In the May 2011 issue of Farm Collector, Jack Alexander shared some incredible vintage photos of the wheat harvest in Whitman County in the Palouse Country in eastern Washington. He shared some of the history of working with horses and mules in the hilly region, as well as some background on the Mayview Tram that moved sacks of grain to storage at the bottom of the Snake River canyon.

And while the photos told quite the story, we think these videos will be even more eye opening.

 
This silent film was digitzed and uploaded at Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University from a film held in the WSU Libraries (Pullman, Washington). It shows farming on the Palouse in 1938 using a horse-drawn combine.

 
This video, which was also digitzed by at the Washington State University Libraries's Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) from film held there (MS2002-15), was originally created by Norman Longhurst. It shows the Mayview Tram in action in around 1935.

Cornhusking contests today don’t draw the tens of thousands of spectators who once attended the contests that Time magazine in 1936 proclaimed “... the fastest growing sporting spectacle in the world.

Below are some videos from the glory days of cornhusking contests.

A newsreel of the 1937 National Cornhusking Championship in Marshall, Missouri:

A newsreel of the 1938 National Cornhusking Championship in Dell Rapids, South Dakota:

For more on today's cornhusking competitions, see Jerry Schleicher's article in the May 2012 issue of Farm Collector.

Gas Engine Magazine subscriber Jeff Hyatt of Patterson, N.Y., recently sent us the link to this video produced by the Tilly Foster Farm Museum located in Brewster, N.Y. The farm is where the Putnam County Antique Machinery Assoc. holds its annual antique farm equipment show. In this video, Jeff, the PCAMA president, shows off some of the pieces that were on display at the 2009 show: