By Tara de Ryk
DAVIDSON — A demonstration of sorts has been going on this harvest in a field southwest of Davidson.
An antique self-propelled Massey Harris Model 21 combine from the late 1940s has been working its way through a small patch of wheat.
At its wheel is Gary Allan who restored the machine and got it ready for harvest.
It works like a charm and has brought great pleasure to not only Gary, but to many retired farmers who used similar machines back in their day. They’ve been dropping by Allan’s farm to see the combine in action.
Willard McNabb stopped by one beautiful Friday afternoon to take a turn on the combine. McNabb had used a Model 21 on his farm. Also there were Lee Walker, Lyle Wightman and Bob Palmer. They appreciated seeing the machine in action and taking a ride on it.
It brought back fond memories for the men.
“I used a pull-type combine. I couldn’t afford these fancy self-propelled machines,” Lee Walker said.
It’s quite a stretch in 2015 to think of the Model 21 as a “fancy” machine.
Without a cab, let alone GPS, auto-steering, variable speed drive or power steering, the 21 is as basic as it gets.
As Gary explains, “There’s only one control: up or down. You put it in gear open the throttle and go.”
But back in the early 1940s when Massey Harris started making them, the Model 21, and its forerunner the Model 20, were the cutting edge of technology.
Before self-propelled combines, farmers either cut grain with a binder, stooked it and then had it threshed; or used a pull-type combine that was pulled behind a horse or a tractor.
Lyle Wightman, who took a turn on Gary’s 21, farmed with a Cockshutt self-propelled combine. He had it for about 15 years.
“I started farming pretty young. I was 13 when I went out of school and went pitching bundles in the fall. I’d do our own and then go with the outfit.”
It was his favourite way to harvest grain.
“I loved pitching bundles. I threshed lots with a team of horses and a rack. I loved it,” Wightman said.
Besides the nostalgia the Model 21 has for farmers who recall using them back in the day, the story behind the 21 is significant.
The Model 20, Massey Harris’s self-propelled prototype combine was built in the late 1930s and early 1940s, designed for large-scale farms in the U.S. and Argentina. In the early 1940s Massey Harris produced the smaller Model 21 so that instead of producing a few machines for big farms, it could sell a large number of machines to small farms.
The combine did all the jobs of the binder and threshing machine. It cut the grain and separated the wheat from the chaff. The self-propelled combine did all this plus it had an engine and drive shaft and had just enough power to get the job done, freeing up more powerful, and fuel-loving, tractors for other work.
The Model 21 caught on with farmers, however, during the Second World War, a shortage of steel due to military rationing, limited production. Massey Harris created the “Harvest Brigade” after convincing the U.S. government to allow the company to build a fleet of 500 MH-21s that would start harvesting in the southern states of the Great Plains and move north, following the ripening crop.
To read the full story, along with other articles and photos featuring local farmers and the agricultural industry, please pick up a copy of the Oct. 5 Davidson Leader, or watch your mailbox for the Leader’s “Salute to Agriculture,” being sent to almost 3,000 households across the region.