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Show ARTIST PAT SMITH Lona before the Tractor The h e r ' s year began in mud. Most the nineteenth century was always hard and people would have noticed that the winter steady; but thg pace would pick up when the was only a little warmer, but the wet, sticky mud climbed up a man's leg and fa~ mer- back when he farmed with madewalkingsome~ ingofanadvenfure. hafies- hww that now the real work was just The horse- farmerT$ clock was different starting- Ofc ourse, f arm Life in that l~ sHta lf of horn the one most of us use taday, R ww 1 ,' ;$ it- PREPARING LAND FOR SPRING PLANnNG IN UTAH VALLEY. SEAGULLS ARE AFTER EARTHWORMS UNCOVERED BY HORSE- DRAWN LEV-. marked off not in minutes and hours but in seasons. Everything on the farm was done in season. If the farmer's imaginary clock was season- long, his year was Lightning short. It began in the spriugwith countIess chores and ended when the last of the crops were picked- sometime near Thanksgiving. The working season began at five in the morning and ended at dark. As spring marched into summer, those working days gew longer and longer. Mud meant the fence- mending season had come. The constant trimming, filling, and washing of the kemsme lamps that kept the house and barn in warm yellow light all winter would man end. The mud announced that it was time to test the sned that had been so carefully set aside t h h~ ar vest Morn. The family depended on this seed and could not fiord failure in eitkex the kitchen garden or in the field. It was also time to grease the harness and work the stiffness out of the winter- cold leather. The official and generally accepted be-ginning of the mud or spring season was the moment the first furrow was plowed. Plow-ing was done, not as we observe it today, when huge multi- bottomed plows literally make the dirt fly behind huge roaring trac-tors, but rather with one, thinh wat a tim behind a straining team of horses. The first furrow had to be straight, too, because therest of the field was patterned on it. There were many times when a less- skilIed plowman had to take a few short furrows at the end to match up with the opposite fence. But it was not mud or plowing or even the chirp of newly arrived birds that heralded spring forthe younger members of the family. They aU had something much more impor-tant as their own officcia1 proclamation of the new season. AII winter, farm children had been imprisoned in a baggy, itching, dull grey woolen torment known as winter un-derwear, If never fit It always hung below the pant leg. It worked out beyond the shirt cuff. No m? tk haw much the sun shone or how deep the mud was, it was never really spring until that b t gIuriuus day of escape from that clinging woolen torture when fresh and pleasingly cool air could be felt all the way up the pant leg and shirt sIeeve. Then, at last, winter was over. With the fences mended, the animals could now come out of the barns and into the pmhres. Samething else came out of the barns, too, that was also apart of the season: manure. Nothing was ever knowingly wasted. In the kitchen, for example, what the family didn't eat ( and this was not much) the pigs did. The waste that had accumulated all winter in the bams was pure gold- if some-what smelly-- and manure was sp~ eadc are-fully over the garden and the fields as far as it lasted. There was not a farmer alive who would not have accepted all the manure he conld get his hands on. Manure made Wngs grow. A farm during the nineteenth centmy al-ways had at least one dog that Lived by the back door and was considered one of the working members of the family. Most farmers 6 who had livestock considered a good dog war& as rnn& as a hired hand. Those who kqst " worthless" pets around = re hoked upon with somethimg close to contempt. Farm dugs wem hardy - mals. They slept in the bafn during the cold winbr and out by the back doo~ of the house the rest of the time. They were well frained, bad as much disci-pline as an old sol& er, and mdd start a herd of milling sheep fanwad before you knew it. Spring was also sheep- shearing season. Mast cE the time a professional was brought in to hancl-~ utth e thick, greasy winter wool away barn the unhappy a n h a l t six to eight cents a sheep. A good man with the hand shears could f i s h qne anirnd in abut fifteen to twenty minutes. The wool was a cash crop far the family. It ww stored, tightly bundled, in a comer af the granary or in the attic waiting f o t~ he best prices. The shwp, now having made their contribution to the M yinc ome, rkn bunched in the pasture, feeling perhaps just the same as the farm children after shedding their awn version of the winter woalen~. Each season had its own c h m . Qn most nineteenth - century brm self- suffici& ncy was apart of life and meant doing alittle bit of e~ mythingA~ s litkle as possible was bougbt in town. The result of this independence was unending, unvarying ritual- night and morning. In addition to the regular legwork connected with " pailing" and herding the COWS, watering the chicBcens, slopping the hogs, gr& g the beef, Haying the horn, cleanfng out and bedding dmn, there seepled ta be unlimited handles and ma& allaverfhefarmthatjustfit demofaboy. They all needed turning at soine time during the day. The corn mi11 had a crank; the barrel churn, the milk separator, the coffee grinder, all had cranks. The fanning mill had a crank. This device for cleaning seed was a box fitted at one end with afanthat rotated like the stern wbeel of a river boat. The crank turned both the fim and a series of screens of different sizes that vibrated and seprakd mature seed from everything else that was not needed- such as chaff, weed seeds, leaves. The grindstone dso had a mad. Virtually e v q tool on the farm had to b sharpened at some the. The old saying " dull tooIs make hard work" was fully belimed bp all goad farmers who awned mower blades, scythes, axes, h- S. shovels, scrapers, knives, planes. saws, and a rnulfihd~ o f ~ thars pecialize8 equfpmmt. What did not atn by, a c dran by tmdmill, a nd it was a~ joqmonsi ght ta s e e w @ + r h sbwp or the f a d 2 dug % t-ting WYon a malt version o( fbe horse-powwed -~~ umd in the Md. If mud mmu- mad the atrival of spfhg, $ i@.