North Country At Work

Workers in wood-turning shop, using lathes on right. Circa 1890. Unknown location in Jefferson County.

Woman lathe operator in factory, World War II era…think Rosie the Riveter. Unknown location.

Man and woman grading and sorting potatoes at a farm using a machine with different sized meshes. As potatoes roll along the chute, they fall through different hole sizes. The workers remove debris as the potatoes are moved along. Circa 1940-1950. Unknown farm in Jefferson County. Check out this related story on a potato farm […]

This McCormick combine both harvests and threshes oats. Circa 1970-1980. Precise location unknown but somewhere in Jefferson County. Photo taken by Watertown Daily Times staff photographer.

Farmer driving along windrows with John Deere tractor attached to New Holland kicker baler throwing bales onto hay wagon. Two helpers are standing alongside tractor. Circa 1970-1980. Jefferson County. Photo taken by Watertown Daily Times staff photographer.

This woman is bagging oats being fed into bags from steam-powered threshing machine (view complete operation in related photos). Circa 1940-1950. Photo from Watertown Daily Times staff photographer.

Farmer shoveling coal into a steam traction engine being used to thresh oats. In related photos, this man and a woman are working the operation together. Circa 1940s-1950s. Near Watertown, NY. Photo taken by Watertown Daily Times staff photographer.

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 […]

This steam powered threshing machine, with an engine that burned soft coal,  was used to thresh oats (separate grain from chaff). This one is being operated by a man and woman: woman is near John Deere tractor filling bags with processed oats; man is feeding bundles of oats into the thresher. Circa 1940-1950. Watertown, NY […]

Stone sorting operation, including chutes (behind unidentified worker) and piles of crushed stone. Note open ceiling. Circa 1930s or 1940s. Taken by/for Watertown Daily Times. Unknown location.