Threshing was the operation of beating the grain to separate the grain from the ear. It was followed by husking and winnowing to separate the grains from the husk and then sorting to separate the seed from the other grains.
Threshing with a flail or crushing, followed by the passage of the shredding roller and finally the use of the van with the help of the wind was a long and arduous work requiring a lot of labour. The help provided by the neighbours was an opportunity to organise the meals for the threshing festivities marking the sheltering of the harvest.
These traditional threshing practices were gradually modernised in the 20th century with the use of threshing machines, tarares and grain sorters. The drudgery of this work and the sociability associated with it disappeared completely with the arrival of combine harvesters, which carried out the entire threshing process in a single operation carried out by two people in the 1960s.
Illustrations :
– Photograph of the threshing at Davalan in Saint Astier in the 1930s (Private collection in Hervé Mercier, Saint-Astier, 1900-1950, volume 2, La vie Astérienne, Imprimerie IOTA, 2015)
– Photograph of the threshing at La Borie (2) in Saint Astier in the 1930s (Private collection in Hervé Mercier, Saint-Astier, 1900-1950, volume 2, La vie Astérienne, Imprimerie IOTA, 2015)
– Advertisement for the CASE threshing machine in the New Agriculture of 1923. (©Musée André Voulgre)
– Advertisement for the Société Française threshing machine in the Petit Journal agricole of 1925 (©Musée André Voulgre)
– Advertisement for HLV belts in the Petit Journal Agricole of 1925 (©Musée André Voulgre).
– Video Le temps des machines by Pascal Magontier, 1986.