Wheat Field Conundrum Solved

One thing that puzzled me about wheat field harvesting with horse and reaper in the early 1900s was how the sides of the field were worked? Was a strip left unplanted or did the horses just walk through the wheat? With no answer to hand I simply planted the wheat to the fence line. No one who has read this blog or seen the layout at exhibition queried it.

Unexpectedly and recently, the answer came to me from reading Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. In support of the story line Hardy described in great detail the landscape and working practice.

Whilst being a work of fiction I believe what he described in this respect is true. He described a wheat field that had been 'opened', meaning the wheat at the fence line was hand-cut a few feet wide for the horses to walk unhindered by the wheat (at the time the wheat variety would have been between 3 and 5 feet high).


Armed with a pair of sharp scissors, I cut the lanes and coloured the cleared ground appropriately with acrylic paints.

Conundrum solved!

David

More DIY 2mm scale people

Early in 1916 the Women's National Land Service Corps was formed to work on the land because most men were away fighting the war in Europe. This was a small voluntary force of women that later became the Women's Land Army in 1917. The Women's Land Army wore a recognisable uniform whereas the Women's National Land Service Corps were only provided with a beige arm band.

In this scene three volunteers are following the reaper during harvest to make the wheat stooks. This period video shows very well how it was done. One women is aligning the bundles, another has picked up two bundles and waits for the third who is about to pick up another and together they will make the stook. Their clothing is representative of 1916 being plain colours of black brown, beige and white. Styles are based on those seen in this video.
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Here is Mr. Charles Bushnell, who was the Cliddesden Station Master throughout the LSWR period of the line.

He is in the uniform of the period wearing a frock coat and cap. Note the gold braid and badge on his cap and his characteristic grey beard.

For information on how these models are made see Part 1. However, models shown in this posting differ in so far as they have properly formed shoes, made like the hands, and one shoe has an extended wire for fixing the model into the ground. 0.5mm wire is used for the women's legs instead of 0.7mm.

David

Mr. McCormick's Reaper Binder - Part 5

Here is the reaper in the wheat field with the sun low on the horizon. The operator is making an adjustment to the machine as the horses wait patiently to complete their task before night falls.

Horses are by Langley Models and finely painted by Ed. The man is by Graham Farish, temporarily placed until a more fitting figure is found.

In the lower picture the operator is about to climb onto his seat. Note a bundle in the carrier and bunches previously dispatched from the binder. Women from the Women's National Land Services Corps (this is 1916 and the men folk are at war on the continent) are following to upend the bundles to form stooks to help dry the grain.

To Part 1

David

Growing the Wheat Field

Wheat varieties in the early 1900s grew to a height of 3-5 feet. That's 6-10mm in 2mm scale. I'm using plumbers hemp to represent the wheat, which is cut to size using electric hair grooming clippers. A No.2 comb gives the required height. The natural hemp is just the right colour to represent wheat ready for harvest.

The plan is for about half the field to be uncut wheat and the rest to be stubble with sheaves of cut wheat. The demarcation point being a McCormick reaper drawn by two horses. The reaper will need to be made from scratch. The finished scene will evoke the period and therefore interesting to view. The terracota ground colour is ok under the uncut wheat but might need to be darkened under the stubble area.

The method of growing the wheat is to first mark the runways for the hair comb webs to pass unhindered. PVA glue is laid between the runways. A pinch of hemp (not too thick) is cut off the hank and pressed into the glue and so on to create each row of wheat. When dry the clippers are gently pushed through the wheat along the runways to trim the height. The excess is vacuumed off.

David