When I was little, you saw wheat swathed, then you saw it combined like this. I saw many fields harvested like this growing up, even small fields right around my home in north St. Vincent. Mr. Bordeniuk, who lived just a half block south of us, had two small fields by our place - one directly west of the house between us and Philip Cameron's, and one north and a bit northeast between us and where the dike was.
Believe it or not, he used to seed these fields the old way, by hand-casting the seed out of a big sling bag hung around his shoulders and laying again his chest. I watched him do this myself more than once. He had a rhythm, alternately grabbing seed with his right and left hands as he slowly walked, casting the seed in arcs. His skill in seeding this way was proven as the plants emerged and you saw an even field, no gaps or crowding.
Before I had horses and fenced most of our pasture in, Philip Cameron hayed our pasture each year. In a good year, he was able to get two cuttings off of it; he used some of the same methods to cut the hay into rows that he would go over with again with a baler, to make into small square bales. He had seeded it in a mixture of timothy and alfalfa. Between his small fields behind his home - which bordered against the Red River - and our hay land, he was able to feed his dairy and beef cows. He and his wife lived a 'sustainable' life way before that became the modern term it means now. Years ago, many in St. Vincent lived that way. It was a simple, but GOOD life...
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