Farming the old way, part two

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, we started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business. Now in this blog, we are going to write part of an old article called, Farming today compared to the old ways; we are doing this to give farming the importance they deserve, so that you know why we are talking about farming. When we finish with this article, we want to talk about some social issues that can affect all of us. We will start with some Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. We are starting with this article about farming and their problems, since farming is the most important part of our society, because it produces food for us to live. We hope to interest lots of people. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see this article in full,  Farming today compared to the old way 

                                  THE THRESHING MACHINE

The farmers in the fifties or there about after collecting all their bundle of wheat, barley or oats etc. Used to thresh them with one of these threshing machine, driven ether from a tractor or a steam engine. It was hard work to collect the produce.

Farming the old way 

Dear readers, this is part two of, Farming today compared to the old way, we had to divide it in three parts to make it easier. Anyhow, we have written this article to compare and explain how farming was done at the time when I was young, we are going to write here the way of farm life that was going on in those times; we know already that things have changed for the better since then, as we have written in our previous blog, because of the tractor and new farming machinery that have come out since then, all due to the industrial revolution or progress; which we have experienced in the last hundred years or so, but when I was young there were a lot less advanced farming machine that could make farming easy, of course, the tractors were already there, but they were very expensive to buy for most of the small farmers, so, we had to do most things the old ways. Now let me tell you how life was in the farms of southern Italy in the early fifties and earlier. 

It is a well-known fact that in those times and even now, there are two times during the year, when in the farms everybody is working hard and working very long hours; one of this was sowing time and the other is harvest time, let us start with sowing times. When I was young the working day at sowing time would start two hours before dawn, because we had to make the horses, mules and other animals ready for working in the fields, we had to feed them and water them as well, it had to be done in such a way that everything should be made ready to go into the fields at daybreak.

At that time of the year in the morning it was very cold and there are lots of frosty days, so, in the morning the outside temperature could be around zero or below, it is very hard then to harness the horses to the plough as everything one touches is so cold; but then when one gets going it is not so bad, because walking in the fields holding the plough in one hand and guiding the horses with the other hand is hard work and it makes one warm. This type of very hard work at sowing time goes on for about a month if the weather is good and perhaps it could be longer than a month. When the sowing is done then everything slows down again, but we had still to look after the farms’ animals and do other farming chores; see this article My farm life continues, where we describe what we did after sowing, and what we did during the winter time.

Now let us talk about harvest time, since this is the busiest time in the farms, because harvest time is when the farmers collect the fruits of their hard labor, so, there is no time to be wasted at harvest time, therefore, this was and is the most hectic time of the year for all the farmers, and it is a very worrying time too for the farmers, you see if something goes wrong all their work goes down the drain for the whole year, so to speak. Here we are talking about mostly how things were run in the farms when I was young.

Now let us say a few things about today farming, especially about wheat farming, because wheat is one of the most important produce that we need from farming, as we have already said at the beginning of this article. With wheat we make bread and pasta and other bakery products, therefore, it is the most important farm produce that we use. So, let us compare what is changed in wheat farming since I was young:

---------------------------

In the fifties we already had this horse drawn harvester machine that would cut and tie bundles of wheat plants together. Then we had to collect them in heaps and later take them to the farm house to be threshed. 

This is a horse drawn cart that can be use to car many things in the fields. This time it seems that they are carrying dry grass, but it can be used to carry the wheat bundles from the field as well.  

Wheat harvest in the fifties

The following description is the way of wheat harvest time in the fifties. When I was young we had already a horse drawn harvester that was helping us, this early harvester was able to cut the wheat plants and tie them in bundles, so, we were already halfway down the track of progress, as this machine saved us a lot of work, because we did not have to harvest by hand, which is a very labor intensive job, as we are going to describe later in our next blog. Anyhow, at this time of the year everybody in the farm works hard and for very long hours, it is very hot and everything is very dry. We get up very early in the morning, we get the horses ready for working by feeding them and watering them, then we harness the horses and set them to pull the harvester, and off we go in the fields for another day of hard work, if everything goes well, we might be able to go over a ten-acre field just in one day with this harvester. The harvester needs two people to get it working, one drives the horses and another regulate the harvester, the harvester goes around the field and leaves these bundles of wheat or other cereal, whatever has been sown in the field. Now these bundles of wheat will be collected in hips around the field from other people as soon as possible, the hips of these bundles of wheat are made is such a way that if it rains the rain would run off easily, these hips of wheat will be collected later when we finish with the harvester, perhaps in a week or two, then we will go back to the fields with a cart to take everything on a special plot near the farmhouse, where the threshing machine will be hired and set.

When we collect and cart everything to the farm house, we work very long days, we get up before 4 am, but we have a break of two or three hours at lunchtime because it is too hot to do anything, then we go back to work and between real work and looking after the animals we finish at dusk around 8 pm, after that we only have to feed the horses: this sort of work goes on for more than a month and sometimes up to two months, with no breaks at all seven days a week. Everybody in the farm works to their maximum and they are very tired, they are also very worried about the possible fire hazard, and also of any thunder storms at this time of the year, since anyone of these happenings can destroy the whole crop, and a whole year of hard work can go up in smoke. So, we are all working hard, and at the same time we are praying God and waiting for the threshing machine to come and finish our harvest.

When some farmer did not have a lot of wheat to thresh, they could use a place in common with other farmers, so that, the threshing machine would not have to be set several times. The threshing machine that were around and we would hire together with other farmers came with a large crew, because it was a very large machine, bigger than the one shown in this article, it had a crew of about twenty people, it was a very interesting time when we were threshing our own wheat, oats, barley, etc. Because we were anxious to see how much wheat and other product we had made.

Now there were many other things that I could tell you, but I better not to make this story short. Anyhow, here I want to say that when one goes through these life experiences in the farm, one knows that farming life is hard; but since this is the only way to grow food to feed ourselves, we the farmers keep working in our farms to feed ourselves and the rest of the community.

So, we the farmers feel that it would be right if the rest of the community appreciates our efforts, so, they should be thanking us for all the hard work that we have done, after all, we are providing all those things that are necessary to makes food for the rest of the community; but it does not happen that way, because even when we are working our guts out, and while we are doing that we are becoming dull, the rest of the community does not care and they label us as dull people; their attitude hurts us very much and we believe that we don’t deserve that; just because we are farm people, but we have done our part of hard work for our own benefit and for the benefit of the entire community. So, we the farmers feel hurt to say the least.

This is how life was then in the small farms of Southern Italy. Anyhow, this town people attitude as I have said above, plus some very lean years when we hardly could survive, and because we had only a small farm and it would have been hard to expand was one of the reasons why I left farming and migrated to Australia. But anyhow let us continue to describe how harvesting was done the very old way, so, that we can compare it to today’s living. 

I believe that I have said enough in this blog. So, see you in our next blog, farming the very ancient way.  

------------------------------------------------