The Coolidge examiner., 1936-09-18

WaSnlnRtOn, -. CIV NU Service.
AUGUST is harvest time in
IA Norway. Since most rural
1 Y families are mainly depend
ent for their winters food on
what they themselves prepare, it is
therefore a particularly busy time.
A visit to a typical Norwegian
farm at this season would imply
your sharing their whole-hearted
work as we'll as their equally whole
hearted jollity afterwards. The ac-
tivities of harvesting and merry
making would keep you busy on any
of the thousands of small farms
which skirt the long twisting fjordS
or utilize what level land there is
along the rushing rivers in noun
tain valleys.
Glance for a moment at Halling-
dal, a long valley which winds
through the central section of Nor
way. For most of its length it is
only one or two farms wide, for the
mountainsides rise steeply from the
river bottom. This valley is familiar
to those who have travelled by rail
from Oslo to Bergen.
BY the daily train it is possible
to reach HallingdaPs villages,
around which cluster farms of typi-
cal rural Norwegian families. If you
cbo,,11 uicif c,,cb n fo y,oilu yo,1 could
participate in their harvesting-but
only after being welcomed by Shar-
ing their food, even though it be
just nibble of fruit, fresh leaf let
tuce, little curled anchovies, and
sheets of crisp fatbread.
Clouds sweeping over the noun
tains and across the valley serve
warning that it may rain before
dusk. The hay from the high mea-
dow should be in the barn before
then. All hands must seize rakes and
hurry to the meadow for race with
the weather.
Haying In Hallingdal
The Halling farmer still uses a
hand scythe and never misses a
tuft hidden away in the fence corner
or along the river bank. Every spear
of grass is valuable. The youngest
child follows the workers to CLEAN
the wisps that the others have
missed. They all help load the sweet
dry hay into a little hayrack made
of unstripped birch saplings.
This is hauled to the barn by hand,
for the little pony has been sent to
the mountain meadow for the sum-
mer along with the cattle, so that
every bit of grass on the home farm
could be made into hay for the long
winter. The hayrack is not heavy
load to push except for the last little
way up the log runway into the
NOV, which can be taken with a
rush and a Whoop.
Before long all the hay is slowed
from that meadow, from the edge of
the dark Spruces on the mountain
side to the dusty bank of wild straw
berries by the roadside. Then every
one can hang the wooden rakes
along the log wall of the woodshed
and enjoy an out-of-doors coffee"
picnic of coffee, little cakes, and
wild berries strung on grass stems.
The coffee cloth has been spread
out on the grass under wild cherry
tree.
While the young women of the
family are busy. in the fields, the
grandmother who is too old to help
spins wool for the winter supply of
gaily patterned socks and mittens.
On lonely farms, housewives eager
ly watch the road and discuss the
probable errand of every passer-by.
Down by the river there is field
of green" barley to be cut while
there is still sap in the stalk and
the grain has just reached the milk
stage. This is dried over racks in
the field. Then it is very prickly to
load.
Then Barley and Rye
When the hay is all in, the bar
ley and rye grow ripe. The farmer
cuts through the shimmering golden
fields with great swings of his
scythe. At each stroll the grain
falls in a neat semicircle on the
ground. Then it is bound into bun
dies to be shocked spirally around
tall saplings stuck in the ground.
There is a little red ladder to climb
up with the top bundles. In this
section of Norway the grain is not
threshed at harvest time, but later
on during the winter, when the
horse is home from the mountain
pastures and can be hitched to the
crude treadmill in the barn.
The herds of cattle, goats, and
horses during the summer grazing
in the mountains are tended by
either a young unmarried daughter
or an old woman. The life of a sum-
mer dairy maid has been celebrated
in song and saga for hundreds of
years. She lives in a small log hut
with turf roof, passing her days
milking cows and goats, making but