In this article we will answer a question asked by so many people. Why did the average Maine and local dairy farmer here in Lincoln County have such large families?
The answer and truth to this question is very simple. The farmer and his wife needed the helping hands of many children who provided free labor in many different ways throughout the dairy farm operation. In turn, this would make the farm sound and profitable.
When we think about it, most of the work on the farm was done by hand labor. They did have oxen and horses to pull their work wagons, moving machines, hay rakes, and hay wagons. The horses were used to pull the plows that turned over the soil and to pull the dish harrows which chopped the sod into fine soil, which then could be turned into long rows and then be planted. Each one of these events took a person.
When the planting started it took a person to put the fertilizer in each row and when cow manure was used it meant that a person had to load the cow manure from the manure pile by the barn and haul it to the plowed area where it was spread or put by hand in each row before the seed was put in the ground. Here we can plainly see this took a lot of time and hours of labor.
When the crops began to grow each row had to be hand weeded and a hand hoe was used to loosen the soil and chop the weeds and pull the loose soil up around the vegetable plants.
If this section was planted for corn, a horse drawn cultivator could be used to loosen the earth and pull the soil up around each corn stock to hold the corn plant firmly in each row. We can once again see this took another person to do this job.
Sometimes the farmer would even side dress the larger crops with fertilizer to provide it with extra plant food, all of which took extra labor and manpower. This was often done with a crop of potatoes.
We find, as the potato crop grew and the plants came into blossom, the plants had to be sprayed with some kind of bug spray. This was often done with a hand duster or hand carried sprayer, which took time and labor.
Then, after all the manure was spread over the hay fields and crop lands, it was time to start haying.
The old saying is that June hay is the best so we can see why many farms started haying in the last two weeks of June. The hay was cut by a one or two horse pulled mowing machine. Then after four or so hours the loose hay had to be turned over by hand using handheld hay forks so it could be evenly dried. This took a number of helping hands in the hay field. The word tedder means one who turns over the newly moved grass or hay for even drying. This was all done by hand before the horse drawn hay tedder was invented.
Then came the job where the farmer would use his one horse drawn spring rake to rake and bunch the loose hay into hay piles across the newly cut hay field.
The farmer would then hook up his two horse team to the so called hay wagon and drive it down to the hay field where he would stop at each hay pile while one or two persons with pitch forks would transfer the loose hay from each pile on the ground into the hay wagon. The one person in the hay wagon would spread out the loose hay and build a nice even load until the hay wagon was completely loaded.
The team of horses and the load of hay was then driven back to the hay barn. The load of hay was placed under a so called hay fork. The hay fork was mounted on a rail that traveled over the hay storage area of the barn. The loose hay was then lifted one fork load at a time from the hay wagon and lifted up and placed in the hay mow.
This took one person to set the hay fork in the loose hay in the wagon and then another person to run the hay fork to the location of the hay mow where the loose hay was dumped. Then another person in the hay mow would spread out the loose hay and build a good storage area. This took a lot of time and people.
It was also a real dusty job working in the hay mow and the farmers would often mix up a solution of molasses, vinegar, and water and place it in a gallon bottle where the person working in the hay mow could drink it to keep their throat free of dust.
When the cattle corn was ready it also took a number of people to cut the corn stocks and haul wagon loads of it to the barn where it was chopped up and put into the large corn silos by their barns to use for winter feed for the cattle.
The same was true for the sweet corn. When it was ready for market, the children would go out into the cornfield and pick each ripe corn ear at a time and put them in a wagon to be brought back to the farm and taken to the grocery store or sold at their local farm market.
When the summer vegetables were ready in the gardens, the children would help their mother pick them and get them ready for sale at local grocery stores. We also find the children would help their mother pick the vegetables for canning, to be used for the long winters each year for food on their own kitchen table.
One of the first vegetables to be picked was the green peas. They had to be picked one pod at a time until they could fill a bushel basket. Then the children would have to remove all the peas from each pod by the use of their hands and fingers before their mother could start the process of canning them for winter use.
I remember once reading in my mother’s diary back in the 1940s that my aunt, Thelma Bailey, had canned 84 quarts of sweet green peas from her garden. Just think of all those little hands that must have helped her. Thelma was the wife of my mother’s brother Peal Bailey; a family of nine.
Now when the green string beans came on, they too had to be picked one bean at a time until they filled a bushel basket. Then they would bring in the basket of string beans. Some of the children would sit at the kitchen table and others would sit on the floor and snap off the head and tail ends of the green beans.
The string bean had to be snapped into about 1.5 inch length. This was all done by hand. The snapped beans were put in a large enamel covered kettle with cover for overnight. This large canning kettle would hold seven large quart canning jars which sat in boiling water when in the process of being cooked and canned. This was hot work in the months of August, when cooked over a wood stove.
Thelma Bailey also told my mother she had canned some 170 one quart jars of string beans.
Then in the early fall when the tops of the potato plants died it was time to dig the potatoes with a four prong potato digging hoe. Once the potatoes were above the ground level, they were left to dry for a half day and then picked up one by one and placed in a basket and brought up to where they were to be stored. Here they were sized and sorted and placed in wooden barrels for winter storage. Here again, all done by the hands of family members.
Now while all this was going on, other dairy jobs were being done. The milk and cream were being bottled and sold. Butter was being made and put into butter molds for shape and sale. The buttermilk was often used for cooking and also used to feed the farm pigs. The children often turned the crank on the cream separator when processing the whole raw rich milk.
Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, the parents of these children would make homemade ice cream with their own hand cranked ice cream machine. The children often loved to help turn the crank while the parents added ice to the machine. Many times in late June or July the parents would add strawberries to the homemade mixture.
Also the farmer’s wife would make homemade biscuits and serve them covered in beautiful ripe strawberries and a good amount of rich whipped cream over it all. This is another crop which a farmer would have to have a number of people or children to harvest and pick.
Another big farm event was when it was time for all farm help and children to get together and husk all the beautiful large ears of golden sweet corn, which had been brought into the barn. After the ears of corn had been husked they were put in a building where the wind could blow through the sides and keep the corn dry. The building had a roof on it to keep the rain out.
There was most always a fun filled event that followed the next week. The farmer would save out three hundred or more ears of the sweet corn and add a number of colored cattle corn and mix all the corn ears together.
Then the farmer and his wife would invite other farm families and their children to fun filled corn husking parties. The highlight of this event was when a person or child came across colored cattle corn when husking it, the reward was he or she could kiss another person in the husking party. A lot of fun and laughter was had by all.
In this article I hope I have shown why a farmer and his wife needed a large family to help do all the farm work.
Have a safe week, and keep an eye open for all the summer traffic. The talk on Round Top Farms drew a good crowd and was recorded on Channel 7 and will be aired later on TV to the public.
