South Peace Historical Society

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  • Table of Contents

    • Part 1: First Nations of the Peace River Region
    • Part 2: The Fur Trade Era
    • Part 3: Transportation and Communication
    • Part 4: Old Timers and the Price of Land
    • Part 5: Dawson Creek: The Story of the Community
    • Part 6: Mysteries, Adventures and Indian Legends
    • Part 7: Arts, Crafts and Recreation
    • Part 8: Agriculture
    • Part 9: Church Histories
    • Part 10: Schools
    • Part 11: Health Care
    • Part 12: Industries and Enterprises
    • Part 13: Policing the Peace
    • Part 14: Pouce Coupe, Rolla, and Other South Peace Communities
    • Part 15: Chetwynd and the Fort St. John Area
    • Part 16: The Alberta Peace
    • Part 17: Natural History of the Peace River Region
    • Part 18: Interviews with Old Timers
    • Part 19: Remembering Our Veterans

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08-034: Threshing with Engine and Separator

By Dorthea Calverley
” The combines will save money by eliminating the wages of those big threshing crews,” they said. ” The combines will eliminate all that delay in cutting and stooking and then waiting for the threshing machine,” they said. ” You won’t have to depend on your neighbours for harvest help,” they said. ” There’ll be no more sprouting of the grain in the stooks,” they said.

And they were right — nearly every year until the present cycle of soaking rains and drizzly weather in harvest time began. It has been going on for years now. Farmers have begun to look back to the days when a team and binder could get on to land that would be too soggy to hold a heavy combine. Damp crops could be cut “on the green side” because they would ripen in the stook. Grain could even be stacked and threshed in winter.

These are practical considerations which make some farmers keep an old binder around — even buying another one or two of the same kind to provide spare parts.

The other consideration, in the days before radio or TV was the entertainment value of old-fashioned threshing. Next possibly to Christmas the threshing machine and crew brought more excitement than anything else in a farm child’s life did.

For that matter, in spite of the long hours of hard work, it was a highlight in a farm wife’s life. This was when the woman of the house displayed her skills at roasting, boiling and baking and in the variety and quality of her preserves, pickles and jams.

There were farms where the crew would work like madmen to get away to the next farm to “setup” before supper, and places where mysterious breakdowns delayed the last bit of afternoon work until it was too late to move before supper.

Those of us who have experienced threshing-time have a multitude of memories — sights, sounds, smells and tastes.

« 08-033: The Peace River District Progresses

08-035: Quick Historical Facts About the Peace Country »

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