before the- that was before the minder. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: Yeah, that was before the binder. That didn't tie the- that didn't tie the grain, that cut it and I put the grain off in bundles, but then you had to go around and tie that by hand.

And farm work was practically all done by hand pretty much. Hay was- well, we had a horse ring but you had to coil it and- that was just a- when I was a boy the, ah- that was just about the time that the mowing machines and the grain-binder came into it. The re-- up to that time it had, ah- it had been a cradle. (laughs)

Stook it up. Now, of course, they have- then next come the reaper. Ah, they just cut- cut it and laid it in bundles but they didn't tie it. Then came the binder and they tied it. Then came the binder with the sheaf-carrier and they carried the sheaves into, ah, six and dropped them off for a stook.

He done practically anything. If you broke something on, ah, a ladder, you broke something on your binder, broke something on your mower, ah, had to get, ah- oh, anything made out of iron, you'd go and- and take it. Even a crank for, ah, turn a grindstone, they'd make it, you-know? Piece of iron. Buy the iron, make the stuff.

And (inc). And the grain, we used to take the binder, cut it and put it into sheaves, stook it out in the field and then go along. Maybe, well (inc) years, the stook thrashed, there was a bunch come with the teams on the wagons, you-know, and tractor had been at the mill here, threshing-mill, they threshed it.

Speaker: The binders would show- throw the sheaves out. Interviewer: Right. Speaker: Yes and then we'd pick them up and put them- I think it was pretty much twelve sheaves to a bundle. Mm-hm.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. Then after the grain grew and was ready to cut, what piece of equipment cut it? Speaker: Used a binder. Interviewer: What did a binder do? Speaker: Well a binder cut the grain and uh, put it out in stooks, tied it with uh, binder twine- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And then (inc) it out in a row- in rows, you-know?

We grew corn at the last, but not- not at first. Dad I-don't-think ever grew corn. But Jimmy did, and he ah, just used a- he- well, he was in on a corn binder, and ah, then he'd ah, it was cut and in stoo-- a s-- um sheaves, and then he'd draw it in close to the buildings and draw in a stoop of corn a day for the cattle while it lasted.

Speaker: Yes I (inc) quite a bit when I was a kid but you never see anybody do it now. Interviewer 1: (inc) Interviewer 2: Yeah. Never, no more. So you- w-- how would you do that? You just collect it or- Speaker: Well you -you have a binder and it goes around the field and ah it auto-- it binds the sheathes and takes them out as you go around and then you'd have to come around and- and pick the sheathes off the ground and stook them in- in ah against each other.

Speaker: And sure enough, he'd forgot to turn the power off. I've had twenty-five year close calls in my lifetime. Twenty-five. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: One of the first ones was going around the field with a tractor and a binder and having a dead tree fall on the hood of the tractor.

Speaker: And sure enough, he'd forgot to turn the power off. I've had twenty-five year close calls in my lifetime. Twenty-five. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: One of the first ones was going around the field with a tractor and a binder and having a dead tree fall on the hood of the tractor.

Speaker: But ah, I- I- I learned a lot there, sure did. Interviewer: What kind of things did you learn? Can you tell us a little bit- Speaker: Well. Interviewer: About that? Speaker: Well, I was the repair man. Interviewer: Oh? Speaker: Yes. I liked machinery and remember I had a binder there when dad said- it- it had a wooden bottom in it. Well c-- g-- get riding over stones, it- it got broke up, you-know. So dad said this one time, he said, "You got- can you put a b-- bottom in that?" And I said, "Yes I can."

And nobody has them anymore, they've got forage harvesters and-all-the-rest-of-it. And you- you'd have the old corn binder. And you cut the corn and put it into sheaves. Went out and loaded them, you had people come to help with that. Bring that in, put it in this cut-box, and it was run with a- he had a fifteen-thirty international.

Mm- yeah, well th-- the- the- the- the binder had ah, what they call a bill-hook on it and when the thing was set up right, y-- the sickle bar, depending on the- on the size of the binder, there's sickle-bar running on a- on a pitman shaft which was driven by the landwheel.

Then he got an old Fordson tractor and he used that until he didn't need a tractor anymore, until he retired. Um, everything was fixed, made do, he had the oldest working binder that I ever knew. He had a neig-- Well, the neighbour had a threshing machine that worked as good as any I ever saw before or since and they still used it until I was probably sixteen, seventeen years old? They were still using it.

Speaker: A different way of ah putting the hay away then from just putting it in loose and back in those days when you had the old binder. Dad did a lot of cursing in those binders.

Speaker: So they would cut the grain with the binder and would b-- be done up in stooks. Interviewer 2: Right. Interviewer 1: Yes, okay. Speaker: And then people went- neighbours went to the next neighbour and the thrashing mill would come and neighbours would bring this- load these stooks of grain on their wagon

the fields with two or three or four- four-horse outfit. And- and it- and it took forever to p-- it seems to plough a field of fourteen or fifteen acres. And w-- when you ah- hear the little hummingbird. And when you ah harvested the crop, it was cut with a binder and it was put in stooks in the field and you had a threshing machine. Then you put the s-- sheaves on the wagon and you haul 'em into the barn and- and then you had a big threshing-bee and the neighbours came

Speaker: We used to have ah- I could remember as a kid ah thrashing ah- Interviewer: What is that? Speaker: When they- for- to thrash the grain like take the grain off the- out of the sheath. Instead of a combine going out in the field- Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: They w-- you cut it by a binder, a stoop, put it into the barn and then they would- a fellow with a thrashing machine would go around the- the area (phone rings) and pull in- ah sorry for just a moment.

have one at each corner of the field, and so they'd tie up this side and that lady'd go- and you just kept going, the four of them. And they'd tie it with the stalks of the grain. And I used to be able to do that if the binder kept falling out- didn't tie. Dad showed me how to do it. You take the two bu-- the two tops, where the grain is, and you ste-- you just take a handful of grain about an inch or two thick an you split it in two, and just put