Visit



On Sale Now

cover



Farm-related videos online! Check out the Farm Collector video index on YouTube, the quickest way to find farm-related videos on the Internet. We've done the searching, all you have to do is the watching! Click below for the Farm Collector video index.



RSS 0.91
RSS 1.0
RSS 2.0
ATOM 0.3
OPML




Page 2 of 2

Dad bought the first big Titan tractor at about the same time as he did the loader, and it proved to be perfect for pulling the loader. With the low gear ratio of the tractor, the speed could be regulated according to the weight of the hay. In heavy going, the one-speed horse-drawn loader often literally "covered up" the men on the load.

Dad purchased the loader from the Hill Hudson people in Olney. Surprisingly, it came already assembled. Most of the farm implements in those days - plows, harrows, discs and straw spreaders - had to be put together by the buyer.

I remember going with him to pick up the loader. We took a load of Red Top seed over to Schultz's Seed Company to sell, and I am sure he used that money to pay for the loader. The sales people helped hitch the machine behind the wagon, and, while the thing looked very ungainly and odd coming down the road, its steel wheels did roll along quite well on the partly graveled road. The only problem came from an occasional low-hung telephone line strung across the road. When we reached one of those, I would shinny up the step-like conveyor of the loader and hold up the wire until Dad could pull past.

The hay loader was put to good use for several years, both on our farm and on the neighbor's, until loose hay was replaced by the much easier-to-handle bales. It was then parked out along the Vanatta fence where, at one time, it served me well when Old Bull went on a rampage and kept me marooned atop that loader until a neighbor could be summoned on the party line, to call off their bulldog.

The hay loader joined the old Titan when it rolled proudly away in one of the first scrap drives of Hitler's War.

Perry E. Piper's remembrances have appeared in various newspapers in Illinois and Indiana for the past 12 years. His columns are collected in two volumes: "Growing Up on Muddy Creek," and "The Muddy Creek Chronicles." For more information, contact Piper at 71 Concordia Drive, Paris, IL 61944.


<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>