& rt& m& th# e arrival of summer. With wa% w& er, theslde of the barn and out- Wldings became black with flies hatched out & oA qgs hid t h s~ w an before. !% KB pqsticih had not beep dqvelapd, other mmwm were use$ to. ma$ rrl the hmds af blak £ lies. A fl- p betame standard quipmt. " Sticky paper" hung eyeqwhm in the hrnhuse in long< g olden curls;. a nd when an unlradq fly couns too clhse, it vrias caught in the sticky coating m d held. Outdoors. a cone- bottomd screen bax hug Aove a dish of sour milk. After feeding in the milk, & e flies would- rise in& ~ q cmoO It was zlat unusual at the end- ofthe day VCxsepl a quart: of flies caught in such a trap. Even So, the flies were everywhet& To entm the hck dam during & e day, om had to fan the arm with a hat or cmt Ed get the black ~ caatingof flies of£ W smm dmr and then duck quickly in though the smallest opening gas-sibre, Still fhc flies found their way inside WIW HAY PERRtGK IN Maffn- IERrJ UTAH. Farm animals su£€ ed mmi from the nies. The animals were constantly swinging head and taiI, hunching their backs, pawing, snart-ingy and sometimes d gb ri d them-sehos of the pests. June meant cutting hay. Mowing and rak-ing took place in the field a d wme sepacatq ~ pxationsG. etting the hay into the barn ' or stack was often a full M yaff air. Mother and daughter drove the team of horses on ~ e large fork that hoisted * the hay into the haympw. Some farms hadoutside stacks. and the tall wood born of the hay de$& ( called the " Mormon derrick") would be swung over and over, grabbing huge bi- a£ hay from the hayrack with the Jackson fork pulling it up into the air, higher and higher as the stack grew. Haying was a summer- long job that often urought neighbarn bgether. Each helped the other complete the arduous task As the cnt-tings progress@ through the summer, t h ~ bay would came clase~ an d cl~ setro the roof in the bmn, while the e- dier hay stacked below ripened, dry and dusty. And, as gym-tm. harder, and duller. The hot, sweaty men drank gallons of water mixed with vinegar and honey, which they said was the only drink hat Auld quench theif thirst. After the- hay was in stacks or tucked away in the b m , then came the wheat, with much tlx same pmcea all aver again: cut the grain, burrdb it togeder with twine, stand the bun-dles in groups often or so [ called *' shocks ") in the field to await & E threshing crew. After the w h d came tbe oats, again with more of the same. Bending over again and again, picking up what seemed to be thousands of bundles ( sheaves) af grain, made the hardiest soul wish hrarest, whidcame qdyinthe form of rain. There were tfM Ends of F&: good and bad. A badrain a c m d when the hay was on the ground waiting ta cwe, ar when the thresh5tg crew was h u t to begin. A good rain came just when the monotoxly of cutting or gathering or stacking was becoming un-bearable: Then, rain meant a change of pace. Then, all the little things that had trr be done got done: sharpening & B tools, working on NEIGHBORS OFFEM WORKED TOGETHER TO GET BIG FARM JOBS DONEr THRESHING, DtGGlNG IRRIGATION CAME, BUttblffi BARNS, perhaps a person could even sit d m md Iook. at a book w a magazine- but that was d rare day. TKm was always something pra-ductive ED do m a farm. As summer ended, the choice of what to eat would soon be limited. Mast farm families ate only what they grew. Tbe gadem mas basic, Vegetables were eaten hsh mM they were g m , hen they were dom without, Rm t veg e tables- p~ takes, c m k , md tumips- were abuLtha only produce a d d - able, Wing the Iuig * fwd These wem stored id a srjoall . stone haw s din fo the-ground zhd mverd with earth-& " raat celler ."' Cabbage and cauliflower wwe, stmed in a pit mvmed wid &, but auld be eaten only czn t h o s ~ da ys when the weather warmed maugh to allow ope to pry a portion loose from the fmzen earth. All winter the only £ re& fiuit was apples. It waa a lucky child who, perhaps, got an mange for Christ-mas. The cold days brought a new season. The first bee= meant that the potatoes cauldsmn be dug and the winter msat prepared. Beef could nat be butchered until the cold was intense enough ta keep the meat from spoil-ing. Thus, late falI was meat W e . Untd Th& giuing the must mmonly sewed meat was chicken. But in late Id1 steaks and roasts would be ready and welcome, T h e h - ily hog would be groomed and fattened all through thewnter for a spring appearance as ham, bacon. and chops, Most of the winter was the season for M. Winter was aIso the season for trip after trip bmthe modpiEe to the hungry wood stave that was mvkr cold- unt il the mud sea-son came again. The family woodpile reached unheli~ vabb size each fall and s Wwith unbelievable speed. % re could never be enough wood. To save wood, same fanm had aprimi~ vfeo rm af insulatian built zoui~ dt he f& mhuuse: a Im fence abut a Fao- t- auvagfmm thewallswould be put up and h u m pfbd in the space. The heat fmm the decomposing manure saved card a h r cord of precious mdd. Thanksgivingmarked the end of the farm year, agear nine months long and into which was paeked an iacmdibh amount of hard work. Those nine months had to support the family through a11 twelve and, as a result, most farmers ~ f that period were tough and s e E - d u d . They had little that could be sold fur cash and even less with which to barter. They rreeded a11 that was pr~ ducedo n their small acreage for their own use, Each family produced its o m wqubments and made use of everHhing that cam to hand, They were never rich in money or posses-sions, but few ever had to go without the necessities. Fewer stiIl wanted it any ether way. Tbay prized their independence, lived honorably, were saving of everything they possessed, and loved their land and their counhy. Mr. Kusson is dErsctor~ urataro f the ~ o n a l d ~ m. e n Hisbri~ aFl man d Man and His B& d Mus- at Utah State University. 9 |
