NOSTALGIA

a digger together about 1910. They used it as long as they were
able to work and now that they are both gone, I have no idea what
happened to the digger.

The construction of the digger was simple and rugged to my
knowledge. No repairs were ever needed. It sure was a great help as
compared with digging potatoes out with a spading fork. Whereas the
job of picking them up remained an arduous one, the small plots of
potatoes grown in that area (say one acre average) did not justify
a more sophisticated machine.

The digger did have some minor shortcomings, however. Whereas
most of the dirt, potatoes and stones left the spokes of the
revolving wheel at the side, some would be carried around to the
back. There was a continued ‘rain’ or dirt on the lower
portion of the operator’s pants and an occasional stone would
hit one’s shins with painful results. To overcome these
troubles, my father attached a cross piece at the midpoint of the
handles and from that he hung a piece of burlap. The innovation
worked 100%.

The handles had to be raised quite high for the shovel to clear
the ground when turning and having to lift all parts to the rear of
the axle made quite a load. When letting the shovel down, this same
load had to be held up with one hand so the other could be used to
disengage the hold-up lock.

The speed of pulling was moderately important. There was some
tendency to leave potatoes buried right next to the shovel path and
their tendency was accentuated at slow speeds. My uncle would drag
the field after picking up the potatoes and the spring-toothed
harrow would uncover a few more. Salesmen for the conveyor type .
digger claimed the box bruised the potatoes. At home we kept the
horses going at a moderate walking pace and had no trouble with
bruises.