Showing posts with label tractor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tractor. Show all posts
How the Steam Tractor Got to the Farm
The tractor was shipped from the McCormick-Deering factory by train. When it arrived at the depot, Daddy and the man who sold it to him were there waiting and they drove it off onto a loading platform beside the train tracks and down a slope to the ground. From the depot to home is three miles, which was about the distance that nine rounds plowing in the big bottom would cover, so the man drove it here and Daddy drove the man's automobile. People came out to watch as the tractor passed by, Daddy said, as most of them had never seen such a machine, this being the first steam tractor in the county.
Whole Wheat Flour
Now that wheat harvesting is underway, we'll have Graham flour for a time, freshly milled from red spring wheat. Daddy takes wheat to Stivers Mill in Rome and has it ground. Whole wheat flour contains all the healthy nutrients of the quality wheat from which it was ground: the germ, the oil and the fiber. Because it has a high oil content, it goes rancid faster than white flour.
We'll have brown bread, graham teacakes (our version of Mr. Graham's crackers) and whole wheat biscuits as long as the flour lasts. Then we'll go back to white flour, which keeps better through the summer.
Steam Tractor
Daddy bought a steam tractor, the first one in the county. It caused quite some excitement and of course everybody had to drive it if they were big enough, and the little ones wanted to ride. 
The man in the picture in the white shirt and tie is the McCormick-Deering tractor dealer.
The man in the picture in the white shirt and tie is the McCormick-Deering tractor dealer.
