Picture for Today

[John B.]

This ought to warm some of us up that are in the cold.

 

[Wile E]

Is that a Titan 8-16 made by IH?

 

[Hoofer B]

Great Photos. Why did they put the loose hay in the barn and then bale it later? I am sure these guys had a reason, but I can't think of any. Anyone know???

 

[Tommy Railsback]

No, it appears to be a Parret, predecessor to Massey-Harris.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I might sneeze.
I might itch.
I might sweat.
But fever probably not.

 

[Lyn Jones]

I'm pretty sure that the tractor is a Happy Farmer 12-24 Model G.

 

[Tom in TN]

Long sleeved shirts and bib overalls. Those guys must have been plenty warm enough.

Whew!

Tom in TN

 

[BigMarv1085]

Dumb question, what are those cables for coming off of the barn

 

[John B.]

Some of the identifying features it sure looks like it.

Thanks for your picture Lyn.

 

[SweetFeet]

What an interesting barn! I wonder why it is so tall and up on stilts.

 

[smallercrawler]

Guy cables to stabilize it?? Looks pretty top heavy/wind vulnerable.

 

[smallercrawler]

Gets hay protected, off field and out of weather faster, then bale as time/equipment/manpower become available?? Likely at that time there were few individual farmers owning "specialized"
equipment due to costs.

 

[Jo Bird]

Tom
Actually the long sleeves slowed down the rate of sweat leaving the body keeping them cooler.
The bibs were the toughest material as far as wearing out the knees while handling hay. The big straw hats provided shade and although you can't tell they were probably wearing gloves as well. With all that as protection it was still plenty warm, I agree.
Jo

 

[Dick L]

When I was a kid all the men wore long sleeved shirts when making hay. They would roll up the sleeves when not handling hay. Always looked like a hose was turned on their backs. When riding the baler boxed to tie miss tied baled I wore a tee shirt and when in clover hay the clover dust made my arms would look like they had been flocked.
Actually non crushed or crimped hay stems are very abrasive on your arms.

 

[formerly ny bill]

story goes that the 2 happiest days a farmer had with a happy farmer tractor were the day he bought it, and the day it left the farm.

 

[Hay_Man]

The evaporative cooling you get from low humidity air and clothes wet with sweat cools the body, But it don't work so well in high humidity environments.

 

[ShadetreeRet]

That's what I was thinking.

 

[ShadetreeRet]

SweetFeet, I have never seen a barn like that either. Obviously it is strictly for storage and not for livestock. The main reason that I can think of for building it like that would be to store equipment underneath. But this way it requires a floor, and with that much wood you could build an equipment shed. Hmmm, Now you got me wonderin' too!

 

[HenryO)]

We did the same in the 30's and 40's because we did not have a baler. The baler would be scheduled just like the threshing machine and when it arrived we baled.Same with threshing.

 

[HenryO)]

I worked in Florida in the 80's and 90's building gas stations. We always wore long sleeves in the heat and it protected our arms from many problems including burns and pinches. Not as uncomfortable as you might think in hot weather when sweating.

 

[EricInSEI]

I know of a barn/corncrib something like that along Lawrenceburg Rd in Hamilton Cty, OH. Except it sits on stone pillars and has a ramp up to it so that equipment could go in. Its in the Whitewater river bottom and used to flood regularly before Brookville Lake was built.

 

[jm.]

My dad said from the time he was old enough he always was the wire man or the tie man. The man sitting there on the rear poking the wires thru.
I am thinking folks just do not work as hard today as our earlier folks did.

 

[Greg1959]

Why were the belts always sooo long?

 

[bill mart]

been told the weight of the belt helped take up the slack and keep the belt taut. Bill

 

[mb58]

The long belts put the engine far away for two reasons. 1. To keep sparks as far away as possible from the hay/grain/etc. 2. To keep the up close noise at a minimum.

 

[farmerjohn]

My grandfather was an old-timer born in 1894, I never saw him in a short sleeve shirt.

 

[tjdub]

> been told the weight of the belt helped take up the slack and keep the belt taut.

I think keeping the hot cinders from drifting onto the dry straw was also a consideration.

 

[bill mart]

wow! good call its a mirror image. Bill