It's a glimpse back in time as farmers demonstrated how to harvest wheat with a 1922 Massey Harris binder on Tuesday, ahead of the Georgian Bay Steam Show.
Farmers from across the country used the Massey Harris until almost the 1960’s. According to Doug Black, president of the Georgian Bay Steam and Antique Association, says the binder was efficient, but by todays' standards slow.
“These guys are doing a field that's about five acres and that will take them most of the day and todays’ equipment will cost you 300 or $400,000 and you'll do that same piece of land in about 10 minutes,” says Black.
The binder cuts the wheat down and bundles it into a sheaf. The sheafs are then stooked into a field to dry. A metal plate on the binder would have originally been made of wood, but the fact that this machine could automatically tie string was at one time state-of-the-art.
“That knotter was a marvel of its time. I mean this is a huge technology jump to be able to have a piece of mechanical machinery that actually tied a knot.”
However, the binder wasn’t perfect. It was common for it to clog if the grass was too thick.
For some there's a certain fascination with old farm equipment, a connection that Black says is disappearing as the new equipment takes over.
“This is the way my dad did it. I can remember doing that as a kid, helping stook the sheafs once they've been bind. It's just neat.”
The binder is a piece of historic farming equipment that people don't see any more, but will be on display at the Georgian Bay Steam Show in Cookstown during the first weekend of August.
