Taking Care of Modern Farm Equipment

The book in the picture, The Operation, Care, and Repair of Farm Machinery was given to me by Sam from Faribault Interiors. Sam is a good friend of KDHL and sponsors the Birthday each Friday. It is always fun to talk with Sam because he is a "farm boy" having grown up in Northern Iowa. Sam drove Olivers while growing up and I drove John Deere tractors. So there is some good natured kidding about the right "shade" of green tractors.

This book was published by John Deere in 1938. Sam found it going through some of his Fathers things and he thought I would enjoy it. The picture of the combine really brought back some memories. My Grandpa had a John Deere 55 combine. It looks like the picture is a John Deere 45 one size smaller. My Grandpa brought the first self-propelled combine that Edward Priebe Implement in Waseca sold.

I remember riding on the combine with my Grandpa, Dad and Uncle Roger. I also remember a late harvest one year when my Grandpa had on a full length sheep skin coat on to try and stay warm during a very cold windy day. Notice the combine operator sat right up front where all the dust would be blowing in your face!

I also remember my Grandpa telling me his brothers who were also farmers thought buying  a self propelled combine was a terrible mistake. They said that big heavy machine would get stuck in a wet field and you would never get it pulled out. In reality the self propelled combine could go through wetter fields than the tractors with pull type combines. By the way I prefer my combine with the cab, heater, air conditioner and radio!