The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-09-04

from the other. Likewise the cOwslip
little later in the season, which grew
in shallow ponds, furnished diet of
greens to our forefathers. To show
how difficult it was at this early day
for the poor settlers to obtain money,
1 will relate an anecdote of about 1907
Levi Annis, whom spoke of IN for
mer letter, was living at this time with
his father in the county of Durham.
During the summer and fall of 1906
they had chopped and burned fallow
of thirty-one acres, which they had
for sowing the land was not plowed
ashy from the burning. Ihe wheat
was sown broadcast by hand among the
stumps. 1t was covered by hitching a
yoke of oxen to the butt end of a small
tree, with the branches left hanging
thereto. The oxen drew this to and fro
over the fallow among the stumps and
thus covered the wheat. This was
called bushing in and was the first har-
row used by our forefathers among the
stumps. However, the fallow upon
which the wheat was so bushed in pro-
duced as fine crop of fall wheat as
ever grew, falling not much below
thirty bushels per acre. Now this
wheat could be exchanged for store
goods at will, but not for money. Levi
Annls, however, took the first load of
it to Bowmanville, and was told by his
father that he must get S. so on ac-
count of the whole crop to pay his
taxes, for he must have the money to
pay his taxes, but the rest he would
take store pay for. The merchant
with whom he dealt actually refused
to advance the SIS so, saying he could
get all the wheat he wanted for goods.
The young man had to drive to an
other merchant and state his deplor-
able case to him and his urgent need
of SIS so, and that if he would advance
him the. money he should have the
whole crop of thirty-one acres.
Finally, the second merchant took pity
upon the young man in his dilemma
and advanced the money. Thus
it was with the utmost difficulty
that he could get S5 80 in cash
out of the thirty-one acres of wheat.
This shows us to-day how difficult it
was for our forefathers to get money.
Since the early American colonists
burnt witches at Salem, their descend
ants, who came to upper Canada as U.
E. loyalists, brought the belief of
witchcraft with them, and many of
them who came here about 1900 and
before really did believe in witches.
have heard my forefathers relate
witch story in all seriousness which I
think worth repeating, as showing to
us that the New England people who
burned witches were really sincere in
the belief About 1900 settler in the
spring of the year did not enjoy very
good health. Nothing serious seemed
to be the matter with him, only gen.
eral want of inertia or general seed
mess. There was no medical man to
consult, so he did the next best thing
by consulting his nearest neighbor.
The neighbor upon being told his SYM
toms, at once pronounced him be-
witched. An old woman in the local
ity was at once picked out as the be-
witcher. Now for the remedy to break
the spell of the witchery. A ball must
be made of silver. and they melted a
silver coin and made rifle ball of it.
An image of dough must be made to
as closely resemble the supposed witch
as possible, and it was made. just as
the sun rose the bewitched must fire at
it with his rifle and the silver ball, and
the dough image was set upon top
rail of the fence, and as the sun rose
he fired and just grazed the shoulder
of the dough image. In about an
hour the old witch came to the house
in great haste, and wanted to borrow
some article. Were they to lend her
the article desired the spell would
come on again, but refusing, the spell
was broken; of course, like sensible
men, they did not lend the article.
Even they went on to say further that
the witch was hit and wounded slight
ly on the shoulder, where the dough
image was struck by the silver ball.
However, be that as it may, they
asserted that the sick man speedily
got well, and was never again be-
witched by the witch in question, nor
any other. Of the efficacy of the uner-
ring aim of the silver ball 1 do not
but do vouch for the real bona
fde belief of the old narrators of the
whole tale.