My Grandfather used to tell me stories from his boyhood (in central WA state) of his dad pulling stumps with a team of horses and his stump puller, which as my Grandpa described it was very similar to this one! and he would anchor it to either a nearby tree or another stump. He not only cleared his own land with it, but other farms nearby would hire him to pull stumps for them as well. Thank you for sharing this video as it has allowed me to actually see something that I have only been able to imagine in my mind from Grandpa's stories!
As a kid, 3-5 years old, I lived on a Suffolk farm, in England, in the 40's and my dad used a horse and cart to load sugar beet into railway trucks. So working horses bring back a lot of memories of my childhood. These two are a really handsome pair, and look almost like twins. It takes real dedication to keep and maintain a pair like these. Working with horses is quiet, and non polluting, but oh so very slow!
That is one EXCELLENT team. They were willing to scratch and dig to move the load, both of them pulling and neither backing down. I don't think that double tree ever moved one way or the other. They worked together.
I would have bet good money that no one would commenting would have known that these horses were "scratching". I don't care much for riding horses, but I love to see the big draught horses work. I see at this time we have picked up 832 ancient alien flat earthers.
It would have been better to hear the man working the horses and giving them commands and listening and hearing the horses responding. Piano is to much.
This is intended to be both a respectful and informative comment from a very old homesteader who cleared stumps by hand, with no powered machines, only a couple of winches, 200 miles from the nearest road in the 1970's. The device shown has several significant defects in my opinion but one very very ingenious idea. The old order Amish who I lived across a remote dirt road from in the 1960's used a similar "log-lever" but the fulcrum did not employ a chain that kills or almost kills the anchor tree. Log-levers like those were common, because without power such lever solutions become common-sense obvious. Plus a couple of hippie communes I played a small part in also used log-levers and draft horses because we wanted to learn to do things the old-fashioned way on purpose. The better more common sense way to use a log-lever is to instead use the lever-log on the other side of the tree where the lever log itself swivels against the anchor tree which will NOT harm the anchor tree at all. The way the Amish kept the log from slipping was to build the lever-log with about two 4-foot long right-angle to the lever-log pieces that were fastened with two wooden drop-in pins that could be adjusted to the width-diameter of the anchor tree which kept the lever-log from slipping. BUT their method and all others I've seen and myself used in the 1970's did NOT have the ingenious idea this method has with the two-sides of the fulcrum multi-choice iron hooks to receive the pull chain. It was exciting for me to watch how much easier that made things because that way the horses could "pull" the stump going either direction - VERY COOL!! Another comment from it seems another experienced stump puller was to always cut the tree high and set the pull chain also high which multiplies the mechanical advantage plus you cut a notch on the "back" side of the stump-pull that the chain will auto-lock into so that it doesn't slip off when the angle of the stub begins to flatten. For many back-to-land going "off-grid" young-ins allow me to offer one more old-order Amish trick I learned for moving many to most intentionally felled log-cabin sized branch-trimmed logs across the ground single handed by one person; very slow; BUT the log does get moved even a good hundred yards and more - so simple - it was my most used old-ways trick; I once built a bridge single handedly using this trick (and high-lines- with pulley-runs to make a tram like affair). Just take an eight (or 10) foot one inch pipe and about a 12 foot or shorter piece of chain with grab hooks and wrap two slightly loose wraps around the very end of the pull-log and hook the chain- so that one of the wraps is just a little loose, just loose enough but no looser so that the pipe can be tucked in under that chain. Now you just push the pipe through and too the ground ahead a short to longer distance, depending (use common sense) , anchor-insert-push that end into the ground ahead, then back your hands up to the end of the other higher end of the pipe and lift on the pipe; the log end will rise a foot or so till it slides down the pipe back to the ground but now a good six inches to 18 inches or more for a lighter log and just repeat- it's actually kind of fun; slow slow yes, but but SO sure - AND rewarding. Enjoy-all and thanks for this cool YT.
I appreciate your respectful and very informative comments. Sounds like your experiences have given you a perspective and life-education that many people commenting on here don't have. I will show your comments to some of the people that helped put this video together and see what they think of your suggestions and how they might have worked with this piece of equipment. Thanks for watching and commenting. Constructive criticism is always welcomed!
Your comments were the most knowledgeable part of this video! Rounding off an initially hard looking, somewhat seemingly ignorant video with a welcoming, refreshing, common sense approach. Giving the whole damn thing(stupid music included) a much needed rational conclusion , thanks,Dog!!
Irish Sailordog sorry that you didn’t like the video. It was the best we could do on such short notice when the videographers from the museum got their dates mixed up and were a no show.
