Horse-Drawn Combine, 1938.

Farming on the Palouse in 1938, using a horse-drawn combine. Filmed by Leonard Young for Washington State University. This silent film was digitized and uploaded at Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University from a film held in the WSU Libraries (Pullman, Washington).

[@fasx56]

The amount of effort it took just to get started harnessing all the horses involved and the rest of the manual labor maintaining the combine machine to make sure all was working correctly is a humbling sight as stated below. You put a day's work in combining wheat a man surely earned whatever pay he got.

[@alanjaskoski6072]

My great grandfather had a threshing operation like this in Idaho. My grandfather said it took 70 horses to operate as you had to change the teams out twice a day, and operate supply wagons. The always had to borrow a few horses as they only kept 50 or 60 of their own. He tried to be lazy once and put straw in the burner of the steam tractor instead of getting more wood. He almost blew up the boiler.

[@glendam44]

This is mesmerizing....seeing how hard they had to work back then. Humbles me somehow....

[@TheWizardGamez]

They, your talking about the horses right,

[@johnallen5996]

@@TheWizardGamez both!

[@wilburfinnigan2142]

Rob C My grandfather farmed over a 1000 acres in Rollette Co North Dakota from 1890's til mid 1920, and yes the drought got them and they just got up and left. The land is once again being farmed. mostly wheat. That land destroyed a lot of people.

[@rockyfitzp]

Great vintage video. Brings back many a memory. As small child in diapers I rode with Dad on our D2 Catterpillar pulling a #8 International combine

[@walterbeech]

20 years ago a fellow here brought home all the iron parts from a horse drawn wood machine. It took him 10 years but he completely rebuilt it. I would love to have one also but I am having trouble just finding a 30's Baldwin to restore anymore.

[@ronelchadwick7110]

That is work.hard work for men and horses.

[@bbruce995]

that is some serious horse power

[@halibut1249]

Wow!! That was quite an operation to haul that combine around your wheat fields. All the horses and field hands needed!! But it was better than doing it by hand....

[@wilburfinnigan2142]

CONT> Grandmother had pictures of the harvest and they used a similar horse drawn combine, usually around 30 head.

[@TheWizardGamez]

I mean 40 horsepower 😉

[@todlindley8101]

Lovely Film/Video Thanks for your efforts to digitise and uploading- Priceless !

[@joekelly3332]

That looks like about 16 to 18 horses pulling the combine. The guy sitting down and tying up the sacks as they get full and then shoving them off the combine has a more difficult job that it looks. I did a little of that on a tractor-drawn combine in the 1950's. It is hard work.

[@lynnehuff9659]

That is so interesting. I have postcards of the horse and mule drawn combines.

[@timcolledge3732]

Fascinating film.

[@muddshshshark]

We used to play on an old red thresher in a barn when i was a kid in the 60's It was all wood and very ornate with fancy scroll work and such. It was very tall (10-12feet) and had a large wheel for a belt drive. It had no cutter so the crops would have been brought by wagon to the stationary thresher for processing

[@maryannd6592]

nice video, thank you. all that fresh air, blue sky, and golden wheat -- awesome. despite the hard work, that family must have loved it there. those wide expanses and rolling hills made me think too that it was probably once wild prairie, teeming with bison, and home to a different people, just a hundred years prior to the video. things can change so much in a long lifetime. now in 2014 its over 75 years since the video, and I wonder what is there now. are the kids and grandkids still on the farm? that would be nice. in any event, the video sure is a beautiful snapshot of part of the life on that farm in 1938. (and as always, love the draft horses too...).

[@jacobschot1249]

A lot of respect for those guys but even more for those horses usually with wheat harvest it is .......hot

[@douro20]

Unfortunately, most people only know the self-propelled combine harvester, which was developed not long after this film was produced...

[@texsurfer]

I have some still prints and the negatives that look like possibly the same scene. They were old JI Case promo materials and the information card with them say Pullman, Washington I believe. One of them shows a young native american girl on a paint pony standing nearby.

[@wilmarguerra1659]

na era dos smartphone temos muito a agradecer a esses pioneiros.

[@blazemacdonald6791]

this is awesome! my Great Grandfather use to do that i guess! thanks for sharing!

[@aksteelhead]

I'm guessing the combine is a John Deere 36 (or Holt). This year (2014) we had a 1923 Harris 22x33.5 pulled by 8 mules at the Davenport Vintage Harvest. See the video 00067

[@sweetcornman4058]

Very great video. A true time warp!

[@alvagood2693]

And those crops took in every possible area to be cultivated.

[@patersonfarm]

wow, you how many break downs they had in those days? We have lots on these days!

[@stihlhead1]

The utmost in ground driven horse drawn machinery.

[@Demosophist]

My grandfather, along with his brothers, invented the Talkington Hitch, and he had a farm in the Palouse country. It would be interesting to know whose farm this was, although I can't tell if they're using the Talkington Hitch or something else. The Palouse is very hilly, in general much better for cattle ranching than wheat farming.

[@lynnehuff9659]

Wow, I know so little about hitching, but it sure interests me. I used to get The Draft Horse Journal that had great articles.

[@carolbrand1]

Here is how it use to be done. Also amazing, maybe even more so~~

[@cw73589]

동물을 동력삼아 추수기계를 만들어 썼다니 놀랍습니다

[@edsotic]

Anyone know the combine model starting at 3:00?

[@juanortiz1966]

Mui.bueno

[@1fredbob15]

do you know the names of the Farmers? My Great Grandfather worked the Palouse with his horses like this :) W.D. Largent

[@manoleTL]

SUPER.!!!!!

[@patrileys]

Anyone know where I can find one of these for sale?

[@halibut1249]

Maybe on ebay??

[@ronnieg6358]

I wonder how they dealt with the straw before the days of pick-up balers?

[@nonsensefactory]

Imagine the commotion in tge case of a wasp sting

[@ryguy57106]

Hour many hours a day can you work those horses? My great grandpa told my grandpa how much he loved tractors and how good it felt to get rid of horses ha ha

[@lynnehuff9659]

I don't know for sure. It would depend on the condition of the horse, the weather, and of course the terrain. I marvel at the horsemanship involved in this kind of work.

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

A comment on a similar video spoke of their relative, who recalled going through three teams of twenty horses a day. If they were working 16-18 hour days minus downtime to switch the teams, each team would only work 5-6 hours. Hard work indeed

[@tiger5551]

Now that’s cool

[@leifleifsen7708]

Bravo

[@HerrHalmakenreuter]

Great

[@phishENchimps]

Might want to check around at some auction houses, or companies that deal with the amish community. weird, but they still use them today.

[@DRAGONjim99]

Do you suppose anyone thought about the pressure under each horse hoof? Maybe this is one reason why land needed to go fallow. See 'Miastrada Dragon At Work' for a low pressure alternative.

[@josefreisner4973]

see what our forfathers did, must fill you with proud thanks, actuallyv southamerican soybeanfarmer

[@waltermoreira8828]

Isto que e povo esforssado nada d computador e 3 d era tudo na imtelijenciA e tem que ser os mais ricos.do planeta

[@amarildoangeloloredoloredo8088]

Que dó dos cavalos.. isso é um massacre com os animais, acho que trabalhava o dia todo sem comer e sem beber água uma judiação...