These recollections were dictated by Henry L Latzke of Belle Plaine in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”
Boys with horse. Photo taken around 1910. From the SCHS Collections.
I was born and grew up on the farm Dad owned, a 200 acre farm. At the age of six, Dad had me do all of the hoeing and at seven years of age I did the plowing with a bulky plow outfit that was drawn by three horses. The seeding was done with a seeder that spread the seed on top of the ground and it had eight shovels to cultivate the soil. Then it was harrowed twice, one crosswise and then across the corner to work the seed in. Corn was planted by a hand planter. The field was marked with a homemade marker made of wood, marked two ways, and the corn was planted in the mark so it could be cultivated lengthwise and crosswise.
In 1905, Dad and my uncle bought a fourteen she drill for seeding the small grain, and the next spring, Dad bought a 16 disk drill as it got seed in the ground better. In 1907, Dad bought a cornplanter, and the field was marked crosswise and planted the long way. the planter required two men and was drawn by two horses. One man drove the team, and the two men sat in front and dropped the corn on the cross mark. A lever had to be pulled to drop the seed corn.
The next year the same company that made the planter came out with a wire attachment that saved the time of marking the field.
I farmed on my own in the year of 1924; I bought a John Deere two-row grain drill. I used this until 1938, then I bought a 20 disk drill and used it until 1944. Then bought a 22 disk Moline tractor power lift. The corn was still being planted with horses, and I had four good work horses. The corn on the farm was planted with a two row horse planter, and the biggest part of the hay mowing and raking was also done with horses.
The chick corn with tractor planters did not work out as well as it should have. In 1954, my son bought a tow row mounted to help out. The grain was cut with a six foot Deering binder. There were only three binders at that time: Deering, McMorick and Plano. They shucked as a rule, nine or eleven bundles in a round shuck with some bundles broken and capped to get barley. Eleven bundles as a rule; it required two bundles for the cap. The cap bundle was to keep the wheat from blackening after 7-12 days of being dry. It was stacked with four stacks for a setting. The average stack was six to ten loads. I remember in the beginning of 1900, the separator was run by horse power called a sweep threshing.
Threshing crew near Shakopee, around 1910. Photo from the SCHS Collections.
Wood sawing and grinding were all horse powered and the separator had no blower to remover the straw as it was passed from man to man onto the stack. Bundles were cut and fed by man. The first steamer that threshed for us was moved from farm to farm by horses. Haas and Winterfeldt had the first completed steam power thresher in our neighborhood and they threshed our grain for quite a number of years. We were last at the very end of the run. John Haas was our neighbor, and our rig was shedded there. His first three boys and himself were with the outfit as the years went on. One year as we threshed, we had close to a foot of snow Dad raked it off the stacks to keep them from freezing.
In 1915 or 1916, Fred Blume ought a gas tractor. He owned a steamer also. In the winter or spring he sawed lumber. In 1917 he sawed lumber after Thanksgiving day for a barn on the farm that I farmed until I retired.
Frederick Bohnsack Sitting on a Tractor, 1952. Photo from the SCHS Collections.
I lived on his farm to take care of the livestock and hauled cord wood to Belle Plaine for three years. Before that, we had a family to take care of the stock. The first year we had 76 head of cattle and over a dozen horses. We farmed in partnership, and we farmed three farms in 1920. I married and still farmed. In 1923 I bought a tractor. I used the tractor for power to fill the silo and it was used for belt work and plowing too. I still did some plowing with horses. In 1924, I traded the Fordson in on an 10-20 International as it was ma more powerful tractor, and in 1936 traded int in for an Allis and that was a three plow outfit.
In 1936, when I bought the Allis tractor it was on all steel wheels. In 1938 I assembled it on rubber. Te beginning of 1936 I did custom silo filling and filled in forty silos each fall. For grain threshing we had seven farmers, mostly neighbors, and they all had shares in the threshing machine. I used my tractor for power, and took care of the machine. The elevator, machine, and tractor were shedded on my farm.
In 1948 we went to combining the grain.