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western NY | Sorry about hijacking the Fox thread.
PAPEC Stands for Power-And-Pnumatic-Ensilage-Cutter I have also heard Propeller and Pnumatic not sure what is right. They started into business around 1900 in my hometown of Lima NY. At that time silos were just becomming popular and so was dairying here in western NY. They remained in Lima for about ten years until there was a fire that destroyed the factory, which from the pictures I've seen and knowing where it sat couldn't have been too big. While they had become very popular there future in Lima was doomed even before the fire since Lima had no railroad except a very small private rail line that ran to neerby Honeoye Falls. (Any railroad buffs might want to check this out since I believe it was a one of a kind thing) After the fire PAPEC bought the former Empire grin dill factory in Shortsville NY about 20 miles east of here, they would remain there untill there demise in the late 70's or very early 80's. That factory burned in the late 80's.
They specialized in forage equipment and at first only built ensilage cutters but then added hammer mills. Around WWII they came out with a field harvester and after the war they became very popular in this area. At that time there was enough dairy farms in our area alone to keep then in business. The first harvesters were the 151 and the 181 both had one row heads and could be equiped with a pick up. The 151 could either be PTO or driven with a LeRoy engine, the 181 only came with the engine. Durring the 50's they came out with a rather large line of forage equipment including hammer mills, grinder mixers, 3 differant size forage harvesters with various heads, flail choppers, self unloading wagons, blowers both lone and short hopper, sprayers, and even a grain and hay dryer. Durring the 60's they remained popular especially there self unloading wagons which there are still a few around, I believe there clain to fame was a continus apron drive at a time when others were using a ratchet drive. The rest of there line became more modern apperring but realy was the same equipment being made in the 50's just spruced up a little. As the 70's started the same thing happened, same old machines just a differant paint job. An example is the No. 35 chopper of the 50's became the 350 in the 60's and the 3500 in the 70's, all of them still had some parts that were common going back all the way the the first stationary cutters built at the turn of the century. Somewhere I have a beutifull full color brocure for a 3500 chopper from the mid 70's. While it has a modern apperance with 11x15 tires a nice jack and even electric spout controles it was very dated. I think it was the last flywheel chopper, I don't think they ever made a cutter head machine. By the late 70's there sales shrank to almost nothing because of there dated line, wagons were still popular but everything else was 20's behind the competition and around 1980 they closed up shop. For a while a place somewhere in Tennesee was making and selling parts but I'm sure that has ended by now, making PAPEC only a fond memory in the farming comunity. | |
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History lesson needed - Fox and Field Queen choppers
