Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Farm Collector

The ancients led lives completely different from those we lead, but at least one thing has remained true down through millennia. As the Romans sagely noted, tempus fugit. No matter what language you speak, time flies. And so it is that we mark the arrival of Farm Collector’s 25th year. This is a big deal for us, although our observance of the event will be less of a spectacle than the recent jubilee honoring Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year on the throne. For a fledgling magazine 25 years ago, making it to the quarter-century mark seemed a bit of a longshot. But in today’s environment, when more than a few publications have shut down and many others limp along online only, this is a noteworthy milestone. It’s all been made possible…

The genius of pioneer inventors can confound us. Countless contraptions that revolutionized farming in the 19th and early 20th centuries have become contemporary curiosities, or even mysteries. Here are six sent in by readers. Do you know what they are? Answers to the August 2022 items will appear in the October 2022 issue. Answers for new items in this issue must be received by Aug. 3, 2022. A. Handle/holder for something. Has a metal recess with two set screws on the top. Piece measures about 2-1/2 inches wide by 7-3/4 inches long overall. No markings.B. Handle measures 12 inches long, 3/4-inch round rod. Fourpronged head marked Vise Grip #W188. Nut-shaped head marked Auburn Ind. USA.C. Tool measures 7 inches by 4 inches. No markings.D. Machine found in old machine shop.…

For hundreds of years, settlers have been arriving on your shores. Many came from Britain, having made the perilous ocean crossing in the hope of a better future. A large proportion of British emigrants came from farming communities. They “travelled blind” in the hope of setting themselves up as farmers in the new and promising land of America. Life for the poor in Britain during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries was full of hardships. Many opted to leave their roots behind to set sail for a land that they had never seen anything of, except perhaps for a few drawings in a newspaper. Poorer people could not afford to take risks, not unless they truly had nothing to lose, and it seems that for many of Britain’s rural…

Sam Moore to the rescue I just got the June issue of Farm Collector and perhaps can offer a very small amount of information in answer to one of the letters to the editor. Phyllis Hamilton of Melbourne, Florida, asked for any information on a wooden hand corn planter she has. One side is stenciled L. Denney’s Pennsylvania Corn Planter Patented June 3, 1856, while the other side is marked, Nourse Maso? & Co., Boston & Worcestershire, Mass. She also gives the 1856 patent number of 15,035. There’s not much hard information out there about either Mr. Denney, or the Nourse, Mason & Co., but here’s what little I know. Samuel Lewis Denney was born in 1791 and died in 1869. He was said to be mechanically inclined and opened…

What were the 10 most significant developments in agricultural machinery during the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries? No definitive list exists, but here are my best guesses. Some can be attributed to an individual, but most were the product of many curious and ingenious people who made incremental improvements to the work of their predecessors. 1. Cotton Gin: In colonial times, cotton cloth was more expensive than linen or wool because of the extreme difficulty of separating seed from the clinging fibers. One man could pick the seeds from only about 1 pound of cotton fiber per day. In 1793, Eli Whitney built a machine consisting of a row of close-set wheels with saw-like teeth around their perimeters. The wheels protruded through narrow slits between metal bars…

CHARLIE CRIBB IS OUR FEATURED ARTIST FOR AUGUST! Charlie Cribb, the son of Ashley and Lindie Cribb, Conway, South Carolina, and grandson of Jim and Martha Amundsen, also of Conway, is this month’s featured artist. Charlie will receive a Farm Collector T-shirt: Congratulations, Charlie! Have a budding artist in your family? Send your kids’ or grandkids’ farm-related artwork to Farm Collector, and we’ll send a T-shirt to the monthly winner. Send submissions to Farm Collector, 1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265. Please include the artist’s name, age and hometown and a recent photograph. A release form will be sent to the parents of each artist whose work is selected for publication; the release must be signed and returned to Farm Collector before the artist’s photo can be published. For…

It’s one thing to plan re-creation of an old building, but another to pull it off using nothing more than volunteer labor. In Part II of The Power of Volunteers, Barry Tuller recounts the exacting process of reconstructing Marvin Mills within the confines of a museum building at the Old Threshers’ showgrounds in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. In the process, the mill’s legacy is forever entwined with a labor of love by a committed band of volunteers. For 1995, our volunteer team wanted to make at least a few steps towards the eventual museum mill exhibit. We knew funding would be needed to help pay for materials. To better show the story of Marvin Mills and build awareness, we decided to add the buckwheat mill alongside the Foos engine at the…