By Ross Bloomquist
According to the dictionary harvest is the gathering in of the crop but to the Dakota farmer, it has a more restricted meaning. The harvest is the process of cutting the grain and shocking it in readiness for threshing. The latter is considered a separate operation after the harvest is finished. It was a time of hard work for all since the ripe standing grain could be damaged in a number of ways. Once in the shock, however it can withstand the rigors of wind, rain and hail even if the threshing might be delayed for several weeks. Harvest; therefore, was a time of tension as well as a time for long hours of work in the hot August sun. The men were occupied with the grain cutting so it was up to the women to take over the chores such as milking the cows, feeding the hogs, and attending to the other livestock.
Usually the oats ripened first, then the barley and finally the wheat and durum. Flax was not ready for harvesting until early September several weeks later than the other crops. Until the advent of power farming, two binders each drawn by four horses were required for the 480-acre farm with about 400 acres in cropland. A binder, or more correctly a reaper although it was never so-called, is a complicated piece of machinery with many moving parts and intricate mechanisms. Fundamentally the binder cuts the standing grain in such a way that the straws are all aligned in the same direction, collected into a bundle of convenient size for a man to carry, tied it with a cord, twine, and finally pushed the bundle off a carrier to be dumped into a pile.
The driver-operator sits on a high seat attached to the frame of the implement about five feet above the ground at the right end of the platform. From this seat he drives the horses, manipulates three or four levers and works a pedal with his foot to dump the bundles from the carriers. The levers serve to adjust the height of the stubble, the position of the reel, the size of the bundles and the location of the band tied around it. These adjustments are necessary since the height of the grain usually varies somewhat from place to place in the field.
The four horses needed to pull the binder are hitched abreast to the machine by a rather complicated arrangement. The binder operator controls the horses by reins so strung up that he can guide them precisely along the edge of the grain being cut. To urge them along should one lag he has a "binder" whip long enough to reach the rumps of the horses. Often it was just a tender bamboo pole with a thong at the end.
The twine used to tie the bundles was made from the coarse amber fibers of the tropical sisal plant. It came in tightly wound cylindrical "balls" weighing eight pounds. The twine had been treated with an insect repellent compound which gave it a distinctive aromatic odor. Eight balls in a coarse dark brown sack formed a bale. The sacks, always called "gunny sacks", and the 20 feet of rope with which the bale was tied had many uses on the farm when the harvesting was over. On the binder the twine was supplied from a metal container holding two balls.
As soon as four or five rounds have been cut there were enough bundles to begin the shocking. This task required a little skill. The bundles were made into shocks to facilitate the final drying out of the straw and heads of the grain and to keep them off the ground so they will not become wet and moldy when subjected to rain and damp weather. As a start two bundles are picked up by the bands and set upright in the stubble with the heads of the grain up and made to lean against each other. Then about a dozen more bundles are placed against the first two to form a round symmetrical structure. A shock should be large enough to be stable but not too large to prevent air from circulating freely between the bundles. A properly made shock sheds water in a downpour and does not topple in high winds.
Shocking is slow back-breaking work in the hot August sun. Each bundle must be lifted off the ground and placed individually by hand. The straw tends to be harsh and scratchy; the bearded varieties, durum and barley, are the worst. The individual beards break off and work their way through clothing and cause intense itching. Besides having to stoop over to pick up the bundles one has to walk, walk, walk, to get them. Shockers dislike poorly dumped rows or bundles dropped off the carriers away from the windrows. Shocking should be done as promptly as possible in case a sudden shower should come up.
It was always necessary to hire outside labor to do the shocking. In the years before World War I plenty of migrant labor was available. In those days there were Finns, Poles or Slavs who worked in the cities or logging camps in the winter and then followed the harvest and threshing in the summer and fall. The hobos, "bos" or bums as they were commonly known, started with the harvest in Texas and Oklahoma in June and proceeded north through Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas to Canada and then back to the Corn Belt for corn husking. They traveled from place to place riding the freight trains on the flat cars and atop the boxcars. They made no attempt to hide for riding the freights was an acceptable custom. Once I saw the cars of the local Northern Pacific freight going through Barlow infected with at least a hundred hobos, there was scarcely room for another one.