OOPS - so sorry if you interpreted that I didn't like your video, just the opposite; please re-read the last line, "Enjoy-all and thanks for this cool YT." My apologies that I did not make myself more clear. Yes I was pointing out some different ways to do the same task but then I also mentioned that one aspect of their method was "but one very very ingenious idea." Plus don't forget it was YOUR video that started this whole conversation where others simply increased by their comments many other ways to pull stumps and related logging by hand or horses tasks. Best wishes to you. rich
First let me say awesome tool and thanks for sharing! I generally do things the hard way to save money. I cut down 34 white pines, 5 sweet gums, and a double water oak with a 16 inch electric chain saw. The water oak was about 3.5 feet at the base. Took a lot of work for that little electric chain saw, lol. I am not knock anything about this video, it was good and i love seeing old ways of doing things. Couple of comments here from a point of view somewhat close to the way it used to be compared to today's standards. I say that because my son and I are currently clearing land to build our two houses. Much of it especially early on has been done by hand. Limited resources and all. People back then cared for their horses. They would not risk any undue harm or strain on them. The horse was the life of a farm and without them getting fields plowed and such would be rough at best. If it were my horses I would have first cleared as much soil around the root zone as possible then chopped the surface roots in two where possible and especially on the far side from the direction the tree was being pulled which would greatly reduce the force needed to pull the stump. This would have made the work of the horses much easier greatly reducing any chance of injury to the horses and its really not that hard to do by hand. Just requires persistence. Or a root hook could have been used with the horses if the person just did not want to do any physical work and then the horses would have reduced the force needed to remove the stumps a few roots at a time. Then when the stump comes out my guess is the old time farmer, knowing the hole would need to be filled and knowing how much extra weight the dirt on the roots weighs, would have taken the time to knock the dirt off the roots which would help fill the hole created. Ask me how I know, my son and I have dug up hundreds of stumps on our property, many by hand and it just makes sense to get the dirt off in place. Plus the stump as said earlier would be much lighter thus far easier to move and thus less damage to the soil in the area you pull the stump through so less work fixing all that back. Then later if they burned the stumps the stumps will burn far easier without the dirt on the root ball. Just my opinions. Awesome tool. Leverage made it possible for a good bit of human progress.
The Music wasn't that bad kind of went with the air of the times I enjoyed it , it reminded me of my great grandfather . He own two different login camps . Way before the depression . Equipment reminds me of the stuff that he used to use . They made their own locomotive engines for hauling to the mills my mother used to ride on the side of those logging trucks to .The locomotives where used in the winter months to pull skids with logs on the rivers with special tracks almost like a bulldozer to the mills . Hard work and they where tuff guy's back then . My mom's brothers now own some of this equipment I wish I would have had a chance just to watch my great grandfather at his best . Thanks for bringing back those memories of my mother stories and her brothers .
My father was born in 1880, he died at the age of 94. He told me about another kind of stump puller that was fashioned in such a way that it worked like a winch. I wish I had paid more attention while he was explaining to me how it was built. He also told me about this same kind of rig you used in the video to pull stumps. Thanks for doing the video, those old ways are long gone now and seeing them in action once again is priceless. By the way those horses were a beautiful well trained team and the teamster driving them knew what he was doing.
+44wizbang Your father was likely talking about the "wheeled" stump puller that was invented during the creation of the Erie Canal. That's actually what brought me to this video.
..the old ways got done what needed to get done..with sweat and determination..highly respectable !!! The generation today wouldn't be caught dead sweating....
No, they do sweat - and they pay to make it at a gym on electronic machines in 100$ Chinese tights. Or they squander it while "jogging" . I have offered these morons to come to my place and build rock walls or clear brush from the stream bed and banks, but I only get blank stares. I offered that they need only pay ME half of what they gave their gym membership, but no, back to the ear buds and rock music. Pathetic space wasters are filling up America
Awesome watching the team lean into it at the end. Takes me back about 70 years when I rode on the back of one of a team as it was pulling a hay wagon.
My Dad and G-Pa had told me of how they used to pull stumps back in the 30's using that method with the puller being described as you presented. I could not quite visualize how it was done other than knowing that leverage can do wonders. Now I know how my Dad, his brother, and my G-Pa did it with their Belgians. Thanks for the vid,
Thank you for sharing this interesting piece of vintage equipment. It appears Mr. Snyder has invested a considerable amount of time training Flick and Flash, an amazing team to watch. I'm as impressed with them as I am with the stump puller. Having dug a few out with shovel and axe, this old tool made short shift of the job!
The pioneers used their brains back then. These days we would just google it to solve the problems we have. Great work putting this video together and for showing interest in our heritage. Dont be concerned with the negative feed back of the few. Most of us appreciated it
I have recently found on my family farm everything in this video I just do not have the log the horses are hooked too. I have the chains and the iron bars with hooks my great grandfather made them in his blacksmith shop. That’s really cool how it works great video
All comments aside, in favor of or against, fact is.... it did the job in it's day. We have improved and changed methods ( tractors, saws , etc. ) , that is progress. This method was progress in its day, better than the method that was used previously. Was great to watch.
I had a lot cleared off 2 years ago the 40 ton John Deere would grab alhod of a 24" pine stump and pull up a 20' root ball, was really something to watch, the operator was first notch! would toss the logs in a pile. (I got excavator envy )
It cracks me up at how some people have No clue what it takes to do any kind of physical work. This video shows how things were done back in the day. Now you can bet the guys doing it back then were faster than these guys who don't do it everyday. However they are simply trying to show how it was done. Very cool! To the "fools" who think you can dig a stump out in a couple hours with a couple guys and a few beers you are crazy.
Mark PLogger thank you! Finally a comment with some common sense and who actually bothered to read what this video is demonstrating. Thanks for watching.
Actually, a couple guys CAN dig out a stump - with no more tools than a shovel and a hand saw - in a couple hours. My brother and I did it a few years back with a stump a lot bigger than that one, but without the "few beers" you mentioned. That said, I did find this video interesting, even though the video could have been half as long, and with talking instead of the annoying piano music. I don't know... maybe it was supposed to imitate the silent movies of the 1920s, but really it was just irritating.
