DAIRYLAND DRIFTINGS

There have been many forms of industry begun that were
comparatively short lived and still provided needed employment at
the time they were in operation. Such was the wire grass industry
that flourished from the turn of the century and up to about 1925.
The American Grass Twine Co. of St. Paul, later and better known as
the Crex Carpet Company had land holdings north of the twin cities
and primarily west of Wyoming, Minnesota of some 12,000 acres. In
addition to this land, the company also owned meadowland of 23,000
acres near Grantsburg, Wis. Because of their operations in the
nearby Grantsburg area I hand on occasion talked with men who
worked there as well as having seen some left over equipment,
namely reapers and several high wheeled wide tired wagons. These
wagons were special built and used to transport wire grass bundles
off the boggy ground to be stacked and later baled. The bales were
later shipped by rail to St. Paul where it was manufactured into
grass rugs, commonly used at that time. Apparently, Japanese
competition is what eventually ceased the Crex company operation.
This company did make twine from wire grass but did not prove a
good product. The knowledge I had gathered was rather sparse until
I talked with Oscar Anderson from Stacy Minn., who attends many
annual thresh-bees. He says to me, ‘You bring your wife and
come to our place for dinner and then I’ll take you over to Art
Bergesons at Wyoming, who was foreman of the camps set up in the
Wyoming, Minn., area. He has a collection of pictures and can give
you the answers, and even has some horse bog-shoes left from that
time.’ After that delicious dinner, Oscar and I went to Arts.
What we found there was enough evidence and knowledge to write up a
book rather than gathering a few notes for an article such as this.
Here was first hand knowledge and would that someone could use his
pictures and print up those pages of history. Pictured is Art 
and Oscar holding a pair of bog-shoes. These ‘shoes’ were
shaped of oak and fitted over the regular horse shoes and held in
place by a metal strap. These added bog-shoes were necessary to
carry the horses from mireing in the boggy areas where wire grass
grew so abundantly.

Harvesting of wire grass begun in June and proceeded until late
fall. Reapers were first in the field, and since this early hay
required considerable drying prior to stacking much hand labor was
involved. The bunches of hay left by the reaper (see photo of two
reapers at work) were turned to dry and placed so as to make one
swath out of two rounds. This process was called ‘flopping’
and done by hired help called ‘rubber-backs’. All hired
labor received $1.00 per 10 hour day or $35.00 per month, plus
board and room. Foreman wages were roughly $125.00 per month.
Reapers working in the boggy ground actually pulled
‘uphill’ all the time. In spite of precautions, there were
soft spots and horses often mired and help was summoned to the
rescue, as pictured. In this picture, the man standing behind the
mired horse is Gust Johnson who worked as a foreman in the
Grantsburg area. This area comprised of three camps and employed up
to 75 men at each camp. It was also a common practice for local
farmers to contract hay stumpage and put up the hay at the rate of
$12.00 a ton. They would receive $6.00 at the time it was stacked
and furrows plowed around the stacks as a fire protection. The
other half was paid when the hay was baled and loaded in box cars.
One such a bidder was a Mr. Dahlquist who is shown with the girls
he hired as ‘rubber backs’. Dahlquist is at the right of
the picture. I was told the girl, third from the left in the light
dress, later became Mrs. Art Bergeson.

The next procedure was to get these swaths into bundles. The
grass to be processed into rugs was to be kept straight. Although
bundles were for a long time tied by hand using pre-cut lengths of
twine, the company started using a machine called a Domen. This
machine pictured was mounted on a scoot affair pulled by a team of
horses. A traveling apron and a knotter were driven by a tank
cooled gas engine mounted under the feeder apron. Three men walked
on either side and placed the grass on the apron. Seated on the
front of the machine is Gust Johnson. The water boy with his jug
also got in the picture.

The process of bundling the grass was later simplified by the
use of Gleaners. This ground driven machine had a pickup attachment
much like our field balers. The team of horses were spaced far
enough apart to straddle the hay swath.

Late in the fall when the wire grass was matured and dry, the
grain binders were put to use to harvest this crop. See photo of 6
binders at work.

Bundles were then gathered using their special
‘Crex-wagons’ and hauled to higher ground to be stacked.
These hay stacks were often up to 20 tons in size. In the hay stack
picture taken at Camp I in the Wyoming area a crew is enjoying a
coffee break. Pete Goff is the man to the far right displaying
bog-shoe intact. The seated man, second from left, is Art Bergeson
himself. This picture taken in 1911 at which time Art was in charge
of 152 men, about 50 head of horses, 21 reapers, 12 gleaners, and 5
balers.