Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I went through the transition from the old style cut the pea vines and haul to those rural viner sites to the first year combines were used by the California Packing Corporation (DelMonte) in Wells Mn. I was one of the laborers that pitched the pea vines into the Pea Viners at the age of 15. I believe starting wage was $ .87/hour but time and a half after 12 hours. When enough help was available we worked 2 days out of 3. That is an afternoon and night, then a full day and then just a morning. This was so there was less overtime.
The next year I drove vine truck using a neighbors truck. I worked for him, he used a JD 60 with a Hume Pea Reaper to cut the peas and he was paid by the company. The Hume Pea Reaper was mounted on the rear of the tractor The tractor was driven in Reverse. The operator sat on an auxiliary seat on the right side of the tractor between the steering wheel and tire. The clutch was used in the normal sense but of course, the operator had to pull it towards his body to engage it. Steering was done with the original steering wheel but from the backside to the operator (really the front of the tractor in normal operation). The cutting mechanism consisted of a special sickle and some open topped guards. It had a reel on it to help pull the pea vines in. A conveyor carried the cut peas to the side making a windrow. The whole cutting mechanism was spring loaded on the rear of the tractor. The operator raised it by literally pulling back on a large pipe handle. While cutting the operator had some foot pegs to keep it close to the ground.
Later when tractor drawn combines were introduced, the peas were still cut into windrows but self-propelled swathers were used to cut the peas. Still later the idea of "stripping" the pods off the vines took over.
There were many plants in my immediate area at one time. These included the major names such as DelMonte, Green Giant, Birds Eye etc.
Edited by tedbear 7/2/2020 05:08
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Anyone else have trouble posting pics today?