I've had costumers call me, after trying to cut/ burn stumps for months on end, they get very little oxygen to burn good, they usually have more in stump rot, hole drilling, chain sawing, and diesel,( not to mention time, labor) than the 50, 75, or 100 bucks they pay me to show and grind it in 2 to 20 minutes.
Forgot to mention that men back in the day had twice as much testosterone as today's wimps, including myself. The physical feats these men were capable of find no equal on today's world.
That was quite a demonstration of what 2-horsepower can do if you apply the right mechanical advantage. Still, I am thankful for diesel engines and hydraulics. We have come a long, long ways in the last 150 years. Excellent video.
Great video. Excellent production value and I real;ly loved watching those two beautiful animals work. The "Stump Puller" is an excellent invention and I'm happy to see it saved for posterity.
Take a two-foot length of the cut-down tree, split vertically, and use the splits between the chain and the back of the anchor tree. The splits are sacrificed to save the anchor tree.
Great experiment that took a lot of time to set up. Perhaps a small model on the kitchen table would have worked out the best rigging and geometry before getting the horses out. I am sure that Granpa had a more efficient and higher leveraged method with those parts. And he likely would be pulling huge stumps, old growth trees, not tooth picks as we have today. Before we came to disturb the forests, it was said a squirrel could cross most of the country without ever hitting the ground. Big thanks for this intriguing reenactment with lost technology.
Really cool! Thanks for sharing. I really appreciated the still pictures inserted into the video as they really showed the detail. Having pulled stumps, I know this is no easy task; this has given me some ideas in case I have to pull stumps again by hand. I hope not, but if so, has given me a few extra tips.
Nowadays folks don't have the patience to nibble away at a job to get it done. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope F&F got a good scoop of sweet feed for their effort.
I have seen local Amish farmers use similar lever type pullers with as many as six horses. They didn't have purpose built components. Usually just used available chains and a recently felled log. The only thing is that you have to have an anchor stump that's bigger and stronger than the one you are pulling. You can generate a tremendous amount of pull this way but it can get complicated.
This is the brightest device ever invented for the time. Mr Temple was a genius. 1- The device pulls in a direction such that should the cable between the puller and the stump snapped, tii would not hurt the horses or the man, 2- the device was designed to be used with horses going back and forth, thus never releasing the pressure on the stump... VERY CLEVER Mr TEMPLE
Yes. This is what impresses me the most. The ability to pull on the return leg. But is there not more pressure on the horses due to shorter leaver length? Thanks for sharing..
An amazing job with an amazing piece of History. I had flashes of College level Mechanics running through my mind as you moved links and bars. The damage to the chain tree was probably easy to foresee, but maybe when you cleared large lots wit the tool, you would select as chain-trees some strong trees that you eventually remove. Their slow destruction as a chain tree, made them less formidable by the time it was their turn to be the stump next in line for pulling.
Couldn't be more amazed...I knew Guy Temple when I was 12years old in 4-H in Lawrence County...where, through reading his Obituary, he met his wife. It has to be the same Guy. I also went to Penn State Ag College and probably crossed paths there as well. The Pasto Museum is named after Dr. Jerome Pasto my Ag Ec instructor in 1961. Wow. Anyway...for those of you who did not like the music...watch it with the sound off and read the script. I thought it was great.
Tom Lutz hi. I’m the oldest daughter of Guy and it sounds like you have the right one. Thanks for watching. My dad is in the video. They filmed this up near his family farm in Unityville, PA. Glad you enjoyed it.
In Madison County, Ohio, 1959. I. Steve and his Dad cleared a pear orchard in three days. Mattock, shovel, and dynamite with caps. One ten hour day we did twelve stumps. Clean up with Oliver tractor, don’t remember what model. I can see the team to move tree, but that is just to much time, or they don’t quite have the method down. I did enjoy how nice the team worked together. We had two Belgium’s, Pete and Rose.
Very interesting, thanks for posting. It's funny how the horses appeared to work harder dragging the stump across the driveway, than they did working the lever. I believe that I have seen the iron loops and hardware that were in the log, but without the log. Unfortunately I don't remember where.
I remember thinking that also. The stump was pretty heavy. If you happen to remember where you saw that hardware please post again on here. thanks for watching!
fascinating tool, pulling stumps with only 2 horse-power gotta love it. Very interesting technique for "ratcheting" of the pull.. Thanks for the video, well done!
I farmed in Amish country! Seeing teams work like that was almost a daily thing! Don’t ever under estimate the power of those horses! Remain humble and learn something! It’s great!
Some of the comments are a bit derogatory (shame), although many are thoughtful and remind us that the physical labor of the 19th Century was intense and time was measured differently as to production. As the century came to a close, not everyone had a steam traction engine, horses were the only power other than human. It was necessary to improvise to get as much done as possible. Imagine clearing a 10 acre wood with this! The life expectancy was not nearly as long as today. Which does bring me to be thankful that the blacksmith was skilled and the material of at least of reasonable strength. If the link chain or any component, cable, etc. attached to main line were to fail under load, the resulting "whip" could be enough to cut a horse, needless to say a man, in half. Safety first when using old equipment and techniques. Having said that, thanks for the demonstration, the video, the music, and the contribution to Penn State.
Appreciate your comments and you are correct about the safety. The first time we tried demonstrating this stump puller several years ago, the beam broke. Needless to say all of the iron and the beam were checked over very closely before hooking up the horses. You are very correct in way things were done and measure of time back at the turn of the century. No one alive today could possibly imagine how things were then. Thanks for watching!
