HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association Thresher Reunion, 1987-09-09, Page 20PAGE A-20. THE CITIZEN. WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 9. 1987.
Neighbours pitch in [literally] to help the Leipers of Hullett Township harvest their grain the old way.
There are never a shortage of hands to help.
WELCOME
to the
26th Annual
Thresher Reunion
While visiting the Reunion, drop in and see us for all your
various needs. We have just about everything you need to make
your stay enjoyable.
BLYTH
MINI MART
Queen St. Blyth
523-4486
OPEN: 8 a.m.-11 p.m. daily
Prop. - Fred Tilley
Leiper brothers stick
to old threshing methods
When the Leiper brothers of RR
1, Londesboro, were asked v hy
they continue to do the same kind of
“stook threshing” they have done
every summer for the past 50 and
more years, Tom replied: “We do
it to cut straw. We like short straw
for bedding the stock.”
However, there is more to it than
that, only Tom and Bill are
reluctant to talk of all the warm
memories the old methods conjure
up, of sweat and dust and grime, of
golden August days and of the
good neighbours that the close-
knit family of two brothers and two
sisters recall from summers past
on the land they have farmed all
their lives. They don’t have a big
crop these days, and with as much
time to do the job as senior citizens
have earned, they see no reason to
change the method that has served
them so well.
A few more hands are needed
old, grumbles that “pitching these
things (sheaves) is harder than
shoeing horses.”
Tom Leiper was in his early 20’s
when he started custom threshing
on his own in about 1938, but both
Tom and Bill, as well as their other
brothers, Bob and Guy, had helped
their father, Jim Leiper, all their
lives, almost from the time he had
started the business in 1909.
In the early days, it was all barn
threshing, Tom remembers,
claiming that “nobody thought of
stook threshing in those days. “In
barn threshing, the sheaves were
brought in from the field when they
were dry, and stacked in the barn,
where they couldbe threshed at
virtually any time, andacustom
thresher like Jim Leiper had work
from August to December.
Thirteen-hour days began at 7
a.m., no matter what the weather
outside, and the threshing crew
those days, Guy Leiper, as the
eldest son, was given the job of
drawing water, from wherever he
could find it, usually ata nearby
creek.
In the 1930’s a custom crew
would work for a total of $2 or $2.50
per hour, although as nostalgia
gradually replaced necessity, Tom
says that in most cases neighbours
traded off work for each other, and
no account was kept of who was
beholden to who - “We were all
neighbours,” he explains.
Tom and Bill have never actually
figured out a price per bushel,
either in cost or in profit, from their
threshing; but they know that the
experience is still, as it has always
been, more than worth it. And the
grain they separate is clean - clean
and unbroken, subtly different that
the grain which goes through a
Continued on page 21
these days to get the job done, but
this is no problem: friends and
neighbours gladly volunteer their
time, just to be part of the old
ulcer-free nostalgia that crowds
the fields and barnyard of the old
homestead, andonlyoneyouth,
with the impatience of the 17-year-
consisted of three men in the days
of steam power - one on the
separator, to feed the sheaves
through, one on the engine, to keep
the fire up, and one on the water
wagon, to draw the 700 or more
gallons of water a day that the
monstrous engine consumed. In
Z"
CongRcrtcdatfons
on the 26th
ThResher? Reunion
Welcome to Blyth!
Chauncey's
hairstyling Inc.
•Perms •BodyWaves ^Conditioning
•Colouring, Frosting, Tinting
• Expert Haircutting and Styling
Queen St., Blyth, Ont.
523-9722
Congratulations
to the Huron Pioneer Thresher
Association on the 26th Reunion
Make Cook’s your supply and service centre.PHOTOGRAPHY
in the Blyth/Brussels area
of weddings, family gatherings,
and portraits call:
WALDEN
PHOTOGRAPHY
WESTFIELD 523 9212
PLANNING IS THE KEY
Seed
Soil
Analysis
Supplies
CENTRALIA
228-6661
^DMSIOlWf^ERBR^INC
ElevatorCrop
Planning | Facilities
MarketFertilizer
Prog rams 11 nformation
Centre
Chemical
Supplies
TO REACHING YOUR FARMING GOALS!
Before you make any decisions for 1987,
talkto the folks at Cook's.
HENSALL
262-2410
KIRKTON
229-8986
WALTON
527-1540
887-9261
TILLSONBURG
842-6979
Remember! You can
COOK'S -• ‘‘Where you can trade with confidence
COOK'S DIVISION OF GERBRO INC.
BANK on