Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1914-08-13
ON THE OLD FARM
Putting Up the Grist Was JOB
for Rainy Day.
Father Went to Mill, But the Miller
Has Experienced a Change and
the Ancient Methods Have
Become Obsolete.

mill:
The wheel turns round of its own free
will.
The miller may still be happy, but
he Is a different miller from the one
celebrated in song and story. He is
now great manufacturer, who buys
. his grain in car lots, searching the
whole country by wire for his supply
and contracting for millions of bush
els a season ahead Of time. His mill
Is no longer the picturesque structure
sitting beside the brook. His tower
ing factory has its own side tracks,
its vast grain bins and elevators, its
gigantic power house. its acres of
floor space crowded with rumbling
machinery and whirring belts. His
customers are wholesalers and job
bers in distant cities. and he has no
direct touch with the millions who
will eventually buy the -four and
make their daily bread.
It was not always so. a writer in the
Detroit Tribune states. In the good
old days back on the farm, putting
up grist was job for the day when
Jupiter Pluvius planned a rest for the
boys and the hired man.
h Get the tanning mill out Of the
granary," says dad at breakfast time.
is raining today, and we might as
put up grist."
would be lots pleasanter to lie on
hay up under the roof of the big
and listen to the patter Of the
rops and watch the swallows
ling with their wives or talking
politics up in the cupola. 1t
e lots better to have a game
with the big post at the foot
|dder for goal, and merry
and down among the mows
lg under the manger where
eur life on the good nature
munching hay. above you.
OTIS Of -things You could
do on a rainy day better
up grist.
grist must be put UP. You
broom and sweep the barn
clean as it was once when
the party and the boys and
e from all over the nefghbor-
b the fiddlers sat up on the
the hired man and dad carry
Ie old red tanning mill and set
yn on the barn floor and put on
hopper and the crank. and set
right sieves in the right grooves.
then the hired man takes the
hnk and blows 'er up hard" just to
Eet the dust out of the mill. and dad
takes the big barn pail and goes into
the bin and brings out pailful OF
wheat and pours it into the hopper.
Then the song Of the tanning mill
begins. Ruppy-buppy: ruppy-buppy,
ruppy-buppy. ruppy-buppy. Did you
ever hear it, If you did, you won't
forget 1t in thousand years. 1t Is
this noise that gauges the speed Of
the mill and shows when you are
turning steadily. And steadily you
must turn or the wheat will clog on
the sieves. and the sticks and straws
and little gravel stones. which do not
make good bread. will so over with
the wheat into the grist. So the
strong arm Of the hired man keeps
the mill singing ruppy-buppy, ruppy-
buppy, hour after hour If the grist ia
a big one. and father dips and car
ries. and boys who would rather be
playing I-spv, shovel up the cleaned
wheat'into bags.
Then it stops raining. after awhile,
but. as II is still too wet to cultivate.
father goes to mil. The hired man
puts in tho brcS and bitches uD tho
team. while father ""oS to the house
10 slick NJ ard put CT p&rCr collar
and his sec0HG best sEit. Th'n nc
mounts tho IcnH and drives away
Arrived 1T The mill. father uT"Nds
the E2gs ard t;-iH thcm over urcn the
millcr's hand truc!:. or p"rrS them
into the outside ho;iGr II the Miii az.
fords such a convenience. Then he
nuts the team under the mill shed or
drives it down to tie blacksrIi;h's TO
have a couple of shoes set. and the
miller starts the endless succession OF
little buckets that dip the wheat ont
of enc hopper into another and carry
II to be cleaned and winnowed ard
secured and crushed and slfted and
bolted and bagged. Then father re-
ceiyes It back with the bran but