My father told me about this when I was in grade school. Never got to see one until now. My grandfather, father and uncles cleared the ground for the family airport with one of these and a mule.
Interesting to see how such problems were solved before the invention of modern machinery. Thanks for recording and posting this video. BTW, beautiful horses.
Wonderful history lesson. Archimedes said with a fulcrum and a long enough lever, he could move the world. Looks like you can pull stumps, too. A much more practical application, in my opinion.
Great piece of history and love the respect it is shown. I would have to watch this 10 times and spend some time studying it to understand how it works.
I found this very interesting and watched with awe. One thing my father taught me very young was using leverage. Sometimes you have to experiment with leverage to gain its fullest advantage. I watch videos like this because you don't get to seem many situations in life when just one idea can make a difference in an entirely different task. Thank you for an excellent educational video and I really enjoyed the music.
Nicely done with the help of those superb horses! Great video! Would you please tell me the name and artist of the neat intro bluesy music since the one by George Winston (The Garden) arrives later in your video. Thank you!
Thanks. Don't know the music as my brother put this together so long ago he just used something that sounded like it would go with the video and was free-use. Thanks for watching!
I wonder if they realize that in the event {which is not all that uncommon} that the chain or cable snaps it could cut you in half, I have never seen that happen, but I have seen some incredible carnage when cables or heavy ropes have let go, even just that will scare the snot out of you and maybe even make you think twice about being so casual around that type of equipment get in and get the hell out.
This was really something to see and the horses are beautiful animals and we, as a people were so much better back then before technology ate our brains. Thanks for this great show~!!
incredible animals very well trained and handled. what a time consuming task wouldn't it be wonderful to have that much time to spend on every stump on your land.
5 років тому+2
It cracks me up how Muzak is added to potential good videos.
Just think back in the day this was the easy way pull stump horses like these done most of work that was smart thanks injoy watching please make more videos of horses I watch them all day long
I wish you would have recorded the sounds of the team at work and the driver. Great video and I've been to 100's of Agri museums and have never seen or heard of this stump puller, ingenious.
I'm sure they did but this video was done with what we had available at the time. Thanks for watching! If you ever get to Penn State you can visit it at the Ag museum there.
Thank you for posting this interesting and informative demonstration of stump pulling. Just ignore the idiot comments. I muted the music, not very difficult to do. Having worked a lot in the woods, I can appreciate the difficulty in pulling a stump like this.
A few years ago I read a book about the digging or making of the Erie Canal, it mentioned ingenious stump pulling machines, I searched and could find no detail or pics, perhaps it was this machine
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
It’s really awesome to see how it was done in the old days when tractors weren’t around. What a great glimpse into the past! Thank you for sharing!
most tractors would fail at pullin that out...
My Grandfather used to tell me stories from his boyhood (in central WA state) of his dad pulling stumps with a team of horses and his stump puller, which as my Grandpa described it was very similar to this one! and he would anchor it to either a nearby tree or another stump. He not only cleared his own land with it, but other farms nearby would hire him to pull stumps for them as well.
Thank you for sharing this video as it has allowed me to actually see something that I have only been able to imagine in my mind from Grandpa's stories!
As a kid, 3-5 years old, I lived on a Suffolk farm, in England, in the 40's
and my dad used a horse and cart to load sugar beet into railway trucks.
So working horses bring back a lot of memories of my childhood.
These two are a really handsome pair, and look almost like twins.
It takes real dedication to keep and maintain a pair like these.
Working with horses is quiet, and non polluting, but oh so very slow!
That is one EXCELLENT team. They were willing to scratch and dig to move the load, both of them pulling and neither backing down. I don't think that double tree ever moved one way or the other. They worked together.
I would have bet good money that no one would commenting would have known that these horses were "scratching".
I don't care much for riding horses, but I love to see the big draught horses work.
I see at this time we have picked up 832 ancient alien flat earthers.
Great tool. Very unique. The horses were beautiful to watch. Thanks for sharing.
Patrick Lambert. Thanks for watching. Glad you liked it!
What beautiful and strong horses. They are just loving the work they are doing. Thanks for sharing.
It would have been better to hear the man working the horses and giving them commands and listening and hearing the horses responding. Piano is to much.
Piano is way too much!
Beautiful animals, beautiful to see a working team. I've never seen a stump pulling. Thanks really enjoyed it.
This is intended to be both a respectful and informative comment from a very old homesteader who cleared stumps by hand, with no powered machines, only a couple of winches, 200 miles from the nearest road in the 1970's.
The device shown has several significant defects in my opinion but one very very ingenious idea. The old order Amish who I lived across a remote dirt road from in the 1960's used a similar "log-lever" but the fulcrum did not employ a chain that kills or almost kills the anchor tree. Log-levers like those were common, because without power such lever solutions become common-sense obvious. Plus a couple of hippie communes I played a small part in also used log-levers and draft horses because we wanted to learn to do things the old-fashioned way on purpose.
The better more common sense way to use a log-lever is to instead use the lever-log on the other side of the tree where the lever log itself swivels against the anchor tree which will NOT harm the anchor tree at all. The way the Amish kept the log from slipping was to build the lever-log with about two 4-foot long right-angle to the lever-log pieces that were fastened with two wooden drop-in pins that could be adjusted to the width-diameter of the anchor tree which kept the lever-log from slipping. BUT their method and all others I've seen and myself used in the 1970's did NOT have the ingenious idea this method has with the two-sides of the fulcrum multi-choice iron hooks to receive the pull chain. It was exciting for me to watch how much easier that made things because that way the horses could "pull" the stump going either direction - VERY COOL!!
