Harvesting Crew (Photographs)

Harvesting Crew

Steam power greatly improved the Inland Northwest's annual grain harvest.  Horse-drawn wagons transported loads of wheat shocks to a threshing center.  There, steam engines used long leather belts to operate threshing machines.  Men fed wheat manually into each thresher to separate wheat seeds from stalk and chaff.  The steam engines burned waste wheat stalks as fuel, producing power equivalent to an additional 20-30 horses.  As production increased, Spokane emerged as a trade center for exporting or milling these agricultural products.