27

FARMING

As a boy, I used to drive two yoke of oxen to break up land for planting barley and alfalfa. Grain was cut by a cradle and bound by hand. Hay was mowed by a sythe and bunched by hand with a pitch fork. Some men became expert in the use of the sythe. Later, mowing machines were introduced and hay was raked by a revolving rake. I used to ride the horse for raking. Later I learned to run the rake. I remember when the improved rake was introduced. I think I was the first one to try it out. I was not old enough then to use the sythe or cradle. I have done some binding, but not much, until the reaper came in. There were two kinds of reapers - one a rake and the other a dropper. Other and more modern machines have now been invented and take the place of the binders.

The harvester, as now used, had gone through a great evolution of improvements. They were at first drawn by horses, but now by a tractor. They now cut, rake and thresh the grain, and yet require only two men to operate. I have seen the evolution step by step through the seyther, rake, cradle, binder, etc. to the modern harvester.

On a trip to old Mexico in 1940. I saw the natives plowing with oxen, drawing wooden plows. When just over the United States and Mexican boarder, I saw a native cultivating with four head of burrors. It looked extremely primitive.

In my youthful days, I saw grain threshed out with a flail and then winnowed out by the wind. I have also ridden a horse to tramp the grain out on the barn floor. There has been a great development in the handling of grain since those early days, as there has been in many other things, including transportation. I had never ridden in an airplane until July 1951, when I flew to Boise, Idaho in one.

I remember the building of the Utah Central Railroad track from Salt Lake City to Ogden.