The Harvester-Stacker
Farmers are often on the forefront of innovation, introducing methods to
increase efficiency and productivity on the family farm. Likewise, Orville
Newton Gilbert patented his invention, a hay-stacking machine, on March
31,1936. An alternative to the traditional method of harvesting wheat, Gilberts inventions introduced a way of stacking crops rather than
binding small bushels with twine.
The Harvester-Stacker was a large wagon-box with a v-shaped floor. The box
was balanced on a central axle so that it could be tilted backwards to
allow the material inside to tumble out. A binder would run along side the
stacker, passing cut hay onto a conveyor belt that would run up into the
wagon-box. Farmhands would then tramp the hay until the barge was full,
and a perfectly topped stack would be deposited onto the ground.
Advertisements for the invention claimed it would cut threshing expenses
by 50 percent, increase the feed value of the straw and produce a
higher-grade value of hay. Farmers testified that wheat threshed from the
invention was of higher quality, heavier weight per bushel and had less
moisture content. Despite this, however, the hay stacker was not a
commercial success. George Comstock of the Rosebud Historical Society
remembers seeing the stackers in his childhood and says that the main
problem they presented was that threshing machines had to be moved to
thresh each stack. This was a strenuous and time-consuming process, and
may have contributed to the lack of interest from the greater farming
community.
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