At one time, my part of the country grew a lot of lespedeza. It makes good hay, and will tolerate growing conditions that a lot of other plants won't. Combining the seed was a pretty good money maker, and those old AC pull combines were the best there was for that.
The usual practice on our farm when I was growing up was for my father to do most of the tractor work, and my grandfather to do the other jobs. They were going to combine some lespedeza seed, and my grandpa decided to not wait for my dad to get back home and do it. It was a cool October day, and somehow he choked the combine up, got off the tractor with the PTO running, and got tangled up in it. Two things saved his life......he had on a couple of layers of clothes because of the cool weather, and the tractor was idling, which led to the engine bogging down and dying, mostly from all those clothes it pulled off him. He was in a field that was separated from a neighbors house by a woods lot. Fortunately, the neighbor happened to hear him calling out for help. My grandfather suffered some broken ribs and bruises, and a good chewing out from my father.
