[AT] Back on farm equipment! I need help finding... for myfarmingoperation

[Larry D Goss]

IMHO, One of the best Indiana-based packers has always been Sechler's up at 
St. Joe.  With the high cost of transportation today, our local grocers are 
having trouble justifying keeping their excellent pickles on their shelves, 
but we have a local meat market that still stocks them so I can "relish" in 
their flavor as I did when I was a kid in Fort Wayne.

The sandy loam and black dirt left over from the time when the Little Wabash 
river was a perpetual swamp, were ideal for growing underground crops.  The 
clay content of the soil was so low that they were always easy to harvest. 
All the harvesting was done by hand by migrant workers.  Today, the farms 
where that operation was based are buried under one of the nation's largest 
landfills or have been excavated for the blue-white limestone down below.

Larry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francis Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:16 AM
Subject: RE: [AT] Back on farm equipment! I need help finding... for 
myfarmingoperation


> -----Original Message-----
> This year my need is for root
> harvesting machinery. I grow Turnips, Rutabagas, Carrots, Parsnips, Beets
> and a number of other root vegetable crops here in coastal central
> California
>
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
>
> Don't worry, something will turnip...   ;-)   Sorry, the devil made me say
> it...     ;-)    ;-)
> I have seen a few of those types of machines at a couple of shows but dang
> few. They just were not used around here. I guess there might have been a
> few closer around Indianapolis since veggies were grown almost in a ring
> within about 5 miles of the city There used to be a lot seasonal vegetable
> production here (1940's and 1950's) and canning factories were almost next
> door to each other in places. Every little town had one and they were 
> busy.
> Most of the harvesting and canning both were by migrant labor. We grew 
> sweet
> corn for a canning factory at one time. They came out and harvested it 
> with
> an Allis Chalmers picker mounted on a WD. They said it was the only picker
> that would snap it off with out tearing it up. I believe they bypassed the
> shucking area somehow. They had a "train" of about 6 to 10 Cobey wagons 
> they
> hooked together. Now the law limits us to 2 wagons even behind a tractor.
> Back in the 1940's my father grew tomatoes for another canning factory. 
> One
> time he was pulling a wagon full of maters with a little Model A Ford 
> coupe
> and got hit by a train near the canning factory. It was not as messy as 
> you
> might think. The engine died while on the track and wouldn't start. He got
> out and ran the direction the train was coming from and the train hit the
> car in the side. The impact snapped the tongue on the wagon and it just
> rolled back down the grade and stopped. The train and car stopped about a
> mile on down the track. He said he ran toward the train because he knew a
> guy that ran away from the trains approach and was injured by stuff the
> train tossed when it hit. BTW, in that impact the train won...   ;-) 
> They
> still do...
> Growing for a canning factory is a lot different than "truck patch" stuff
> that is grown for fresh marketing.
> Back in those days almost all of the stuff was handled by migrant labor
> (all Mexican here) but there were almost no Mexican folks living in the 
> area
> and we only saw the migrant families at the grocery stores (no McDonalds).
> Today there more Mexican folks living here than you can shake a "bast'on" 
> at
> but not a single canning factory in the area. I think the closest is about
> 40 miles north east of me and I can't even think of another. I still see a
> few fields of tomatoes here but not a lot. Up by George Willer's (northern
> Ohio) they grow zillions of them.
> One of my old school teacher's husbands used to have a large pea vining
> operation also now long gone.
> I see a lot of those single front wheel tricycle tractors at shows here 
> but
> they are almost all imported from other areas. They didn't use to be used
> around here at all. In the 1940's and 1950's even wide fronts other than
> Fords and Fergusons were rare here. This was 2 front wheel tricycle 
> country.
> I suppose those veggie harvesting machines are also in small pockets like
> that. If a labor shortage is making you look for some equipment I guess a
> lot of guys in your shoes are looking too, possibly all across the 
> country.
> It could be a tough hunt.
>
>
> --
> "farmer"
> Proud owner of several cordless hatchets and a large collection of
> solid-state hammers.
>
> "Axe me no questions and I'll tell you no lies"
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net
>
> .
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.15/659 - Release Date: 1/30/2007
> 9:31 AM
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>