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HISTORY
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 The Howard County Farm
Bureau, in existence since the early 1920s, was initially
established to help local farmers with the cooperative buying of
seed and fertilizers.
Many local family names from those founders
are still around today - names like Warfield, Clark, Jones, Moxley,
Fairbank, Nichols, Streaker and Mullinix.
The Farm Bureau gradually
evolved into the areas of education, marketing and insurance
(the company we now know as Nationwide was first started by the
Ohio Farm Bureau, and followed shortly thereafter by the
Maryland Farm Bureau). Technology became a major part of
the Bureau's focus as did the work of extension agents from the
University of Maryland.
The Farm Bureau's mission has
changed very little over the years - even though the product is
often very different. It is still considered a family
organization, with one membership per family.
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A vintage J.I. Case threshing
machine belt powered by a tractor that is located out of
the photo to the left. Bundles of wheat were being
threshed in a demonstration at the Howard County Fair. The
goal was to show how threshing was done 50 or more years
ago in rural Howard County. At far right, the straw was
blown into a pile beside the old stationary “wire-tie”
baler. The threshed grain was collected at the bagger unit
in right foreground. August 2, 2008. |
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From the
March 2012 Newsletter |
Harvesting
Small Grains by Allan Bandel
Harvesting small grains, such as wheat, barley, oats,
etc., before the small family farm-sized combine became
popular, was a major annual event. Threshing was very
labor intensive and required an exceptional amount of
prior planning. High on that list was arranging for
friends, neighbors and relatives to be a part of the
threshing crew. Consequently, nearly everyone in the
community eventually became involved. Having their own
crops to harvest as well, farmers relied heavily upon
their friends and neighbors for assistance at this
critical time. They worked collectively to get the job
done. Many crew members followed the threshing rig from
farm to farm until all of the threshing in the community
was finished. [Newsletter
- March 2012] |
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Making loose hay in the 1940s
utilizing one of the era’s more marvelous labor-saving
tools, a hay loader. This one was sold by Montgomery Ward. |
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From the
May 2011 Newsletter |
| Haymaking
in the 1940s. Historically, haymaking has always been
a dirty, dusty, back-breaking, job, even as recent as the
1940s. Hay making back then was not highly mechanized.
Most of it was not baled, but was cut, cured and stored
loose. Since most of the work had to be done by hand, by
manual labor, haymaking was mostly a dirty, unpleasant
experience. The widespread use of labor-saving auto-tying
pick-up balers equipped with kickers, modern bale
elevators, hydraulic bale wagons and stackers, and other
labor-saving devices were still many years into the
future... [Newsletter
- May 2011] |
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From the
Jan 2005 Newsletter |
| My, how
times have changed. Throughout the early years of the
20th century, whenever a Howard County farmer
harvested surplus hay or straw that he could sell off-farm
for extra income, he would often bale part of his crop to
facilitate handling. His only option might have been a
stationary wire-tie (manually hand-tied that is) baler (or
press as some called them) such as this antique
belt-driven stationary Frick machine owned by the
Frank family. It is obvious from this photo taken during a
threshing and baling demonstration at the 2004 Howard
County Fair, that at least six hard-working people were
required to get this dusty, dirty job done. In more recent
times, using a more modern pickup baler with automatic
knotters to tie the bales and a mechanical thrower to toss
the bales into a wagon towed behind the baler, the entire
job could be accomplished with just one person, the
tractor operator. Still longing for the "good ol’ days?" |
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