The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1897-11-10
IN TIE OLOEN DAYS.
Bow The County People Lived in Georgia
sixty YcaTs ago.
Mr.. l. D Glover writes as follow:

!
Sixty Ycars Ago.
Mr.. 1. D. Glover writes as follows
in the Bowman, Ga., Headlight:
The way the people farmed ia my
boyhood days did not yield such re-
suits as are realized now. They did
not make much cotton. Back before
my time they had to pick the lint
from the seed with their fingers. It
was part Of the family business every
night and rainy days to pick the lint
of the seed SO the women could have
cotton to spin. In 1882 cotton gins
were invented and some were operated
in this country, but not more than
one to each county. The farmers
wCuld carry !h %ir cotton on horse
back for miles to gin, and but very few
OF them made more than spinning
cotton.
When our farmers first beg2n to
raise cotton it took two hands 20 hoe
one row, one nand on either side OF
TIE row, ard they did not chop
through it, but thInGed it with their
hands. Il TOOK three or four hands
one day 10 hoe oae acre, and when it
camato picking it; but fe7 hands
could pick 30 pouads ia dsy. Il was
she green SEED variety, and hard to
pick They would pull off every boil
aad stand straight up to pick it out,
and then stoop down &2d get another.
So you see the picking process wss
very slow.
The first oales were packed with
crow bar were round and aoout sAven
feet long, and weighed from $50 tn
800 pounds. After using this metncd
for few years they began 10 make
square bales. It took lots OF timo r
to build one OF these presses and thir-
ty to forty hands to raise it and some
times one or two meu would oe killed.
Il took aoout SO yards for The Levers
OF one Of these presses to turn in.
u to 1910 but very few farmers
made more than one bale of cotton 20
the horse By 1850 some made two
or three bales 10 tee horse, and the
best hands co1ld pick $50 pounds
day When | was ooy we would
pull eff the oo.is while the dew was
on them and carry hem to the house
to pick at night.
In those days We knew little about
the value of cotton seed for feed or
manure. We would haul enough
home to plant the next crop and leave
the balance at tue gin, where they
were thrown out IN large heaps to rot,
for it was thought they were no good.
The men would rise early and 60 to
their work on the farm, and the wo
men to carding, spinning and weav
ing, until about 9 o'clock, wnen the
horn would blow for breakfast. We
always had meat and bread for break
fast, but the bread was generally
Peter Constant" (corn bread.) John
ME Seldom" (whest oread) did not
come very often, about once 3 week
Sunday morning. There was not
much wheat raised, and what wss
made had to be failed out with poles
or tramped out by horses; there were
no wheat mills like we have now, out
the wheat was ground on corn mills
and was bolted by hand.
Then we raised one year what was
expected to use the next-now We use
one year what We expect to make the
next. We had dinreraoou: 3 O'Clock
In the afternoon and supper ABOUT 9
o'clock which very often consisted CT
bread and milk. During the fall and
winter our suppers usually were made
of roasted potatoes, and the whole
family would gather around the hearth
and peel and eat them.
About twenty acres to the horse was
the average amount Ct land cultivated
the rows were run as straight SIS could
be and were made IS long as possible
no attention was given tcsav;Gg tne
l&rd By FunDIog the rows on leSel,
but instead were often Iun up and
down the hiii. Thousands o! acres
that are 1ow IN eulieys might have
been in high state of cultivation had
the proper care been taken to prevent
the land from washing. The children
VIC uld ca ta.i supper eacly and hucri-
ed of to b d, so The older ;olks could
have light and room to work around
the fireplace We bad 10 lamps or
candles and the only light we had was
q pine.Srol light. l have held a torch
many time for the women to see how
to weave at right.