Wheat "Thrashing" near Arlington - 1900s

The crew gathers after threshing wheat near the town of Arlington, in Gilliam County. The title written on the back calls it "thrashing", a spelling common in the early 20th century.

Sophisticated for its day, the power equipment shown here was clearly much faster (and produced a cleaner product) than older hand methods of treading out or flailing. Nevertheless, you can see it still required a lot of labor.

Not seen in this photo are the power sources -- likely steam-powered tractors that used belts to drive the threshing machine.

-- This photo is restored and printed by Old Oregon.