Many of these farmers wanted to grow grain on their farms because it could be a very profitable crop. In fact, farmers sold their wheat for $1 a bushel in 1918. Using the consumer price index, this would be $18 a bushel in today’s money.
However, raising wheat required a grain binder and also someone to come and thresh the bundles of grain with a threshing machine.
In the 1880’s and 1890’s Geert Moeke purchased some specialized farm machinery like a straw baler, to do custom work for some of his neighbors. Henry Wesseldyk got some of his experience operating this farm equipment while working at the sawmill and later he also purchased a stationary straw baler, a corn husker, a portable sawmill to cut logs into boards, and buzz rig to cut firewood. More about this specialized farm machinery will be coming at a later date in Part II of this story.
Threshing Grain
It took a large group of farmers working together to keep a large threshing machine operating at full capacity. The farmers would exchange help as the threshing rig moved from farm to farm. Threshing became a community event each summer as farmers worked together for weeks, threshing grain together.
When more threshing machines became available the grain was taken off the field earlier in the season and farmers discontinued stacking their grain.
Threshing at the Borculo Farms
Henry Wesseldyk would usually thresh for around 50 area farmers each year. The threshing operator always had an assistant who traveled with the threshing rig from farm to farm, helping to set up and operate the machine. Henry Wesseldyk’s assistant was his son-in-law Albert Bosch, who later took over the business when Henry retired.
All threshing machines were equipped with a counter which kept track of the number of bushels of grain that were threshed on each farm.
When my father started farming, he kept a detailed account book. The following page shows the results of Henry Wesseldyk threshing on his farm in the year 1938.
The first book is the threshing record book, and it lists the 50 farmers they threshed for in 1930. The record book also lists the date they threshed as well as the number of bushels threshed and the cost per bushel.
He then carried a 50-gallon drum of gasoline from farm to farm in his 1929 Model A pickup. Tony Luurtsema was his assistant for many years.
In 1940 Albert Bosch’s brother Jacob Bosch also decided to buy a large threshing machine, along with a large tractor, to get into the threshing business. He lived about a mile east of Borculo on his farm there and his son John Raymond was his assistant for many years.
There seemed to be plenty of work available and both brothers continued servicing the Borculo community until the large threshing crews disbanded in the early 1950’s and combines took over the harvesting of grain.
Besides being the threshermen in Borculo, Henry Wesseldyk and Albert Bosch also did other custom work for their neighbors with some of their specialized farm machinery. This will be continued in Part II