CHANUTE — Ed Born gave the crank a couple of twists to put a little fuel into the one-cylinder engine sitting at the front of his 76-year-old Case stationary baler.
Nothing. He tried again. And again. Nothing still.
“Guess the filer (on the fuel line) needs replaced,” he said. “I started it yesterday, when I got it out of the barn, but it didn’t run long.”
Born had the baler in Chanute as part of a how-and-tell at Katy Park in an open-air event billed as the Southeast Kansas History Show.
For whatever reason, only a handful of spectators came, but that didn’t perturb Born, or half a dozen other exhibitors.
The stationary baler drew the most attention, it being large and unusual. Other displays were of photos, postcards and hand tools.
The Case machine preceded pick-up balers, those pulled by a tractor and snatch windrowed grass.
Stationary means exactly that.
Farmers and their hands, often neighbors, would rake up mown grass — after giving it a bit of time to cure — and fork it into the top of the baler. A plunger coursed the grass into a square shaft to make bales.
“Some stationary balers were fed by one man, this one was for two,” Born pointed out, which meant four robust men were needed for the process.
“Two men fed grass from either side and two more pushed in wires (to secure bales) and tied them,” with a practiced twist, he explained.
The baler could process 200 bales, weighing close to 100 pounds each, in a day’s time.
BORN, 73, of St. Paul, had experience with the baler, which his father, Amos Born, purchased 1941. “I was just a boy, but I could push in wire and tie it,” he said.
When a more sophisticated model came on the market, Amos Born covered the old one with a tarp and stored it in the shed.
“Back before the war (World War II) you couldn’t buy one of these balers unless you had enough land to make use of it,” he said.
He also recalled an “old bachelor who’d help when we baled. We were putting up a patch of red clover. Now red clover is real itchy and some of them (the other hands) would throw clover on his head. It’d itch like the dickens and at the end of the day that old bachelor ran over and jumped in the pond.”
BORN’S BALER hadn’t seen the light of day for about 10 years, but being the curator of the Osage Museum in St. Paul, Born figured he needed to uncover the antique and give folks in Chanute a look.
With the baler out and about, Born said he planned to get it back to running on a regular basis and likely will show it off more.
“And, if you get a chance, come down to our museum in St. Paul,” he added. “We have a lot of things,” including about 100 mounts, mostly heads but also a full lion that his cousin, Wichitan John Born, got on an African safari and donated to St. Paul’s museum. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.