[AT] massey combines at portland

[Larry Goss]

I've noticed the same phenomenon on our family farm near Fort Wayne, Farmer.  In the WWII era, it was still broken into "horse-sized" fields with fence rows and shade trees in abundance.  Now it's being farmed with modern equipment that doesn't need an occasional rest, and the whole Aliquot is one big field.  Humm. "Forty acres and a mule" is one of those sayings that has historical, governmental, and economic implications.

Larry


----- Original Message -----
From: Indiana Robinson <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
Date: Friday, September 3, 2010 6:36
Subject: Re: [AT] massey combines at portland
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>

> On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 4:15 AM, charlie hill 
> <charliehill at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> > David I don't know if you looked at the video I posted the 
> link for.  I was
> > taken by the fact that they said the new Gleaner/M-
> F/Challenger combines
> > would hold 350 bushels in the hopper.
> > Until you think about that a bit it's no big deal but if you 
> do the math,
> > and depending on the crop, that's anywhere from 18,000 to 
> 22,000 lbs up
> > there in that hopper, 10' or more above the ground.  Thinking 
> about all that
> > weight up high on a side slope would make you pause and wonder 
> how it is
> > possible.   That's a lot of grain!  Also did you hear them say 
> the auger
> > will discharge  grain at 4 bushels a second!  It would take a 
> fleet of
> > tractor trailer to keep that thing working!
> >
> > Charlie
> ==================================================
> 
> 
> 
> I usually describe my farm as "gently rolling". I only have one small
> hill-side that is dangerously steep and I have placed it back into
> permanent pasture. Actually I let some of the local Scouts use 
> it as a
> natural amphitheater about once a year. Back when it was part of a
> grain field I would always make sure I combined it with an empty grain
> tank. It still made me very nervous and even yet I am very cautious
> when mowing it.
> This farm used to be a lot rougher... It is absolutely amazing 
> to me
> how much 60 years of constant tillage, especially using implements
> that dragged a lot of dirt along, have leveled it from what it was.
> When we first moved here every field was divided by at least one
> uncrossable gully. One then 20 acre field we had to farm in 3
> sections. My father and I worked very hard for many years dozing those
> in and having dirt that we could acquire for free hauled in to fill
> them. Each year we would plow dirt in toward them by plowing those
> areas on the contour. The county was beginning to pave all of the
> roads back then and they would cut out the ditches first to make the
> road a little wider. We got hundreds and hundreds of loads of that
> dirt.
> A few years ago I mentioned to a neighbor about how much the 
> land had
> flattened here and he had also been thinking about it. He recalled
> that as a young boy there was a little hill / mound behind their barn
> and he liked riding their old horse up that mound. Kind of a 
> "King of
> the hill" thing. :-) Now he cannot even find where that little hill
> was.
> This farm has kind of stabilized some now since I have a good 
> bit of
> it in horse pastures and the guy that farms the grain fields mostly
> no-tills...
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> Be tolerant of almost everything but intolerance...
> 
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson46176 at gmail.com
> 
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