Grain wagon quandry
I'm trying to restore a wooden flare box grain wagon. I can make out the words "Chief Bemidji," but would like more information, such as the year it was built, and if it was painted or stained. Any help would be appreciated.
-Jerry Klein, Box 265, Fessenden, ND 58438
Digging for antiques
I'm in a dither. I stumbled onto a unique form of income. I get permission to clean the old farm and ranch dumps. The old dumps from back in the '20s and '30s are good, but for antiques the dumps closed in the 1800s are like "Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!" together.
- Clifford E. Richardson, Rural Route 1, Box 1, Max, NE 69037; (308) 423-5885
Editor's note: The Farm Collector classified advertisements may have just what you need!
More uses for gunnysacks
I really enjoyed Delbert Trew's "Tribute to the Feed Sack" (Farm Collector, February 2003). I sure wish that I had that bundle of gunnysacks that he tossed out. Of the many uses of the gunnysack that he mentioned, he never mentioned how good a wet gunnysack was in fighting a prairie fire. Here in South Dakota's shortgrass country, most ranchers used to keep several gunny sacks in a cream can of water during the summer and fall. A wet gunnysack is very good for swatting grass fires. Nowadays, since we can't find gunnysacks anymore, we have to use worn-out denims or whatever we can find.
We raised a lot of chickens when I was a kid. Whether baby chicks, fryers, or laying hens, each had their own feed formula. This feed came in 100-pound cotton sacks of assorted prints and colors. My mother, being a seamstress, would turn these sacks into dresses, shirts, aprons, etc.
Whenever we went to the feed store, my mother would go in and pick out the sacks that she liked best. These sacks would be stacked five or six high. More times than not, the sack that she chose would not be on the top. Sometimes it might be on the bottom, or anywhere in between. The feed store employees never seemed to mind - at least not in our presence. I'm sure that many other farm wives did the same thing.
- Lawrence Burke, Elm Springs, SD 57736