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• WHAT: Oklahoma Harvest
• WHEN: Circa 1907 – Just a guess since another harvest picture was labeled as 1907
• WHERE: Probably on the William Kirmse land – notice the dog
• SOURCE: Shared by Helen (Kirmse) Hacker October 2003
• NOTES:  The picture has the words “Okla. Harvest” on the back.

There are four elements of the picture – a horse powered reaper, two hay wagons, three haystacks and a dog in the foreground.

The mechanical reaper with a team of six horses and driver apparently was a “pusher” reaper with the driver riding the machine and the team of six horses and rigging arranged to push the reaper. There is a conveyor on the side to lift the hay and drop it in a hay wagon being driven along side. This must have been quite a task for the driver to both operate the machine and manage the team of horses.

Moving left to right, the first mule drawn wagon has an interesting construct. Note, as seen from the front, the right side appears to be taller than the left side. The driver probably drove the wagon along side the reaper and the helper spread out the hay as it is being dropped onto the wagon from the reaper.

The man on the left is standing on a haystack with a ladder in front. The mule drawn wagon has been brought along side of the stack to be unloaded. Two curious items are: what does the man on the stack have in his left hand and why is there apparently a hat on a pole. Note that none of the men are wearing hats but they are all apparently wearing long sleeve shirts as protection from the sun.

Then there is the dog lying on the ground. This element of the image is consistent with the picture taken at the William Kirmse homestead in 1910 (See Chapter: Kirmse Family and New Home). Grandfather Kirmse had a liking for dogs. He would make sure that each of his children had a dog on their farmplace. Generally the dog was a large, well mannered animal that was good with children.