Asson’s softcover, 124-page, 8 ½-by-11-inch book portrays 300 full-color and black and white pictures of hay cutting and stacking equipment that I’ve only been told about by old-timers. Yesterday’s haying equipment – beaverslides, overshots, slips, sling elevators, derricks, buck rakes and sweep rakes – are beautifully catalogued, described and showcased in a glossy-page layout alongside the memories and reflections of the farmers who used them.
With entries from North Dakota to Nebraska and throughout the American West and western Canada, if you look closely, you may see a great-grandfather or other relative among the historical pictures.
Asson used many resources to compile this comprehensive look at a bygone era in agriculture. He used the Library of Congress files, turn-of-the-century textbooks, antique stores, old calendars and postcards, and booklets prepared by farm equipment dealers. He took out ads in rural publications and received replies from old-timers who knew the business and had used the equipment; their memories and anecdotes were included as well.
It was a seven-year journey for Asson to write and publish the book. I asked the author a few questions about his passion and how the book came to be.
What made you want to write the book?
I grew up on a farm in Rupert, Idaho, and was old enough to have worked with horses in the pre-baling days. To me, haying was a fun time with family and neighbors. This formed an interest, which led to me taking pictures of the derricks (hay stackers of all kinds) and other iron used in the old days. This continued into my CPA days where clients in distant places (and vacations) took me past farms in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. Whenever I spotted a stacker, I pulled over and walked out in the field to get another photo; it was just a hobby, I had no interest in writing a book then.
One day in the late 1980s, I was rummaging through the collection and thought about making a collage of the better pictures. Carolyn and I had four children who grew up in Portland. They visited my parents and loved playing on the farm in Idaho but were city kids with no knowledge of rural matters. They started asking questions about my pictures, and I gave them a name and a short explanation. That led to the next question – how did they work? And the next – why did you stack hay anyway? And so on. That led me to consider captions for the collage, but there wasn't enough room to do it right. A scrapbook was a better idea, but it still didn't come to life. So I started thinking about a pamphlet, but how do you explain why cows liked different kinds of forage or how rakes are different than tedders or – well, you get the idea.
What is it you hope readers will take away from it?
I had no preconceived idea. Once I got into it and realized I may have something, I did some research on selling and found that was more difficult than the writing and publishing. I tried Amazon, Hastings, joined Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, went on bookstore and library selling tours through every state to Nebraska and slowly learned the trade. People wrote lovely appreciation letters, which helped in building confidence.
I see that you dedicated it to your father; can you tell me about him?
Dad was a born farmer. He was a very quiet man – didn't waste any words. I was not cut out to be a farmer but always enjoyed mowing, plowing, cultivating and the like. As long as I was told what and when to do it, it was fine, but I couldn't pick up the rhythm of when to plant, irrigate or whatever. Dad would give a brief lesson and then walk off trusting that I, or my brothers, could handle the task. He was born of immigrant Italian parents and spent his early years growing up in the coalmines of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. When the Carey Act opened up Snake River water to Minidoka County (Idaho), my grandfather homesteaded, and Dad became a farmer, the only one of my grandparents’ twelve children.
Haying was anything but romantic. My husband tells me it was hard, hot, sweaty work, and only time and nostalgia have elevated it to the romantic level. Oh, wait, there he is – page 109 – a memory submitted by my great-uncle Ariel Bean from LaGrande, Oregon. And on page 112, it says, “Mr. Bean of LaGrande, Oregon, commented that he’d even consider dancing before ever picking up a scythe again.” And that’s sayin’ something.
If you’d like more information about the book or would like to find out how to obtain one, contact Asson by email or by calling (503) 913-7342. FG
PHOTO
Photo by Lynn Jaynes.