Another comment from it seems another experienced stump puller was to always cut the tree high and set the pull chain also high which multiplies the mechanical advantage plus you cut a notch on the "back" side of the stump-pull that the chain will auto-lock into so that it doesn't slip off when the angle of the stub begins to flatten.
For many back-to-land going "off-grid" young-ins allow me to offer one more old-order Amish trick I learned for moving many to most intentionally felled log-cabin sized branch-trimmed logs across the ground single handed by one person; very slow; BUT the log does get moved even a good hundred yards and more - so simple - it was my most used old-ways trick; I once built a bridge single handedly using this trick (and high-lines- with pulley-runs to make a tram like affair). Just take an eight (or 10) foot one inch pipe and about a 12 foot or shorter piece of chain with grab hooks and wrap two slightly loose wraps around the very end of the pull-log and hook the chain- so that one of the wraps is just a little loose, just loose enough but no looser so that the pipe can be tucked in under that chain. Now you just push the pipe through and too the ground ahead a short to longer distance, depending (use common sense) , anchor-insert-push that end into the ground ahead, then back your hands up to the end of the other higher end of the pipe and lift on the pipe; the log end will rise a foot or so till it slides down the pipe back to the ground but now a good six inches to 18 inches or more for a lighter log and just repeat- it's actually kind of fun; slow slow yes, but but SO sure - AND rewarding. Enjoy-all and thanks for this cool YT.
I appreciate your respectful and very informative comments. Sounds like your experiences have given you a perspective and life-education that many people commenting on here don't have. I will show your comments to some of the people that helped put this video together and see what they think of your suggestions and how they might have worked with this piece of equipment. Thanks for watching and commenting. Constructive criticism is always welcomed!
Your comments were the most knowledgeable part of this video! Rounding off an initially hard looking, somewhat seemingly ignorant video with a welcoming, refreshing, common sense approach. Giving the whole damn thing(stupid music included) a much needed rational conclusion , thanks,Dog!!
Irish Sailordog sorry that you didn’t like the video. It was the best we could do on such short notice when the videographers from the museum got their dates mixed up and were a no show.
OOPS - so sorry if you interpreted that I didn't like your video, just the opposite; please re-read the last line, "Enjoy-all and thanks for this cool YT." My apologies that I did not make myself more clear. Yes I was pointing out some different ways to do the same task but then I also mentioned that one aspect of their method was "but one very very ingenious idea." Plus don't forget it was YOUR video that started this whole conversation where others simply increased by their comments many other ways to pull stumps and related logging by hand or horses tasks. Best wishes to you. rich
Irish Sailordog sorry I guess I did take it the wrong way. Thanks for watching and your thoughtful comments and ideas.
First let me say awesome tool and thanks for sharing! I generally do things the hard way to save money. I cut down 34 white pines, 5 sweet gums, and a double water oak with a 16 inch electric chain saw. The water oak was about 3.5 feet at the base. Took a lot of work for that little electric chain saw, lol. I am not knock anything about this video, it was good and i love seeing old ways of doing things. Couple of comments here from a point of view somewhat close to the way it used to be compared to today's standards. I say that because my son and I are currently clearing land to build our two houses. Much of it especially early on has been done by hand. Limited resources and all. People back then cared for their horses. They would not risk any undue harm or strain on them. The horse was the life of a farm and without them getting fields plowed and such would be rough at best. If it were my horses I would have first cleared as much soil around the root zone as possible then chopped the surface roots in two where possible and especially on the far side from the direction the tree was being pulled which would greatly reduce the force needed to pull the stump. This would have made the work of the horses much easier greatly reducing any chance of injury to the horses and its really not that hard to do by hand. Just requires persistence. Or a root hook could have been used with the horses if the person just did not want to do any physical work and then the horses would have reduced the force needed to remove the stumps a few roots at a time. Then when the stump comes out my guess is the old time farmer, knowing the hole would need to be filled and knowing how much extra weight the dirt on the roots weighs, would have taken the time to knock the dirt off the roots which would help fill the hole created. Ask me how I know, my son and I have dug up hundreds of stumps on our property, many by hand and it just makes sense to get the dirt off in place. Plus the stump as said earlier would be much lighter thus far easier to move and thus less damage to the soil in the area you pull the stump through so less work fixing all that back. Then later if they burned the stumps the stumps will burn far easier without the dirt on the root ball. Just my opinions. Awesome tool. Leverage made it possible for a good bit of human progress.
The Music wasn't that bad kind of went with the air of the times I enjoyed it , it reminded me of my great grandfather . He own two different login camps . Way before the depression . Equipment reminds me of the stuff that he used to use . They made their own locomotive engines for hauling to the mills my mother used to ride on the side of those logging trucks to .The locomotives where used in the winter months to pull skids with logs on the rivers with special tracks almost like a bulldozer to the mills . Hard work and they where tuff guy's back then . My mom's brothers now own some of this equipment I wish I would have had a chance just to watch my great grandfather at his best . Thanks for bringing back those memories of my mother stories and her brothers .
Love the rigging and horses. That stump kills me though. Whoever fell that tree is lucky to have survived it.
