Man Sewed 812 Sacks Of Wheat In Day In 1939

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29240, 25 June 1960, Page 8

Man Sewed 812 Sacks Of Wheat In Day In 1939

A SMALL paragraph in this section of “The Press' last week recording that last harvest a self-propelled header harvester of Mr M. St. J. McKay, of Tai Tapu threshed 2724 bushels in a 13-hour day recalled memories for Mr E. C. Topp, of Waipara, of a light north-westerly day more than 21 years ago—January 23. 1939—when he and Mr L. McGowan, of Sefton, harvested 2702 bushels in a day. For a two-man team, Mr Topp believes that this may be a world record. Mr McKay’s header was manned by three men. The outstanding thing about the 1939 performance on the property of Watson and Topp, Ltd., was that one man bagged and sewed all of the 812 sacks of 3 1-3 bushels. That was Mr McGowan. “I cannot visualise another man doing that job,” said Mr Topp. who recalled that he had a stoo watch and from the time that Mr McGowan shut the wheat off from a sack until it fell into the carrying tray on the side of the header was always just 14 seconds. “I was interested by the exact time that he took for each sack.” said Mr Topp, who was driving ths

header. Mr McGowan, he said, always did eight stitches and he would never have it said that he missed a stitch. From the time, that one bag was fitted in position until another was placed on the header, the time lapse was only one minute, Mr McGowan had had considerable experience in the days before header harvesters on threshing mills as a bag sewer. A versatile worker, he could also shear 200 sheep a day. The big day’s work was done in a 135-acre crop of Cross 7, which was in the one paddock. The crop averaged 40 bushels to the acre. Work began at 4 a.m. and continued until 10 p.m. and in that time it was estimated that total running time was 16 hours, allowing for stops for greasing, oiling, picking up bags, and refreshments. A 12ft cut self-pro-pelled header harvester 'was in use and it gave faultless service. Mr Topp understands that in Australia in the 1930’5, when a new engine was being tested out with a 14ft cut harvester, more than 3000 bushels were threshed in a non-stop day with a team of men manning the machine.