Ray: You mention air conditioning and glass... did anyone near you use the old canopies that had a fan and was similar to an inverted bowl? I don't know if they were metal or plastic, I vaguely recall seeing them (like about 50 plus years ago) on old Hahn Merton rice harvesters, and occasionally on an old Deere. Old hands swore by them, as the said they kept the dust and chaff off of them while the nice breeze kept them from getting sweaty. JM

I scored an owners manual off of ebay for the Deere combine I rode on and operated the "ships wheel" for Dad back in the fifties!  Talk about nostalgia!
Very interesting and not a page wasted with "this page intentionally left blank".   I noticed how dozens of parts are illustrated on a single page as shown in the pic.

Edit:  Very interesting browsing the manual and seeing the hundreds of parts that went into the combine and seeing how this was all handled prior to computers,  I worked as a farm tillage machinery designer for years before computers also and know that a lot of work goes into designing and illustrating for owner's manuals.  
I was particularly interested in exactly how the platform (header) was held in alignment while adjusting height during operation.  The design is elegantly simple but very effective utilizing a semi parallel linkage that has to be studied to be understood, at least by me.  There was very little if any welding to produce these old machines and it's amazing what they achieved.

For those interested, I'd look up Gabe Brown on Youtube he's in SD I believe, his story is interesting for sure. Another person to look at is Ray Archuleta. Also, there's a podcast "The Regenerative Journey" that has some interesting episodes, that's out of Australia, also a rather arid climate in many areas. For what I've seen, most incorporate grazing into the mix and it's less about grain farming. It's a very interesting concept that seems to me to be worth study.

I'm from Iowa originally, and back when we were farming moisture was generally not much of an issue and we employed cultivators for weed control along with "walking" the beans. Very outdated in today's world it seems. I've ran across videos on YT essentially instructing on how to use a cultivator, which frankly I was stunned by, cuz it seemed pretty natural to me, but made me realize how reliant on chemicals farming has become.

I have been removed from farming fo a long time, but I find it a fascinating topic and like observing what;'s going on in the industry. I'm in no place to recommend any method to anyone, but exercising the mind on new concepts can lead to good things.

Those side-hill combines blow my mind! We never worried much about tipping, but did think about getting stuck!

Went and saw Gabe Brown talk at the PNW direct seed conference a few years back.  He does have some great ideas and he’s a great speaker.  It would be interesting to see what he might do out here on the dry side of the pnw.  

We have a "Cover Your Acres" conference in Oberlin KS every year that is attended by several hundred farmers from several states. It is geared toward no till, minimum till, and soil health along with economics. It is a two day event with the second day being a repeat of the first day.
www.northwest.k-state.edu/events/cover-your-acres/