May 11, 2015
Crowleys Employ a Chariot for Fieldwork

This time of year with harvest well underway or  in many cases, complete, thoughts turn to days past when farming practices were vastly different than today.  But one thing remains the same:  its man against nature when it comes to farming.

The year was 1968 and stories in the local newspapers were plentiful on that subject.  

Record rains lashed the area in October making it seem much like wet spring weather than anything.  Rainfall of nearly unprecedented proportion hit the area dropping 6.46 inches of precipitation in 10 days of nearly continuous rain and causing the former Lake Elsie basin to resemble its former self once again.  Beaver Creek was well out of its banks to the north of town and the heavy downpour set farmers back in the efforts to harvest the crops.  Communities were confronted with overloaded sewer systems and flooded basements and pumps were moved into Slayton on an emergency basis and city employees worked day and night to get the situation under control.  

Just a month prior to the rains, winds whipped flax straw into rolled upon irregular patterns along highway 59 near Valhalla Corner.  Newspapers reported that the straw was practically swept free as if a vacuum cleaner had run amuck.  Some of the straw snagged onto the telephone poles while other piles formed in the highway right of way.  Much of it went sailing across the highway to pile up against a fence.  One Currie wag put it, "You only have to make one swath in some fields--if you don't mind picking up a few fence posts in the process."

A justifiable source of pride for John Tims of Iona is the six row planter that he built and mounted on a 1954 model 12 horsepower tractor. The planter itself had individual self-dip controls. Tims told reporters, "I can plant corn and beans all day on five gallons of gas."  He also built a three-row cultivator that mounted on the same tractor.  Tims planted about 50 acres of beans with the  machine that year and said that he could have done a lot more.

Of particular interest is the piece about the most unusual rock boat.  Most farmers are accustomed to using an old wooden drag called a 'rock boat' to carry stones out of the cultivated fields.  However Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Crowley who live north of Iona use a more unusual rig for this job.  They use a pony chariot pulled by a tiny team.  Tim Crowley, 15, drives while his cousin Neal Crowley, 12, does the heavy work in this picture taken on the Crowley farm.  The Crowley's pony chariot was originally made for use in horse show race events.  Since these events come only during the summer months and then only occasionally, the boys are anxious for any excuse to hitch up the team and run the chariot in the fields.

Adrian farmer Louis Metz was reported to take his four-horsepower rig into the field for a plowing workout, causing quite a sensation.  The black Clydesdales weren't normally used for farmwork, but Metz said this was the only way that he had of training the matched team weighing about 1,600 pounds each.  The entire team outweighed the average modern tractor of the day.  Metz purchased the four horses at Ft. Pierre, South Dakota and he used them primarily for hobby  and in local parades.