Hazard A Guess (Week of Oct. 19, 2000)

Hello from Hazard-land.

The mailbag is empty again. Not a single guess on Item No. 605, so we’ll show it again this week. Take a good look and tell us what you think!

Robert Haas of Navarre, Ohio, has never seen the machine we featured as Item No. 604 – which we received only one guess on and discussed last week – but he’s hazard-ing a guess as to its use.

A little farming lesson is in order, Haas says. Smut is a fungicidal disease of the cereal grasses that produces lots of black spores in the grain that usually break up into a fine powder.

“The Cyclone company manufactured screen shaker and fan blast seed cleaners, as did the Clipper Manufacturing Co. I’ve seen many of these hand cranked machines on many barn floors.”

But back to Item No. 604, “apparently wheat for seed from the granary was put in the hopper, and the machine supposedly separated or destroyed the fungi-diseased grain.”

Chemcially treated seed today means farmers don’t lose their grain to smut anymore, Haas says, “and I don’t think he needs to plan on using it anymore!”

To send us a guess on Item No. 605, write to: Hazard a Guess, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or send us an e-mail (but don’t forget to include your name and hometown!) to: editorial@farmanddairy.com.

If you have an item to share with Hazard readers, send a clear photograph (please no Polaroids), along with a complete description, use and dimensions to the address listed above.