When the hobos became tired of traveling or saw a likely looking town they would hop off the train and proceed to the jungle. The jungle of communal living abode of the men was the stockyards located along the railroad tracks. The yard consisted of a couple of pens and a loading chute provided by the railroad for use when cattle were being shipped. The hobos lived there between jobs or when there was no work to be had. Sometimes they bought their food from the local stores but more frequently begged from the townspeople. When they wanted work they would loiter on the main street or sit on the wood sidewalk in front of the stores. If a farmer wanted help he would accost a likely looking pair and offer them a job at the going rate. Most of the men knew how to shock but occasionally one was so inexpert that he was fired on the spot.
On most of the farms the shockers were never allowed in the house except for meals since there was always a chance that they were lousy. Some farmers let their transient help sleep in the hay in the barn. The practice caused some problems because of the fire hazard. Most of them "rolled their own" with Bull Durham tobacco and Riz LaCroix cigarette paper. Some shockers were quartered in an empty bin in the granary where old iron bedstead with a mattress, comforters and blankets were set up. Facilities for washing were set up on the shady north side of the house. A pail of hot water was provided for clean up before meals.
During the years 1917-1918, shockers were hard to get and wages got up to the then unheard of rates of 75 and 80 cents an hour. This was due in part to the inflated prices brought about by the war but also by a loose knit organization, the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. Instead of the ignorant and semi-literate immigrants, a more articulate and better class of men began to drift in. They were the "Wobblies," card carrying members of the IWW. Their philosophy was not clear to me then. The farmers believed that there was a "Communist" slant to the Wobbly doctrines and consequently they were much resented. A new factor had entered into the primitive employer-employee relationship which had not existed heretofore. In the presence of a leader called an "agitator" the migrant worker could and did present a somewhat united front against the farmer. Strikes and possibly sabotage did occur during the war years alleged to have been inspired by the IWW and the backwash of these accusations was felt even in the farming community.
About the year 1905 an effort was made to unite all the laborers into one organization called the Industrial Workers of the World. They were most active during the time before World War I until the early 1920s. The AFL consisted mostly of craft unions and accepted the capitalist system. The IWW sought to form one union of all workers and set up a socialist government. It used sudden strikes, Blowups, and sabotage, and refused contracts and collective bargaining. They used scare tactics to get people to join the union. The union spread into the migrant worker camps and attempted to get the men to join the organization.
The August 26, 1915 Independent published the following article
"Town is postered with demands made of farmers by the IWW Organization: The IWW's will get $3.50 a day for their work this season, if they can. The officers are advising the men not to go out for less and the jungle camps and telephone poles in Carrington had had the following notices posted:
'Agricultural Workers Organization of the IWW makes the following demands for harvest workers
'A minimum wage of $3.50 a day of not more than 10 hours. $.50 for each hour overtime worked above the 10 hours constituting a day.
'Good clean board.
'Good clean places to sleep in with plenty of bedding.
'No Discrimination against union men. (IWW)
The above demands apply to North Dakota
'To all workers- enforce the above demands where ever and whenever possible. $3.50 per day as a minimum wage is not a cent too much.
Ten hours a day is long enough for a mule- why not for men and women!
'Do not work more than ten hours a day. This will make more work and allow more men employment. Your job will last that much longer. We want as many days work as possible.
'Make your job last! If you do not get the above demands, make your motto: Little Pay- Little Work, or Bum Pay- Bum Work.
'To the farmers of North Dakota - The above demands are asked of you, and if granted, satisfactory work will be done. Harvest work is seasonable and unsteady and must receive consideration. Common laborers are paid in many places 35 to 40 cents an hour on steady employment. $3.50 per day and board is only 35 cents an hour, not a cent too much- in fact it is too little for seasonable work.
The October 14, 1915 issue tells the story of iron strips and pipe placed in the bundles and the promise of strikes. "The canvases in C.W. Reichert's threshing machine were wrecked Sat. afternoon when pieces of iron and gas pipe, put in grain bundles by an IWW man, were fed into the machine. The thresher was put out of business three times during the afternoon. The last time a big piece of gas pipe went into the cylinder and it was necessary to work much of the night to get it repaired.
Tuesday morning at 9, Mr. Reichert's crew, with the exception of one man, struck for $4 a day. The bunch was fired without ceremony.
