“In the 1850s, however, wheat became a viable cash crop in a number of central and southern Piedmont counties, making threshing machines fairly common…Early stationary threshing machines were often called “groundhog” threshers because when in operation, they appeared to be digging into the ground and kicking refuse out from behind them. Groundhog threshers were comprised of a rotating toothed or studded cylinder, housed within a box, that beat the grain from the heads as sheaves were fed into it.”
Charles LeCount, “Threshing,” NCPEDIA, 1 January 2006, https://www.ncpedia.org/threshing
Threshing machines significantly changed the life of farmers and became a key piece of harvesting equipment. The following 19th century newspaper articles offer some additional perspectives on the threshing.
To learn more about grain threshing and farming in North Carolina, visit https://www.ncpedia.org/threshing.
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