Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1904-08-19

DSOU ~ ONNOuNS VNuOVvs ~
curious custom of allowing the oats t
lie in the swath until they had rain,
the reason for it being that oats were
sold to the taverns on the tnrnpikes,
along which nearly all the stock was
driven to market, by the bushel, and
oats that were wet in the swath were
believed to yield more bushels than
when bound up at once and put in the
shock.
The acreage of small grain on
any farm was comparatively small.
Twenty or twenty-five acres of wheat.
ten or fifteen of oats was q large
acreage on one hundred and fifty
acre farm.
The curious custom prevailed in
those days of bringing out what was
known as a piece" between 10 and
II o'clock in the forenoon and between
8 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In
onr boyhood we always watched for
that piece" It was pretty good stuff
and tempting to boys appetite-bread
and butter, cold meats, sometimes fried
chicken, always pie. Our recollection
is that boys were very ''pious' in those
days It furnished an occasion for tell
ing the news OF the neighborhood, and
we remember very distinctly when q
boy reading the account of General
Taylor's victories in the Mexican war
while the hands ate their piece"
There was fine feeding in those days
at harvest time, the good women real.
izing that it was time for strenuous
work and that the men, and particu-
larly the boys, needed to be we'll fed.
No one in those times thought Of
thrashing out of the shock unless he
was some poor renter on farm that
did not have barn, and the import
ance and prosperity Of farmer was
to some extent measured by the size Of
his harm
Hay making was laborious process
in those days It was all cut with q
ecythe. and an acre day of heavy
grass was good days work. The
scythe left it in swaths and these had
to be shaken out. generally by the
boys and girls, then gathered into
windrows by man with fork fol-
lowed by a boy with q rake, throwing
in from the outside enough swaths to
make the desired windrow. Occasion
ally it was pitched out of the windrow
into the wagon, but if the weather
was doubtful it was put In cocks. If
hay rake was used it was simply q
4x4 with teeth put through 1t, ex-
tending about an equal distance on
each side, aud a simple tipping or.
rangement. It was drawn by one
horse and handled by boy, and was a
most clumsy and inconvenient imple.
ment compared with the rake of today.
After the last load of hay or the last
sheaf Of grain was put in the barn
it was time to go fishing. In our
neighborhood the usual after.hsrvest
diversion was what is known az
'swabbing'' the river
Such, as we recollect them, are the
harvest experiences of 40, SO. and
onward. Not many SOS had passed
until the reaper superseded the rake
and the mower the scythe, and i'm
proved horse rakes took the place of
the clumsy home made rake of the
earlier days. Farmers in those days
grew quite as much wheat per acre
as they do now figured that they had
poor crop of winter wheat if less
than twenty bushels; were reasonably
we'll satisfied with twenty-five. and
thought thirty to thirty-five bushels q
bumper crop. They regarded them
selves in especially hard luck if they
were obliged to sell it for less than
q dollar bushel; and with these
crops and prices there was quite as
much money in the business as there
is now; and farmers were quite as
happy in growing it, even if they had
to work good deal harder. In fact
hard as harvest work seems now, it
is boys play as compared with the
harvesting of ifty-6ve years ago.
Wallace's Farmer