Olaf and Andrew Ruden owned a threshing engine and hired a crew each year to operate it. The Rudens traveled with their crew and equipment from one farm to another until all the wheat was threshed and ready to send to market. The threshing engine that powered the thresher had to be set up far from the thresher in order to prevent the straw stacks from catching fire from a spark. The long belt carried power from the engine to the thresher. The engine operated on steam power, so barrels of water are available near the engine. Horses pulled the wagons loaded with bundles of wheat to the thresher. Horse-drawn wagons carried away the wheat kernels that were thrown from the thresher. This picture was taken near White Earth around 1915.
