Brook-Cause & Effect

“Plank ought to do. ” “Where you going to get planks?” “The cow barn loft is empty. and the floor ain’t nailed down. ” “Planks will mash the gizzard out of them little beans, unless you put something under them to hold them up. ” “Get rocks. sticks. cobs. or anything that will hold them up j just enough to keep from mashing in the bean vines. “The corn will grow out. Just have to risk the potatoes. ” “What about the tobacco?” “It will take more than garden stuff. ” “The tomato plants were in the tobacco bed. We thought up a few more bags. ” “Never mind the tobacco plants... . it would only bitethe ends of the leaves. ” I took care of the tomatoes while the others milked. Next morning. June 10. 1910. all the low

Those who did not cover their beans lost them. One womanwho believed in pouring spring water on them before thesun hit them. put it on too soon. They froze hard and died. They were almost ready to bloom. In those days people saved their own seed. or begged itfrom their neighbors. One large family lost all theirs. and had no more seed. We always had to pick dry beans untilwe would wish they had not grown so well. We gave themall they could plant... . several varieties. but they werelate coming in. What the frost did not do for the potatoes. the dryweather and bugs did. A boy could dig a half-day and then ... 177... carry them to the house in a three-gallon bucket. One familyplanted two bushels. and got out one-half of marble size. The man said: “By jings! I told Belle to cook them as quickas she can before they dry up. ” It was the same family thatlost all their beans. It was funny. and sad. too. I have heard of one field of tobacco on Staunton River that was frozen to death. It wasnorth of Blackwater on the Franklin County side. Thequarterly meeting was a very memorable one. Most of thegirls in those days wore white dresses in summer. S ome ofthem had ruffles. lace around the bottom. and collar, withsash around the waist. They would be all starched up. andstanding out at the bottom. but would cover the calves oftheir legs. No decent girl went out with her dress hem up to her knees. That day they had to wear their old dirtywinter coats over their sharp. white dresses until noon. orshiver like a dog. It was very embarrassing. but it warmedup. and did not frost again until in September. That year we were hard put to get something to cook forthe wheat threshing. Wheat threshing in those days was agreat occasion-almost an ordeal and they did not have much wheat either. Two or three families would join together for cooking dinner. and another two or three wouldfix supper. The children would spend a day running backand forth from house to house finding out who would furnish what. If any time was left from that it was used upto help gather vegetables. Some families didn’t have chil-dren. and one or two would have to do the whole job. The branch would have to be dammed up so the water man couldget water. The next morning would find you carryingdishes and food to the house where the meal was to beserved. Sometimes a father would carry a turn if he wasgoing that way to the machine. The crops were so small. andthey had to move so often. that the machine men werealways in a hurry. If they did not get started by six o’clockit was a cring shame. and some of them would be out ofsorts all day. Sometimes they would thresh out a small cropbefore all the hands arrived. If there were two families of children together theymight get to play in the creek awhile. but you better be inplace when the machine came to carry drinking water to 178 the men. If we didn’t watch out the water man would pressone of us into service to help him fill the water barrels. Thewater for the steam engine was usually hauled on a one-horse wagon. The water man received one bushel of wheatper day for himself. wagon. and horse. The machine menfurnished the barrels. The wheat growers fed him and hishorse. Everyone was expected to have oats in bundles for the horses. They fed them everytime they stopped-that is all but the water-hauling horse. That one would not get toeat except at night and dinner. They always wasted morethan they ate. A lot of places would have only thirty toforty bushels. The yield would be from five to eight bushelsper acre. If a farm averaged ten or more bushels per acre it was a super crop. Fifteen or more bushels was as goodas ever grew out of the ground. The machine men took tollfor their pay. Three bushels for setting down. or up tofifty bushels of threshing. five bushels out of a hundred forall above that. Now and then a man would choose to buy his toll back. Here they would come with four horses (or mules)hooked to the engine. three to the thresh-box. one to thewater wagon-eight in all. A man would be on each side ofthe hind end of the thresh-box holding it with ropes to keepit from turning over in the rough places. One of the farmers would have to chop up wood with an ax to fire the boiler. Twenty-two men could thresh very well with one of thosesmall machines that is. including the machine man andwheat haulers. Sometimes there would be thirty or moremen. not counting the family boys. Many times there wereenough to have carried all the wheat which they threshedat one stack yard away on their backs. It would seem likethe wheat wasn’t worth the trouble of threshing after it hadbeen cut with cradles and bound by hand. A few binders were bought as early as 1910. It wasabout 1912 that there were enough grain drills around. sothat by hiring drills. most of the wheat was sown with them. In 1904 a steam tractor that Raymond Wright had forsaw-milling was tried for threshing wheat. It set too manyfires along the road side. and was too cumbersome to getalong the narrow rough roads. It was our first year on a retired man’s place. He and 179... his wife had moved to an adjoining farm with his wife’ssister. They threshed on that place before they came towhere we lived. Taylor had come to help where we lived. We heard the whistle when they blew out (had finished) atthe other place. and Leonard begged Taylor to go with himto meet it. We set out. me tagging along. We met it abouta half mile from our wheat. I don’t think I will ever forgetit-the funniest thing I ever saw in my childhood. Red Skelton can’t beat what we saw. That old man had all thewhiskey he could carry well-in his system. I mean. In his drunkenness he thought he knew the road so well that hecou