The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-11-14

IlC OliDhIIG SjiSLplCI iiOIi tLIS lSkt|
r. l. Gardens History OF Scott Town
ship will be of timely interest because
of the popularity of the deceased, and
because of the contrasts it affords with
modern homes, modern methods of
farming, the prices OF produce and so
forth.
Mr.. Garden says:
When father began farming on our
farm he had one good yoke of oxen,
one horse besides one mich COW, and
one Inch pin wagon. This, l think, is
q fair inventory OF what the average
settler bad ID begin farming with.
Ono drove the oxen. while one held the
piow, pioWing probably in all ten or
tifteen acres OF ground for the corn.
This being an average. crop Of corn
planted in the settlement. The oxen
having performed their part of the
labor. were then turned loose on the
commons, to roam al Will. Then the
marking off of the corn ground would
begin with the one horse and shovel
.iioH. Atte' itidiAihs oIA 'he @iO''AAN
cno way, Wen commencing - cross
p,arli' rirg entire family would cheer
f4lly turn out and help plant the corn.
Usually the girls would do the drop
r'ng and the men and boys would
cover the corn with hoes. AS soon as
the corn came up and got big enough
TO plow. Il w:s tended with the one
horse and single shovel plow BY the
time one plowed q crop over three
times, and by going three times in the
middle of each row, you can readily
see that it required as much laoor 10
tend and rails" ton acres Of corn, as
il would a. 'FHG forty or fltf% acres
no%' With r." Improved methods. bS
nD' feeding any stock for marEet, and
MOI having any market for corn the
settlers with this small acreage OF
corn usually raised plenty to do for
bread and to feed their stock through
tic w!ntor
First Fall Wheat
u->.r.li,,, t,al fall r,hnat did we'll and
..,..ln . .r,n4 or,y,rv Of grain, The set
,f.r. ha,,an raising wheat, in 1 small
r.,,. y-rn, =, csme time TO harvest the
wheat II was all cut with a cradle,
..kod AMI hound Nv hand. the cradle
ho;nq q hip ir,nrrvenent over lie ola
method of reapine hook or sickle,
which wee only used IN taxing up
down grain. After harVestiEP the
r'heat, the next in order was the lev
'tih9 up AMI clearing OF p''c" Tor
'raiup'n8 out the wheat "ith Aof"cH'
usually using yoke OF oxen ana d
two wheel cart with rack on Tor maui
ING in the shock wheat TO the thraSh-
ieh or tramping yard, there never pc
ing any wheat stacked.
The writer remembers OF one tlme
when helping my older Drother' ben III
hauling in shock wheat, that ne ulu
the pitching OF the gram III the nelo'
and | did the LOADING onto inc cart
and after hauling in load 10 'he
threshing yard, OF seeing large Eat'ie
snake about three and nail rect lohS'
crawl down and out Oh the loao lnat
we had just brought IN from 'he heiu'
This was not thought unusual as
rattlesnakes were very premium III me
early days. as were great many o'h-
er varieties of snakes.
Primitive Threshing
CATER the harvesting was DONE
nra,arations were made for dong the
tbrashine NJ the wheat out of the
sbock there being no grain put into
.t.cu Settlers would exchange work
IA tbreebinp time. much the same as
farmers do now. Instead of a steam
tbroohar heing used as now, the wheat
was tbreshed bv tramping it our of the
str,v with horses. usually using four
borses and two bows. Each boy would
lido one horse and lead the OTHER
horse abreast tramping around in q
rircl,. thr men u.iue pitchGorIls, often
,;,n... Of home manufacture. out OF a
ro,,r,ad stinf. 70 tpva the wheat that
,-ae heing ,rampad. bottom side up
and TOP side underneath, while the