How Farmers Harvested and Threshed Wheat in the 1880s

Lazy days of summer start for some farmers only after they finish the most stressful time of their year - grain harvest. Weather conditions dictated the timing historically (and continue to do so today). At Firestone Farm, you can see the ways that farmers such as Benjamin Firestone combined weather, human labor, draft-horse power, and self-raking reaper, to harvest the Turkey Red Winter Wheat crop during July 1886.
The Turkey Red winter wheat grown at Firestone Farm is a non-hybrid wheat that is planted in the fall and harvested in mid-summer. Featured in this video is a Johnston Self-raking reaper. It does not bind the wheat like later binder reapers so farmers would have to follow behind and hand tie the wheat into sheaves by hand.
The advent of threshing machines reduced the physical labor of removing the wheat grain from the straw. Thresher-separators threshed the harvested grain, removing the grain and chaff (waste) from the straw, and then winnowed the chaff from the grain, all in a continuous flow. These implements also greatly reduced the time required for harvest, increasing yields, while reducing the labor costs.
See the wheat threshing process at Fall Flavor Weekends in Greenfield Village!
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Related content: How the Tractor Revolutionized Farming • How the Tractor Revolu...
Visit our website at thf.org to learn more about Fall Flavor Weekends.

[@akernelofwheat4016]

Thank you. As someone who knows nearly nothing about farming, I came here to understand how the wicked are like chaff (Psalm 1:4)

[@mikewilkins2030]

😂😂😂😂 right on! lol

[@akernelofwheat4016]

@@mikewilkins2030 Hi bro. I don't know you but God does. He loves you and wants you. Is your heart fully in the right place with Him? Have you put your faith fully in Jesus? Delay not if you already know what's the right thing to do. Peace

[@Xee43]

I came to understand Matthew 3:12. “His (Jesus) winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire”

[@tommylu5402]

I came here because of Jeremiah 15:7 😊

[@akernelofwheat4016]

Great to know. Thanks for sharing guys

[@ladybugmom10]

Here while reading The long winter with my girls. Thanks for sharing.

[@WhatAreYouBuyen]

Very creative nothing went to waste

[@GizGaz52]

WOW! That's amazing. A daily staple brought to by... hard work and inventiveness. Thanks.

[@justinmacarrhur1924]

Just like your mother did in the brothel.

[@ASMR_Orangely]

*SUCH AN AMAZING VIDEO!*

[@excelsiorhomesteadandreserve]

I often say to my fiancee, we are so lucky. The amount of time/energy and trial and error pioneers used is a thankless task here in the future. We are so spoiled.

[@wifebeater69]

Agreed, and comparatively even these guys were kind of lucky. Imagine being in the 1790s or before and having to whack the grain out by hand!

[@EternalShadow1667]

@@wifebeater69 interestingly, the first threshing machine was invented in 1786 by a Scottish engineer. They still probably wouldn’t have used it in the US so soon.

[@SlavicUnionGaming]

well considering the current shortage of food because of all the bad things happening we will snd up like them very soon. humanity has become absolutely mad with power

[@justinmacarrhur1924]

@@SlavicUnionGaming just like your mother

[@justinmacarrhur1924]

@@wifebeater69 shut up you noob , i can do it easy.

[@datpham31415]

Thank you.

[@SlavicUnionGaming]

imagine they made a modernized threshing machine that had its own motor to power it while it sat in place

[@mitchellw6811]

We've certainly come a long way! I had no idea that old steam tractors had a primitive sort of PTO on them 🤔

[@SlavicUnionGaming]

thats not a PTO

[@SlavicUnionGaming]

some Gas tractors from even the 40s had those.

[@EliVeach]

@@SlavicUnionGamingmost all tractors had belts on them until the mid 50s, at least in america

[@gunsroses1293]

荣耀属于农民！

[@mounireaddevil]

I came here to put picture to Josh description to the threshing Machine in harvest seasons.

[@divinesarasaradivine824]

WOW! GREAT!GOD BLESS

[@TheWizardGamez]

The Amish watching this like: I'm in this video!

[@Seriouslydave]

Not with steam engines.

[@SCARASLEFTARMPITlel]

This is how we harvest rice as well.

[@syednowroozbibi3184]

good

[@rodneyseverson8409]

My mother growing up in North Dakota, told me many times about the harvest and the
' Thrashing Crews '...So many times I knew what happened...( wink wink nudge nudge )...

[@donarthiazi2443]

So it would be a crap-shoot as to which one of the threshing crew was your father??

[@caesarlynn3709]

They guy at the beginning reminds me of a Bloodborne villain 0:07

[@user-ei6cd7um1e]

حلو

[@nenriu]

glory goes to god..?

[@1699stu]

This shows how screwed the global fuel supply is when agenda 2030 goes into full swing.

[@Gabriel_the_Shemite]

I dont mind going back to an agrarian life style; I do mind if they try herding us into these smart cities, and owning nothing.

[@1699stu]

@@Gabriel_the_Shemite they have stated rural will live very differently. They won't force relocation without a pretext.

[@donarthiazi2443]

@@1699stu
HaHaHa they've never had much of a problem finding a good pretext

[@theSEGAtwistisover9k]

stooks of wheat.. 😂

[@elhombredeoro955]

LoL Amish still do that.

[@13thbiosphere]

In Thailand this is common

[@mayu2005]

😈😈

[@AboriginalScents]

You made slaves to this...get real

[@zorro2441]

Even ignoring the fact that the title says 1890's (much after slavery was made illegal), this comment is incredibly stupid. This shows the process of what happens, so slavery had no impact on the demonstration. Did you want to see black actors do all the work? No. No, you don't. You'd call them racist if they did. And even more so on my point, what of the majority of farms that were too poor to afford slaves? Yes, nearly all plantations had slaves, but those plantations held 99% of the slave trade. What of small-town farms or village farms? What of isolated towns? Get real

[@AboriginalScents]

@@zorro2441 slavery still occured after 1890s genius.

[@zorro2441]

@@AboriginalScents Get real, genius

[@BoogieBrando]

@@AboriginalScents lol your point is moot. This video was extremely informative and accomplished its purpose.

[@joepollock7708]

So many slave plantations across Kansas, Nebraska North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, etc. Sarah has attempted to bring race into even the wheat harvest. Cutting and bundling into sheaves, threshing and winnowing the grain were never plantation functions. I don’t know where Sarah is from, but she is totally ignorant of the Midwest.