[AT] Farm Memories

yestergears at intrstar.net yestergears at intrstar.net
Mon Feb 16 06:19:38 PST 2009


Well, I don't feel THAT young!! Lol.

  Your description is pretty accurate.  I've heard of the setters you describe, but never seen one.  The Holland had the clips which were 
metal except for a replaceable rubber strap that held the plant.  It completed the clip and they would break eventually.  Dad kept a bag 
of them on the tractor under the seat in the tool box.  These clips were chain driven by the wheels on the setter, as you said, they were 
much like a ferris wheel but these were attached individually to the chain, not to a wheel.  The " water pump" or valve was triggered by 
tabs on the chain that drove the clips. The water ran down a little metal chute in perfect time with the plant.  The wheels on the setter 
were off set much like planter wheels. ( ours was metal) and they closed the row.  One of my first jobs was walking behind the setter 
with a handfull of plants and a peg, planting the skips or missed hills.  
  Speaking of beds, we had two kinds, tobacco, and pepper.  Tobacco was not as labor intensive as pepper once you got them sowed.  The 
pepper beds required constant care.  We never had a "hot house" dad always used the glass panels over a wood frame.  He called the Glass 
panels "sash".  I've carried those things over a thousand miles. Once the plants got big, you would remove the sash during the day, and 
replace them at night then cover them with the " gas cover" which was the plastic film.  I think the most boring job I ever had was 
watering those beds when the plants were young and you had to lift and prop open every sash and water. 
  I did enjoy going to get sawdust.  There were several places here that had piles of it where there used to be sawmills. We would load a 
couple trailer loads and bring it to the farm.  Pretty red orange color.  It would sure grow plants.




>------- Original Message -------
>From    : charliehill[mailto:charliehill at embarqmail.com]
>Sent    : 2/13/2009 10:19:46 AM
>To      : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>Cc      : 
>Subject : RE: Re: [AT] Farm Memories
>
 >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 ----- 



>
>
>
>
> 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





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