The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-11-03
How Country People Lived in Georgia
Sixty Years Ago.


The way people farmed in my boy
hood days did not yield such results
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. 1t was
part of the family business every night
and rainy day to pick the lint off the
seed so the women could have cotton
to spin.
In 1882 cotton gins were invented
anc some were operated in this coun-
try, but not more than one to each
county. The farmers would carry
their cotton on horseback for miles to
gin, and but very few of them made
more than spinning cotton.
When our farmers first began to
raise cotton, it took two hands to hoe
one row, one hand on either side of
the row, and they did not chop through
it, but thinned it with their hands.
1t took three or four hands one day to
hoe one acre, and when it came to
picking it, but few hands could pick
30 pounds in a day. 1t was the green
seed variety, and hard to pick. They
would pull off every boil aud stand
straight up to pick it out, and then
stoop down and get another. SO you
soc the picking process was very slow.
The first bales were packed with a
crow bar, were round and about seven
feet long, and weighed from 250 to 300
pounds. After using this method fer
a few years, they began to make square
bales. 1t took lots of timber to build
one of these presses and thirty or
forty hands to raise it and sometimes
one or two men would be killed. It
took about 80 yards for the lcayers Of
one of these presses to turn in.
Up Co 1910 but very few farmers
made more than one bale of cotton to
the horse. By 1850 some made two
or three bales to the horse, and the
best hands could pick 15O pounds O
day. e
When l was a boy we would pull off
the bolls while the dew was on them
and carry them to the house to pick at
night.
In those days we knew but 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 aS the gin,
where they were thrown out in large
heaps to rot, for it was thought they
were no goed.
The men would rise early and go to
their work on the farm and the women
to carding, spinning and weaving,
until about 3 o'clock, when the horn
would blow for breakfast. We always
had meat and bread for breakfast, but
the bread was generally "Peter Con-
stant' (corn hread>. Johnnie Sci
dom" (wheat bread) did not come very
often, about once a week-Sunday
morning, There was not much wheat
raised, and what vas made had TO be
failed out with poles or tramped out
by horses there were NO wheat mills
like we have now, but 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 yaar what we expect to make the
next. M
We had dinner about 3 clock in
the afternoon and supper about 8
o'clock, which very often consisted Of
bread and milk. During the. fall and
winter our supper usually was made
of roasted potatoes, and the whole
family would gather around the hearth
and peel and eat them.
About twenty acres to e., horse
was the average amount OF land oulti-
vated-the rows were run as straight
as could be and were made as long as
possible-no attention was given TO
saving the land By running the rows
on level, but instead were often run
up and down the hill. Thousands Of
acres that nrs now in guiieys might
aaye been in high state Of cultivation
had the proper care been taken to pre-
vent the land from washing.
The children would eat their supper
early and hurried off to bed, so the
older folks could have light and room
to work around the fireplace We
had no lamps or candles and the only
light we had was pine-knot light. r
have held q torch many times for the
women to see how to weave at night.
-. ID Gloper, an .Rc::c:,::s.::.;ss Hlsaotiiight.
A Household Remedy.