My father was born in 1880, he died at the age of 94. He told me about another kind of stump puller that was fashioned in such a way that it worked like a winch. I wish I had paid more attention while he was explaining to me how it was built. He also told me about this same kind of rig you used in the video to pull stumps. Thanks for doing the video, those old ways are long gone now and seeing them in action once again is priceless. By the way those horses were a beautiful well trained team and the teamster driving them knew what he was doing.
+44wizbang Your father was likely talking about the "wheeled" stump puller that was invented during the creation of the Erie Canal. That's actually what brought me to this video.
..the old ways got done what needed to get done..with sweat and determination..highly respectable !!! The generation today wouldn't be caught dead sweating....
No, they do sweat - and they pay to make it at a gym on electronic machines in 100$ Chinese tights. Or they squander it while "jogging" . I have offered these morons to come to my place and build rock walls or clear brush from the stream bed and banks, but I only get blank stares. I offered that they need only pay ME half of what they gave their gym membership, but no, back to the ear buds and rock music. Pathetic space wasters are filling up America
Awesome watching the team lean into it at the end. Takes me back about 70 years when I rode on the back of one of a team as it was pulling a hay wagon.
This gives an appreciation of how much time it would take to clear an acre back in the day.
My Dad and G-Pa had told me of how they used to pull stumps back in the 30's using that method with the puller being described as you presented. I could not quite visualize how it was done other than knowing that leverage can do wonders. Now I know how my Dad, his brother, and my G-Pa did it with their Belgians. Thanks for the vid,
Thank you for sharing this interesting piece of vintage equipment. It appears Mr. Snyder has invested a considerable amount of time training Flick and Flash, an amazing team to watch. I'm as impressed with them as I am with the stump puller. Having dug a few out with shovel and axe, this old tool made short shift of the job!
I quite enjoy the genius of people, like William Temple, who can think something through like this. Then design, build, and apply it.
Those are two of the most beautiful horses I have ever seen, take good care of them.
Awesome job Flick and Flash -- hard work but they are doing what you ask of them. Beautiful animals. Thanks for sharing this.
It's a thing of beauty to see these great horses in action. Remnants of a quieter, saner age.
The pioneers used their brains back then. These days we would just google it to solve the problems we have. Great work putting this video together and for showing interest in our heritage. Dont be concerned with the negative feed back of the few. Most of us appreciated it
Thanks for watching and the positive comments. True on the google! LOL!
I have recently found on my family farm everything in this video I just do not have the log the horses are hooked too. I have the chains and the iron bars with hooks my great grandfather made them in his blacksmith shop. That’s really cool how it works great video
All comments aside, in favor of or against, fact is.... it did the job in it's day. We have improved and changed methods ( tractors, saws , etc. ) , that is progress. This method was progress in its day, better than the method that was used previously. Was great to watch.
John Lucier thank you for having one of the more intelligent comments in here. I’m glad you are able to appreciate this video for what it is.
Keeping things simple is always better than making things more complicated. "less moving parts makes fewer problems".
I had a lot cleared off 2 years ago the 40 ton John Deere would grab alhod of a 24" pine stump and pull up a 20' root ball, was really something to watch, the operator was first notch! would toss the logs in a pile.
(I got excavator envy )
It cracks me up at how some people have No clue what it takes to do any kind of physical work. This video shows how things were done back in the day. Now you can bet the guys doing it back then were faster than these guys who don't do it everyday. However they are simply trying to show how it was done. Very cool! To the "fools" who think you can dig a stump out in a couple hours with a couple guys and a few beers you are crazy.
Mark PLogger thank you! Finally a comment with some common sense and who actually bothered to read what this video is demonstrating. Thanks for watching.
Agreed but most would burn them out down here in the south, in the past
Actually, a couple guys CAN dig out a stump - with no more tools than a shovel and a hand saw - in a couple hours. My brother and I did it a few years back with a stump a lot bigger than that one, but without the "few beers" you mentioned.
That said, I did find this video interesting, even though the video could have been half as long, and with talking instead of the annoying piano music. I don't know... maybe it was supposed to imitate the silent movies of the 1920s, but really it was just irritating.
I've had costumers call me, after trying to cut/ burn stumps for months on end, they get very little oxygen to burn good, they usually have more in stump rot, hole drilling, chain sawing, and diesel,( not to mention time, labor) than the 50, 75, or 100 bucks they pay me to show and grind it in 2 to 20 minutes.
Forgot to mention that men back in the day had twice as much testosterone as today's wimps, including myself. The physical feats these men were capable of find no equal on today's world.
That was quite a demonstration of what 2-horsepower can do if you apply the right mechanical advantage. Still, I am thankful for diesel engines and hydraulics. We have come a long, long ways in the last 150 years. Excellent video.
Great video.
Excellent production value and I real;ly loved watching those two beautiful animals work.
The "Stump Puller" is an excellent invention and I'm happy to see it saved for posterity.
Take a two-foot length of the cut-down tree, split vertically, and use the splits between the chain and the back of the anchor tree. The splits are sacrificed to save the anchor tree.
if you lay it down would it be possible to split it horizontal?
Very very cool! I love learning how guys managed large projects back in the day!
Thanks for watching!
Great experiment that took a lot of time to set up. Perhaps a small model on the kitchen table would have worked out the best rigging and geometry before getting the horses out. I am sure that Granpa had a more efficient and higher leveraged method with those parts. And he likely would be pulling huge stumps, old growth trees, not tooth picks as we have today. Before we came to disturb the forests, it was said a squirrel could cross most of the country without ever hitting the ground. Big thanks for this intriguing reenactment with lost technology.
"Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth." - Archimedes
GREAT to see the old school technique's still working.
A pleasure to watch the horses doing their jobs as well.
Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching.
what a beautiful team. pluggin and pullin. that might be called 2 horse power but a huge amount of "torque" there. brilliant use of leverage too.
Really cool! Thanks for sharing. I really appreciated the still pictures inserted into the video as they really showed the detail. Having pulled stumps, I know this is no easy task; this has given me some ideas in case I have to pull stumps again by hand. I hope not, but if so, has given me a few extra tips.
Nowadays folks don't have the patience to nibble away at a job to get it done. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope F&F got a good scoop of sweet feed for their effort.
I have seen local Amish farmers use similar lever type pullers with as many as six horses. They didn't have purpose built components. Usually just used available chains and a recently felled log. The only thing is that you have to have an anchor stump that's bigger and stronger than the one you are pulling. You can generate a tremendous amount of pull this way but it can get complicated.
Gorgeous horses and an ingenious old device that greatly shortened a difficult task. Loved the vid.
Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!
Enjoyed the video. First time seeing a tool like that. Shows how hard it used to be!
This is the brightest device ever invented for the time. Mr Temple was a genius. 1- The device pulls in a direction such that should the cable between the puller and the stump snapped, tii would not hurt the horses or the man, 2- the device was designed to be used with horses going back and forth, thus never releasing the pressure on the stump... VERY CLEVER Mr TEMPLE
NorthernLite thank you for watching. We thought it was a pretty ingenious contraption also and worth sharing how it worked.
Yes. This is what impresses me the most. The ability to pull on the return leg. But is there not more pressure on the horses due to shorter leaver length? Thanks for sharing..
What a beautiful pair they are! Thank you for sharing this.
This is an excellent example of team work.
Well done!
An amazing job with an amazing piece of History. I had flashes of College level Mechanics running through my mind as you moved links and bars. The damage to the chain tree was probably easy to foresee, but maybe when you cleared large lots wit the tool, you would select as chain-trees some strong trees that you eventually remove. Their slow destruction as a chain tree, made them less formidable by the time it was their turn to be the stump next in line for pulling.
What a neat machine. I grew up working in sawmills and the timber..thanks for the video.
My guess is they had to pull the anchor tree out next...
I was thinking the very same thing. What happens when there's only 1 damages anchor tree left that has to come out?
Get more horses son 👏🏻👏🏻😂😂😂
Awesome job Flick and Flash. Thanks for sharing this.
Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching.
Couldn't be more amazed...I knew Guy Temple when I was 12years old in 4-H in Lawrence County...where, through reading his Obituary, he met his wife. It has to be the same Guy. I also went to Penn State Ag College and probably crossed paths there as well. The Pasto Museum is named after Dr. Jerome Pasto my Ag Ec instructor in 1961. Wow. Anyway...for those of you who did not like the music...watch it with the sound off and read the script. I thought it was great.
Tom Lutz hi. I’m the oldest daughter of Guy and it sounds like you have the right one. Thanks for watching. My dad is in the video. They filmed this up near his family farm in Unityville, PA. Glad you enjoyed it.
In Madison County, Ohio, 1959. I. Steve and his Dad cleared a pear orchard in three days. Mattock, shovel, and dynamite with caps. One ten hour day we did twelve stumps. Clean up with Oliver tractor, don’t remember what model. I can see the team to move tree, but that is just to much time, or they don’t quite have the method down. I did enjoy how nice the team worked together. We had two Belgium’s, Pete and Rose.
What a great piece of history. Thank You for sharing that.
Thanks for watching. Appreciate it!
Glad I got to see this
I love the way things were done and so many ways have been lost to time
Love working horses and still today are a great asset
Glad you enjoyed it. So interesting to see how things were done in "the olden days" as we used to say.
Very interesting, thanks for posting. It's funny how the horses appeared to work harder dragging the stump across the driveway, than they did working the lever. I believe that I have seen the iron loops and hardware that were in the log, but without the log. Unfortunately I don't remember where.
I remember thinking that also. The stump was pretty heavy. If you happen to remember where you saw that hardware please post again on here. thanks for watching!
Best part was the end watching that team lean into it to pull the stump away. Beautiful!
fascinating tool, pulling stumps with only 2 horse-power gotta love it. Very interesting technique for "ratcheting" of the pull.. Thanks for the video, well done!
I farmed in Amish country! Seeing teams work like that was almost a daily thing! Don’t ever under estimate the power of those horses! Remain humble and learn something! It’s great!
wow that is complicated! someone back in the old days was using their ole noodle! thanks for posting
dav1099 thanks for watching.
Some of the comments are a bit derogatory (shame), although many are thoughtful and remind us that the physical labor of the 19th Century was intense and time was measured differently as to production. As the century came to a close, not everyone had a steam traction engine, horses were the only power other than human. It was necessary to improvise to get as much done as possible. Imagine clearing a 10 acre wood with this!
The life expectancy was not nearly as long as today. Which does bring me to be thankful that the blacksmith was skilled and the material of at least of reasonable strength. If the link chain or any component, cable, etc. attached to main line were to fail under load, the resulting "whip" could be enough to cut a horse, needless to say a man, in half. Safety first when using old equipment and techniques. Having said that, thanks for the demonstration, the video, the music, and the contribution to Penn State.
