Rice Harvest

Harvest has begun again - I need to get out and about, capture some images of today's equipment.

A pair of pictures from the web - Rice harvesting south of Chico - Northeastern California Historical Photograph Collection - CSU Chico Digital Collections

1915-1920, photo appears to show a crew pitching bundles into a feeder, combine a Holt? Notice Best 75's.

Hi, cts.

Don't see a lottta 'bundle-pitchin' goin' on, seems they're all standin' - er settin' - there starin' at the camera operator.

Thanks for the photos, good look back at yesteryear.

Just my 0.02.

Some CAT powered dinosaurs!

A love/hate relationship with the old Hardy Harvesters.

George (RIP) Rankin was shop foreman for Jess Hardy. He used to BS with me so much, that I couldn’t see how he could assemble a skeletonized machine so quickly.

Ahh, my days of driving topless getting a sauna listening to AM Country radio. Only one station that the radio would pickup!

Photo credits to Reclamation District 108, Grimes, California.

What a wonderful photo's of the way it was. Look carefully at those engines, there were two of them powering the machines. Yes, those Hardy's were the machine of their day, full track and of course both the running gear and the power had CATERPILLAR on them. (someone out there must have pictures of those machines "wallowing in the mud"? These pictures make it look like harvest in the desert, dry field. ) Today, everything has a cab or it is difficult to find an operator. Seemed like whenever I was on a "bankout" the only time the combine operator would unload his bin was when the wind was at my back and the dust/chaff would bury me. I have heard RED OATS are miserable but I can tell you Rice Chaff is not pleasant. Thanks Gee, glad you dug into the archives. - cts

Bird seed was the worst I experienced, more so than oats and barley. Pretty sure I was scratching itches in the few hours of sleep overnight

Ah ah ah, tsk tsk, there is a slight boo boo regarding the running gear on a Hardy...While the engine(s) were CAT 1150's, track assembly etc. were CAT (10 roller btw) D4, the transmissions for the gear drive model were from an Allis Chalmers HD5! Not sure about the latest and greatest hydrostatic machines, I think they had upgraded 3208T engines. Only 2 speeds on those. Slow, and TOO slow for me, or I thought so, as I stayed away from the only 2 machines that had the single engine, hydro model.

Itchy rice chaff? Sweet rice varieties tend to be the absolute worst for scratching; old trick was to rub baby powder/talcum powder on your arms and neck. Breathing the dust by some supposedly led to issues with the lungs (permanent damage I was told).

When I was a very young man, I recall many old machines did not have cabs; The best ones had an overhead cover resembling an umbrella or dish, which had an electric fan, which blew air over the top of the operator and kept the dust/chaff/heat off of them. I have only come across one of them for sale at an auction, I consider them to be collectors items. I will need to do some homework on the name of the manufacturer.JM

I will but wild oats up against any other plant for itch and burn. Any domestic oats will be worse than barley and wheat.

Found this somewhere. Credit to whoever took the photo. Old school bank out cart.