Any idea what this piece of equipment is?

[Tgrasher]

This is a picture of my grandmother (on right) and a friend probably around 1925. I can't figure out what this is that they are posing behind. Any ideas on what it might be?

 

[mschwartz]

Looks like a grain binder to me.

 

[Kelly in tx]

This is a picture of my grandmother (on right) and a friend probably around 1925. I can't figure out what this is that they are posing behind. Any ideas on what it might be?

It is a binder. A binder used to cut small grains, tie a string around a "bundle" and then drop the bundles. After that people would gather a bunch of bundles together and set them upright into a "shock". Later the bundles would be pitched onto a wagon, taken to a threshing machine and threshed (separating the grain from the straw).

 

[Robert (ID)]

yup its a binder.. If i look around here there is still some parts laying around for em..

 

[Cliff Nelson]

It is a grain binder. Looking at it from the right hand side where the bundles drop off.

 

[Tony in SD]

As others have said, if is a grain binder. My grandpa had one like it. It gave him so much grief, that he parked it in the field, went to town and bought a new one. It is still a monument in the field, to grandpa, exactly where he left it way before was born.

 

[Tx Jim]

I used a similar grain binder to harvest some oats when I was a teenager.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

This is a picture of my grandmother (on right) and a friend probably around 1925. I can't figure out what this is that they are posing behind. Any ideas on what it might be?

Grain binder. A staple at many a tractor show & fun to operate.

Mike

 

[Brown David]

I clearly remember messing around with the old Massey Harris binder stored in my grandfathers machine shed when I was around 8 years old or so.

Lifted the lid on the binder twine container and was immediately attacked by a horde of yellow jackets who were not impressed with their visitor.

A very good lesson learned in being careful to look for activity before fooling around with such things.

 

[JimB2]

Grain binder as others have said, it even has the bundle carrier on it. When I was young, our Frost & Wood grain binder had originally been horse drawn when my Grandfather bought it probably back in the 1920-30s but my Dad had cut the horse pole off and installed a hitch for a tractor. I drove the tractor and Dad sat on the binder and operated the controls. Our binder was a Frost & Wood, made in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada and it was a 5 Ft cut. The grain binder was the only piece of farm machinery that had the cutting head on the left side and you were always turning corners to the left, all other mowers, rakes, balers and forage harvesters were right hand cut. Later Dad replace the Frost & Wood with a John Deere 6 Ft cut grain binder and then neighbor bought a combine and he combined all the farms in the area. It is difficult to tell the brand from the photo as Frost & Wood, IH, Massy Harris and JD looked very similar, the brand name was usually across the rear where the woman on the left is standing. I still remember what all the operator levers are used for and it was my first introduction to twine tie knotters.