The Footitt boys came near having an accident with their machine a few days ago. A long piece of gas pipe painted red and with an IWW poster pasted around it was found by one of the field men. The pipe was so long that it stuck out one end of the bundle.
Trouble with IWW men has been incipient this fall. It promises to get worse yet this fall and during each succeeding year.
Ted Frazer, who spent several weeks agitating on the streets for the organization and was sent to jail for two weeks, was released last week, but is still in town. "
The men that arrived for the 1921 harvest were asking for $3-4-5 per day. They were offered $2, $2.50. Police officials were kept on their toes to keep order in the area. The organizational drive for members was still going on as late as 1921 in Foster County. The July 28, 1921 Independent tells this story:
"The IWW are becoming active in this county and in Carrington, Sunday night an agitator of the longhaired Russian type, started his lusty declamations down on the railway flats by the Chaffee Implement company warehouse. His talk was addressed to the core of us and about 300 townspeople who assembled to hear his talk. The police official of the city and county were conspicuous, keeping watch in order that no trouble might be started. The man kept his talk within bounds and told the story of the one big union, the struggle between capital and labor, and the right of every working man to a living. He said that he and every working man believed in the doctrine of the Russian revolution, "He that does not work, neither shall he eat". He closed his talk with a plea that people read the IWW literature.
The IWW has been holding secret meetings west of Carrington in the stockyards and near the Northern Pacific railway flats. When anyone approaches they demand to see the union cards. Those not able to produce the customary piece of cardboard are thrown out. "This is, a private meeting", one townsman was informed when he tried to get in.
The activities of the organization were definitely kept as secret as possible which always causes distrust. Some of the tactics were reported in the Independent issue of August 18, 1921.
"Headline: IWW throw Man off Car at New Rockford:
Charles Thomas, 36, laborer from North Carolina kicked off train:
Charles Thomas, 36, former service man of North Carolina was kicked and thrown off a freight train on which he was riding last Friday near New Rockford by a crowd of 10 IWW.
The injured man was picked up by the freight crew, taken to the next town and from there to New Rockford on the Passenger where he caused the arrest of two of the men that assisted in throwing him off the train. He is now convalescing in the Cass county hospital waiting to testify against William Dawson, 35, an IWW organizer from Baltimore, Maryland, and Harold Brott, 19, of Clinton, Iowa, who are being held in jail on warrants sworn out by states attorney, William C. Green on a charge of assault with intent to kill.
"The trouble started when I refused to sign the IWW card", said Thomas in the hospital today. I was told by members of the gang that I would have to join the IWW if I wanted to ride on the train and when I refused they threatened to kill me. They searched me but found that I had only 15 cents:
"When they started to throw me off I protested saying that if they would wait and give me a fair chance to investigate their organization I might join. But they were insistent and were about to cast me off, when a big fellow told them to wait until they came to a pile of ties. 'Then throw him off, ' the big fellow ordered, evidently with the idea of killing me. I missed the ties and was not badly hurt."
Thomas' injuries include bruises where he was kicked by the IWW, a long scar on his left leg inflicted when he was thrown from the train, and cuts on his right hand, which he says one of the gang inflicted with his foot when he attempted to hold on to the car from which he was thrown off."
After the war the influence of the IWW waned but as late as 1922 there still were some IWW organizers around.
A typical day in the span between 1910 and 1921 was about as follows: Dad is the first to get up in the morning around half past five. He calls the hired man and then starts the fire in the kitchen range and puts the coffee water on to boil. He goes to the barn to give the horses their morning ration of oats and hay. The shockers are called on the way to the barn and the harnesses are put on the eight horses needed for the two binders. By 6:15 Mother has the breakfast ready and all sit down together for a meal of cooked cereal, fried eggs and bacon with toast and coffee.
Without much delay the shockers go to the well to fill their water jug and proceed to the oats field west of the farm buildings. They will have about a day's work since the straw is heavy and so are the bundles. There had been only a little dew during the night and the binders can be started immediately. The horses are bridled in the barn and turned out to the water trough for a drink which will have to last them until noon. While they are drinking the hired man fills the earthen jug with fresh water from the well to take along to the field. When the horses have drunk their fill from the full trough they stand there taking occasional swallows. Soon it is off to the field for a full day's work.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 94