The Hart Header Barge as a Means of Reducing Grain Harvest Labor Cost

(From Montana State College)

(Hysham Echo - Sept. 24, 1925 & July 5, 2013)

In the preceding article the Hart header barge was discussed, showing how the device operates to cut down harvesting costs through the elimination of several men from the ordinary harvesting crew and by speeding up the work. The barge simply offers a means of handling headed grain more efficiently, C. W. Hart of the Hart Header barge, has also adopted some short cut threshing methods. Bulletin 71, “Reducing the Cost of Montana’s Dry Land Wheat Harvest,” refers to this as follows:
Mr. Hart has also threshed his stacks by use of a motor driven combine-harvester, the pitchers throwing the headed grain upon the platform canvas. He has threshed about 800 bushels per day in this way, a special kicker being attached in front of the elevator canvas to feed the pitched grain evenly into the machine.
The Hart system of farming is one of the most economical systems devised for farms of 200 to 400 acres using headers on reasonably level ground in Montana. One big advantage is that the barge may be used in windy weather as the sides of the barge break the force of the wind. It has been seen in operation at times when high winds had forced some other types of outfits to quit. The grain is not shattered by the wind when using the header barge and all goes into the stack. The Hart header barge if correctly constructed is very simple, with no parts to get out of order and no intricate machinery to adjust. But warning must be given that proper construction is demanded in this barge if success is to be experienced.

The Kansas Type of Header Barge

Mr. Hart says that it pays him to run double crews when using a tractor, one working at night, so that from 50 to 60 acres of grain are cut each 24 hours. For light he suspends two 300-candle power pressure gasoline torches or lanterns high enough in the air that they give a flood of light over the whole operation. The lanterns are hung with springs above and below to take up the jar in driving.
The Hart system has been tried out in both Montana and Kansas. It is past the experimental stage and takes its place as a sound device for economical and rapid harvesting of the wheat crop. Montana people who have made and used these barges express satisfaction with the results obtained.
In summarizing the benefits of the header barge Mr. Hart says:
1. The labor requirements are reduced from five or six to two or three men, doing about the same amount of field work.
2. The cost of heading is about one-half the cost under the ordinary crew method used in Montana.
3. It is possible in long grain to keep the center high and the stack with butts out.
4. It is possible to head grain with high winds and with little loss.
5. It saves extra man labor when this labor is scarce and high priced, and when at times it even cannot be obtained.

Another View of the Kansas Barge, Showing the Elevator

Kansas Type of Header Barge

Stackers of the Hart principal recently have been used in northwestern Kansas, in regions of variable winter wheat yield. An interesting application of this principle is illustrated, representing a complicated type of barge built by Harold Hills of Colby, Kansas. The barge is 30 feet long, 13 feet high and 12 feet wide. Mr. Hills has made a 30-foot header by placing two ordinary headers end to end. An elevator as shown in the illustration elevates the grain to the top of the barge. When the gain is light a horse pushed header is driven to the rear of the main header thus cutting a swath 44 feet wide. The principle of using an auxiliary horse pushed header which discharges on the platform canvas might well be used in connection with the Hart header in years of light grain. The Kansas header is mentioned here not with the idea of its being used in Montana, but to illustrate how the principle of the barge is being used elsewhere on level lands with conditions similar to those in Montana. Recent reports from northwestern Kansas indicate that many farmers who were using the header barge two or three years ago have since gone to the small combine.

The New Way Harvester

A General View of the New Way Harvester

As evidence that inventive genius is being applied to the problem of reducing harvesting costs, a South Dakota farmer has invented the outfit known as the new way harvester shown in the illustrations. A header platform elevates the grain into a round stack mold, the stack hold revolving in such a way that it builds a small stack eight feet in diameter and seven feet high, placing the grain heads in and the straw ends out. These small stacks are carried to the thresher with a specially constructed buck rake. The machine still is in the experimental stage. A dozen machines were put out in Manitoba and Saskatchewan last winter and, according to an article in the Grain Growers’ Guide of Winnipeg, September 19, 1923, are giving good satisfaction.

Showing How the New Way Harvester Places Its Stacks in Position

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