10/08/2026
Each fall at farms across the state, the harvesting of wheat was an enormous undertaking. The wheat stalks had to be first cut and dried before the usable grain could be separated from the plant – a process called threshing. Grain can be threshed by hand, using animal powered machines, or via fully mechanized methods.
By the late 1800s, steam-powered threshing machines were in widespread use. Laborers fed the sheaves of dried wheat stalks into the machine. A heavy rotating cylinder with teeth or paddles agitated the stalks so that the grain separated from the plant. A series of sieves, shakers, and fans then separated the grain from the remaining husks and straw. The heavier grain fell into wagons or sacks, while the straw was sent out from the machine and the husks blew away.
This threshing scene shows a threshing machine hooked up to a steam-powered tractor with a crew in the middle of work. Learn more about threshing in Minnesota in our online exhibit: https://collection.mndigital.org/exhibits/threshing-crews
Image: Threshing crew at the Quiggle farm north of Amboy, c. 1880. Blue Earth County Historical Society, https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/blue:2575
