This steam powered threshing machine, with an engine that burned soft coal, is being used here to thresh oats–separating the chaff (stem and non-nutritional parts of the plant) from the actual seed or grain (oat). The woman near the John Deere tractor is filling bags with processed oats; the man is throwing bundles of oats into the thresher. Circa 1940-1950. Watertown, NY area. Photo taken by Watertown Daily Times staff photographer.