[AT] Farm Memories

Fri Feb 13 07:19:46 PST 2009

Travis, you're too young.  Our transplanters didn't have clips.  You had one 
of those new fangled moder Hollands.  Here's how ours worked:

There was a blade that knocked the top of the row down, then there was a V 
shaped row opener that made a slot for the plants.  (your Holland was the 
same up to that point, right?).  Then there was a chain drive valve that 
shot a squirt of water into the slot/trench a certain number of inches apart 
depending on how you set it up.  You could hear the valve click.  That gave 
you enough time to stick a plant into the trench just as the water ran out 
of the pipe into the trench.  Then a pair of "shoes" ran behind the slot 
where you dropped the plant and they closed and compacted the row around the 
plant.  The "setter" had to hold onto the top of the plant and follow it 
back through the shoe until it was firmly in place.  By that time he had to 
quickly reach back up and grab another plant from his other hand that was 
simultaneously sorting out the plants from a tray (or sometimes just a 
burlap bag in his lap).
Your's was the type where you put the plant into a little clip in a "wheel" 
that rolled around like a small ferris wheel right?

After I got a little age on me I walked the rows behind the tractor with a 
bucket of plants and a peg and caught the "skips" where one of the setters 
got his hands tangled up and missed a stroke.

Speaking of plants, in a week or two it will be about time to sow the beds. 
The only peppers we ever grew were in the garden and we hand set all of 
them.

Charlie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <yestergears at intrstar.net>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 9:13 AM
Subject: [AT] Farm Memories

>
>
>
>
> They may have had the brown patch come to think of it.  They were 
> definitely around the cows all the time.  It was always funny to me to
> see them standing on the cows backs riding around.
>
>  I've heard of the Bemmis but around here the dealers sold the Holland. We 
> swapped labor with my uncle as well. My dad was particular
> about how the plants were dropped as well and he usually drove the 
> tractor.  He was always looking back at the droppers , usually telling
> us how much "root" to give the plants.  Root was how much of the bottom of 
> the plant you left out of the clip so that the depth the plant
> was set was determined.  I remember learning to time my movements by the 
> teclick teclick of the setter as it tripped the water valve.
> Every other teclick was mine. lol. We got to the point that we could move 
> down a row at a pretty good speed and if you were really good,
> you could catch a missed drop your partner made.  That was motivated by 
> not wanting to use the peg lol.
>   We had the "hand setters" too.  But we used the pegs.  Dad tried to time 
> resetting the missed drops right after a rain so that we
> didn't have to carry water.  If that didn't happen it was either the 
> buckets as you described or the hand setter.  I still have one of
> them , but I hate them if there is a lot of work to be done.  You could 
> actually make more time with the peg and buckets.  Most of our
> pegs were made from old axe handles or hammer handles. They lasted 
> forever.  Worst time I remember was after we had set about 6 acres
> there came a pounding rain that packed every plant in the field in the 
> ground.  We had to walk over and free everything in the field.
>  Dad always wanted to "chop" or hoe the whole crop soon after it was set 
> out and had taken root.  He said breaking the crust in the row
> helped the crop  get started.  Then he took the 140 and some rake type 
> cultivators and went over everything . It must have worked.  He
> usually had a pretty good crop.    When summer came, we would pick 100 
> bushels of bell pepper a day and not finish one set of 8 rows
> usually.   Had it washed packed and to the market by two so that you could 
> start your regular farm work.
>
>>------- Original Message -------
>>From    : charliehill[ mailto:charliehill at embarqmail.com]
>>Sent    : 2/12/2009 10:58:39 PM
>>To      : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>
>>Cc      :
>>Subject : RE: Re: [AT] Farm show observations/ Farm Memories
>>
> >I think the other birds you spoke of are Cattle Egrets.  Did they have 
> >just
> one little patch of light brown under their neck maybe?
>
> Oh yeah we had a two man "setter".  Another brand was Bemmis.  My dad was
> 6'6 and he had to modify one seat on the transplanter so he could fit in 
> it
> to "drop".  That is one job I never did was drop plants.  I don't know 
> just
> why except that my dad was very particular that it got done just right and
> usually he and one of his farmer friends would do it together on each 
> others
> farms.
>
> Yep, we used real wooden pegs.  You take a 5 gal bucket full of plants,
> another 5 gal bucket full of water and a peg and walk the rows looking for
> "skips" or plants that died.  Somefolks used those big ole hand
> transplanters that looked like the Tin Man's Leg.  I hated those things 
> and
> we didn't have any of them.
>
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
>
>
>
>> Charlie:
>>
>> I had forgotten about the seagulls!!! You are right, they showed up after
>> about three rounds in the field.  They must have had an
>> agreement with the black birds for information LOL.  They would sure come
>> in large numbers.  I wondered about that as well.  We also had
>> some white birds that would show up that I never could figure out what
>> they were.  They had legs like a flamingo, but they looked like a
>> pelican sorta, long narrow beak etc.  The stayed in the cow pastures all
>> the time in warm weather.  They loved a plowed furrow as well.
>>  I  also remember cold days sitting on a one row mechanical transplanter
>> It was made by the Holland mfg co. in Holland Mich.
>> We called it a "setter", two people rode the thing and placed whatever
>> plant we were planting  into clips that revolved and dropped them
>> into the row, watered it and packed the soil. Those who did this were
>> called "droppers " here.  Most people were either right hand or
>> left hand droppers only.  Dad kinda forced me to learn both ways. He said
>> if I could do either, I was more useful since most people
>> dropped right handed..  We set both bell pepper and tobacco.
>> Then we got to go back in a few days and use a peg.  Remember what a Peg
>> is??
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>------- Original Message -------
>>>From    : charliehill[  mailto:charliehill at embarqmail.com]
>>>Sent    : 2/11/2009 8:20:34 AM
>>>To      : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>>>Cc      :
>>>Subject : RE: Re: [AT] Farm show observations/ Farm Memories
>>>
>> >Travis I spent many similar days in the seat of a D-10 Allis.  On
>> >Saturdays
>> or when ever school was  out I'd often leave the barn with it in the dark
>> and come back in the dark with the blue flame from the "Power Crater"
>> engine
>> leading the way.
>>
>> You forgot to mention the sea gulls.  I never could figure out where they
>> came from.  Not a seagull in sight until the first farmer plowed 2 or 3
>> rounds and then there they were, dozens of miles from their normal 
>> hunting
>> grounds in the sounds and rivers.
>>
>> I remember an ice storm about that time.  I wouldn't have remembered that
>> it
>> was in 68.  It was sure enough bad.  We were on CP&L power (for those not
>> in
>> the area that's Carolina Power and Light, now Progress Energy)
>> and our power was only out for a day or so.  One of my best friends lived
>> about 10 miles from me in the edge of Pitt Co.  They were on Greenville
>> Utilities.  Their power was out for about 3 weeks if I remember 
>> correctly.
>> I guess back in those days the power companies didn't have the mutual aid
>> agreements like they have now.
>>
>
>
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