Appreciate your comments and you are correct about the safety. The first time we tried demonstrating this stump puller several years ago, the beam broke. Needless to say all of the iron and the beam were checked over very closely before hooking up the horses.
You are very correct in way things were done and measure of time back at the turn of the century. No one alive today could possibly imagine how things were then.
Thanks for watching!
You never want to put yourself on the inside of a curve when driving a team with a load. Driver almost got himself pinned against the pivot tree.
My father told me about this when I was in grade school. Never got to see one until now. My grandfather, father and uncles cleared the ground for the family airport with one of these and a mule.
Wonderful, it's shows how our ancestors had done wonders with what they had, thank you, for such a beautiful job
Glad you liked it. It really does make a person appreciate some of our modern conveniences! Thanks for watching.
I would suggest leaving the tree whole for added tipping leverage where possible also do in the spring when soil is wet and thawed
The teams are so cool. Love to watch the big boys work. Kind horses
Such handsome horses. Hard working and very well matched in appearance as well as pulling power. Wow!!
Amazing . Those are some magnificent horses. Thanks for sharing
Beautiful Clydesdale's and beautiful work.
Pivoting on the fulcrum point to make new tighter connections is an art to remember.
Thx!
I think those were Belgians, not Clydesdales.
Beautiful team of horses and a great trainer.
Beautiful horses ,looks like they love to work together .
Interesting to see how such problems were solved before the invention of modern machinery. Thanks for recording and posting this video.
BTW, beautiful horses.
Really great film, thanks much. I love looking @old tools... I'm certain I'd have never guessed that beams' purpose, but now I'll know forever.
Lewis Crump glad you liked it. Thanks for watching.
Glad I ran across this video. Outstanding. Thanks.
Wonderful history lesson. Archimedes said with a fulcrum and a long enough lever, he could move the world. Looks like you can pull stumps, too. A much more practical application, in my opinion.
excellent video!and great music!!
Great piece of history and love the respect it is shown. I would have to watch this 10 times and spend some time studying it to understand how it works.
Love those beautiful noble horses , what would mankind have done without the horse ?
Old time tech works well but dynamite makes a more spectacular video! Thanks for the show.
I found this very interesting and watched with awe. One thing my father taught me very young was using leverage. Sometimes you have to experiment with leverage to gain its fullest advantage. I watch videos like this because you don't get to seem many situations in life when just one idea can make a difference in an entirely different task. Thank you for an excellent educational video and I really enjoyed the music.
Nicely done with the help of those superb horses! Great video! Would you please tell me the name and artist of the neat intro bluesy music since the one by George Winston (The Garden) arrives later in your video. Thank you!
Thanks. Don't know the music as my brother put this together so long ago he just used something that sounded like it would go with the video and was free-use. Thanks for watching!
Great video. Beautiful horses!!
That's very ingenious using leverage like that and horse power too
What a great video. Thanks very much for sharing.
I wonder if they realize that in the event {which is not all that uncommon} that the chain or cable snaps it could cut you in half, I have never seen that happen, but I have seen some incredible carnage when cables or heavy ropes have let go, even just that will scare the snot out of you and maybe even make you think twice about being so casual around that type of equipment get in and get the hell out.
This was really something to see and the horses are beautiful animals and we, as a people were so much better back then before technology ate our brains. Thanks for this great show~!!
Rickarama Trama thank you for watching. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
incredible animals very well trained and handled. what a time consuming task wouldn't it be wonderful to have that much time to spend on every stump on your land.
It cracks me up how Muzak is added to potential good videos.
Just think back in the day this was the easy way pull stump horses like these done most of work that was smart thanks injoy watching please make more videos of horses I watch them all day long
Thank you for sharing - I had no idea about this tool but this sure makes a lot of sense - amazing horse team for sure
The horses and handler are amazing.
Those are some nice horses, very well trained. Not sure they are using that tool exactly the way it was intentioned but good show overall.
Very interesting never seen that before enjoyed you video
Those are two well trained horses!
One thing though, the Anchor Tree should've been wrapped prior to putting the chain around it.
I wish you would have recorded the sounds of the team at work and the driver. Great video and I've been to 100's of Agri museums and have never seen or heard of this stump puller, ingenious.
I'm sure they did but this video was done with what we had available at the time. Thanks for watching! If you ever get to Penn State you can visit it at the Ag museum there.
Great informative video on ingenuity and horse power. Beautiful horses
Awesome! I love watching the old way of doing things and also seeing how intelligence and good principles of physics solved problems.
This gives me insight how they cleared trees out for the farmland behind my house. I`ve heard some stories of the history.
Thanks may Flick & Flack have many great years together 🐎 🐎
Thank you for sharing this. It shows a bit of how our country was developed.
Yes, we feel it does show a bit of how things got done in this country a long time ago. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for posting this interesting and informative demonstration of stump pulling. Just ignore the idiot comments. I muted the music, not very difficult to do.
Having worked a lot in the woods, I can appreciate the difficulty in pulling a stump like this.
Impressive. Thanks for sharing this amazing demonstration of man using real 2HP.
So good to see how folks accomplished these great tasks before the internal combustion engine!
Truly innovative and absolutely amazing!
jimmy white glad you liked it. Thanks for watching.
A few years ago I read a book about the digging or making of the Erie Canal, it mentioned ingenious stump pulling machines, I searched and could find no detail or pics, perhaps it was this machine