3775 Herman Avenue, San Diego 4, California
I notice my subscription has run out so am sending a renewal, as
I, like all the other readers don’t want to miss an issue. I do
get a great deal of pleasure out of reading the interesting letters
from the many readers as well as the pictures of the old rigs, so
many makes I have never seen and some I have never heard of. The
to the days of the old straight straw stacker but the hand feed
machines I never saw. The self feeder was in existence as far back
as I can remember.
I began threshing back in 1912, firing a 70hp. N & S double
cylinder pulling an N & S 36×56 separator with Garden City wing
feeder. At that early date most of the grain in our part of the
country was wheat and was put up in round stacks and could be
threshed at such time as the thresher could get around to it. We
often worked up to late November before we got to the last of our
run. In the year 1915 I got my engineers license and took over the
duties of engineer and manager of the rig I had fired for my father
the three years before, while he took charge of the second machine
he had bought that year.
I threshed down through the year 1925 when by that time the runs
had dwindled down from 90 days to 10 days as all the farmers had
bought the small two man rigs and were doing their own work and
then again the hard surfaced roads had made moving impossible
except the side roads and fields. So I sold out and took to other
work. I left Minnesota where I was born and did all my engine work,
and came to sunny California in the year 1940 and am now working
for the State operating automotive equipment of any and all kinds
such as trucks, tractors, diggers, dozers or whatever piece of
equipment is needed for the job at hand. It’s all good
machinery and I enjoy my work, but it is not steam and only an old
steamer knows what it’s like to pull a throttle and feel the
throb of steam surging through those iron lungs as the old steamer
obeys the hand of the engineer.
I have often wondered why the letters in the magazine are most
all from engineers. What about the boys from the other or as my old
separator man used to say (the business end) of the outfit. Surely
there are still some of the men left who spent their threshing days
behind the blower or wind stacker who have some interesting stories
to tell, as well as the boys from the power end. Come on fellows
let’s hear from you and see some of your pictures (close ups)
as we have of the old engines. I have many pictures of the rig both
at work and on the move. I write to and get many letters from old
threshers whoso letters appear from issue to issue of the magazine.
I have also written to p. brother thresher from England whose
letter appeared in the last issue. I will gladly answer any and all
letters from the fellows whoever or wherever you are. Keep up the
good work and let us all get better acquainted as we are the last
of that great line of Iron Men. I will add that I am now 59 years
old and have spent 15 years at a throttle.
