The following was written by Todd P. Trooien, nephew of the late Trygve A. Trooien, whose bequest made possible the Horse-Drawn Museum that is now a part of the Brookings County Museum complex in Volga.
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The following was written by Todd P. Trooien, nephew of the late Trygve A. Trooien, whose bequest made possible the Horse-Drawn Museum that is now a part of the Brookings County Museum complex in Volga.
Todd was the “rookie” mentioned in the last paragraph of this excellent harvest story. His uncle Tryg is the “leader” on the all-terrain vehicle, and the “vet” is Dean Janiszeski, who now serves on the Lincoln County (Minnesota) Historical Society board.
Todd is a professor and natural resources engineer in agriculture and biosystems engineering at SDSU. He lives less than a mile from Trygve’s old farm in Lake Hendricks Township.
Ice covered the land.
The ice had retreated. Behind, it left hills. It left rocks. It left clay in some soil layers that changed the flow of water. It left piles of gravel in some places. It left depressions in the land in other places.
Water filled one of those depressions and formed Oak Lake. It was an oasis in the treeless prairie.
Tallgrass prairie ruled the land and was the land. Bison roamed the land. Antelope roamed the land. Grouse and geese and ducks roamed the land and air. Native Americans camped near Oak Lake.
The prairie was a quilt of native grasses and small grain crops. The bison were gone, forced westward. Grouse ruled the land. Some prairie and pasture remained for the cattle.
A few hand-milked dairy cows grazed in the native pasture near the lake. The cows occasionally came to the fence to supervise the men and machines that harvested their feed.
A team of horses pulled the corn binder through the weedy, sparse corn. The oats in the adjoining field had been cut and bundled with another horse-drawn binder. Still more labor was required to pitch the bundles from stacks into the separator when the threshing machine came to Oak Lake.
The ringneck pheasant ruled the land; the grouse were gone. White-tail deer ruled the land; the antelope were gone.
A small herd of dairy cows grazed near the lake. Twice a day, they made their way to the barn and were milked with portable machines.
All-purpose tractors pulled binders to cut and bind the grain or corn into bundles. The horses were mostly gone. Manual labor was still required to put the bundles into shocks, then feed the bundles into the separator when the threshing machine came to Oak Lake.
The sun shone. The sky was bright blue. The air was crisp and dry. The lake was calm. The coppered leaves on the trees around the lake hinted at the yellows, reds, and oranges that would soon appear. The lake was loaded with gulls, pelicans, geese, ducks and fish. Turkeys roamed in the trees.
A few cows grazed near the lake. No longer do they get milked. They are showing the last snips of the Holstein spots in their transition to angus-weighted blackness. Those spots tell of the quickly receding Holstein genes in the herd transition from dairy to beef. Cattle gathered at the fence to supervise the men and machines that harvest their feed. But “harvest their feed” is now figurative rather than literal.
The rookie drove the tractor. The vet rode on and operated the corn binder. The leader supervised from a modern, plastic, all-terrain vehicle. The team cut and bound five short rows of corn, about 100 bundles. By the time the last bundles were tied, the old machine was tired and required more repairs. But enough bundles were tied. The old machine was put away and repairs would be made another day. The sights had changed over time. The sounds had changed over time. The smells had changed over time. But the goal was the same: harvest.
Today was not about harvesting to feed the family or harvesting to feed the livestock. Today was about harvesting to celebrate the harvest. Today was about harvesting to celebrate the hardy souls and strong hands that forged farm land from prairie. Today was about harvesting to prepare for next year’s gathering to celebrate the manual labor of our forebears.
Today was about harvesting to prove that we could make the old ways work. Today was about harvesting to celebrate the harvest.
If you’d like to comment, email the author at cfcecil@swiftel.net.
