Howard Olson (Farm Collector, January 2005) may
have a rarer implement than he realizes. I do not believe it is a
corn binder, but a crimson clover harvester. In the 1930s, times
were hard and money was scarce on middle Tennessee farms, and
crimson clover became a great cash crop. The seed brought a good
price per bushel. Crimson clover was grown more around Winchester,
the farmers began to sow and sell the seed. It was sowed in August
and could be pastured by sheep and cows in the winter if care was
taken. My father would turn his cows on the clover for an hour and
then get them out to prevent bloat. It increased their milk
production.
Our neighbor had a 20-acre field of crimson clover ready to
harvest. He tried to cut it with a mower and was losing seed. The
next day he came in with three harvesters that looked just like
that pictured in the January 2005 Farm Collector. I don’t
know whether he bought, borrowed or leased them. I suspect he got
them at Winchester where a lot of crimson clover was grown, and may
have returned them after they were used in our neighborhood.
The implement had a cutter bar (sickle) with an apron behind it
on which the cut clover fell. There were three arms
which came around, over, and down and swept the cut clover off into
small piles. Canvas was put in the bottom of the wagons used to
haul the clover to the thresher to catch the seed that scattered
out. The clover was threshed with a wheat thresher and usually the
stack was run through the second time in order to get all the seed.
By this means, good money was realized from a small field.
The arms that swept the clover off the apron came up and over
the drive wheel. I moved away after that year, and when I came back
to Tennessee, crimson clover wasn’t grown as before. It is not
grown in Franklin County now, but for a time it was a great cash
crop. That has been nearly 70 years ago.
Dick Poplin
Shelbyville, TN
An implement in the January 2005 issue is identified as corn binder, but I
don’t believe that’s what it is and I don’t think it’s built heavy
or large enough to cut corn. I think it’s a clover harvester (for
seed). My dad had a tin pan that bolted to the cutter bar of the
mower. Mother drove the team and dad walked behind with a large
wooden rake, and as clover seed hay built up, he raked it off in a
bunch behind the mower.
Also, in the same issue is a brush hook or
cutter. A single bit axe handle went into the loops or eyes.
Harold Randall
Springport, MI
