The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1886-03-11
Pioneer Life-NO. g.
BY DAVIS MACKLEY.

I will suppose that our pioneer has
his cabin built, in the woods, near the
foot of hill, where there is spring
of water The hill is steep, and faces
the Northeast. 1t has sandy, loamy
soil, and is stony. 1t is heavily
timbered, with oak, poplar, black wal
nut, hickory, sugar maple, beech and
other timber. The smaller growths
are dogwood, spicewood, redbud, hazel,
etc. Then there are peavine, rattle
wood, ginseng, etc.
The pioneer first, with his mattoek,
grubs, or digs up the smaller bushes;
then cuts down the saplings and trims
them up. The old logs, or fallen tim
bers, he cuts into lengths of 10 or -
feet. He deadens the standing trees
by girdling, or cutting a ring around
them, through the white wood on the
outside, into the red wood. Oak, yel-
low poplar, red hickory, and other
kinds of trees could thus be killed at
once. White hickory, white poplar,
and other trees could in time be killed
by peeling off the bark, in May or
June. Beech, maple and trees of that
kind could be girdled in August, and
in year or two would die. Gum
trees could not be killed It would not
do any good to cut down gum tree,
and cut it into logs. The logs would
grow-that is, put out sprouts, with
leaves on them The only way to
kill gum tree was to burn it, and
the wood was hard to burn. Neither
corn nor any other cultivated vegeta-
BILE would grow, to do any good, un-
der green tree.
Now our pioneer would ask his
neighbors to assist him in rolling the
logs in his clearing" By going
around to distance of four or five
miles he could get ten or twelve stout
men to come. With handspikes they
would roll the larger logs together
and carry the smaller ones, putting q
half dozen or more into one logheap
where they would afterwards be
burned, the process of burning taking
week or more time.
The grubs, and trimmings of the
saplings were piled into brush heaps
and burned.
Now some two or three acres is
ready. But hold on! The clearing
must be fenced. Rails were made OF
oak, poplar, black walnut, chestnut
etc. Chestnut was soft to cut, easily
split, and the trees were large. On
the top of the hill, where the land was
not so rich, grew large chestnut trees
These would be cut down, and rail
cuts ten feet long cut off-square at
one end. With maui, iron wedge
anl wooden wedges, called "gluts, y
the timber would be split into rails
A man could cut the timber and split
from 100 to 200 rails in day. The
rails would be hauled down the hill
and distributed around the clearing,
and then laid up into a worm fence.
The fence was from Z to 9 rails high.
Two panels counted for one rod.
Now any school bov can calculate
how many rails it would take to make
an rail fence around three acres of
ground.
1t was now near the last of May,
and no time was to be lost. The horse
was geared up, with collar made of
plated corn husks, traces made of
home made hempen ropes, etc., and
he was hitched to the shovel plow,
and burrows were scratched three and
half feet apart lengthwise along the
hill. Now the wife follows the plow,
and drops from three to five grains of
corn some three feet apart, for a hill.
The older boy or girl took the hoe, to
cover it; but two of the smaller chill
dren followed the mother, or the per-
son who dropped the corn. One
dropped bean, and the other pump
kin seed, in the hill with the corn.
Ali were now covered with some Of
the loose dirt, which had been stirred
up by the plow.
Now warfare was commenced be-
tween the pioneer and the enemies, or
rather the lovers, of the corn. First,
the hens commenced scratching up the
corn and eating it. AS soon as the
young plant came up, the ground
squirrels would dig it up and eat the
grains These little pests were easily
caught in traps, called deadfalls. A
block, or flat stone would be raised at
one end, and set on triggers shaped
like the figure 4. They were baited
with corn. Cut worms often ate off
the young corn just at the top of the
ground. When the corn reached the
stage of roasting ears, it was attacked
in the day time by gray squirrels, and
several kinds of birds, and at night by
raccoons. Squirrels were very de-
and had to be constantly
watched and killed, even on Sundays.
I remember one Sunday, between fifty
and sixty years ago, killed eight
squirrels in our cornfelds. It was
clearly justifable under that provision
which permits an OK or an ass to be
hoisted out of pit on the Sabbath
day.
Raccoons always came in the night.
Dogs were trained for this especial