We grew our wheat and oats. At harvest time, you cut your wheat and had a thrasher thrash that wheat out, sack it up, take it to the mill and get your flour. The oats was for the animals.
HARRY BROWN: Well, th’way we thrashed th’rye, we laid a bunch of poles over a hole in th’ground, and laid a wagon sheet in th’hole. We laid th’rye on top of th’poles [over the hole] an’ beat it with a pole. You get as much as you would out of a thrashing machine, just took longer. Th’rye falls down into th’wagon sheet—then you take that wagon sheet out, and put it in sacks. Then y’had a lot of chaff in it. Well, on a windy day, you get out and pick up a handful of rye an’ pour it over into another sack, and th’wind blows th’chaff out of it.
ILLUSTRATION 20 Louin Cabe shows us how a grain cradle is used.
HARRIET ECHOLS: Rye, wheat, and oats, it’s all planted the same way. Except rye, they’d plant it earlier in August or September. The rye will make without being plowed. Wheat and oats, they had to prepare the ground. It’s the same way they did hay. They didn’t have to sow the ground as thick as they did hay, because it spreads as it comes up. They planted wheat and oats about the same time. If they had winter oats, they’d plant them in the fall, the spring oats in February or March. The winter oats will stand the hard freezes, but the spring oats they had to put in when the hard freezes were over.
They had to prepare the ground the same way, put in the fertilizer or the barnyard litter, whatever they had. Broadcast it over the land, then plowed it under, then sowed their grain. A lot of people used to sow it in rows. They had this machinery to sow it. One little grain will come up and make dozens of stalks. Then they had to harvest it. They’d cut it with grain cradles, and put it in bundles and shock it. It was hard labor all together. They called it cradling the grain. The grain cradle was as sharp as a razor blade—it had to be to cut the grain. When the shock cured, they’d haul it to the barn where the thrasher could go, and thrash it out. It took four or five to operate the thrasher.
Pests
Interestingly enough, all the people we talked to said the insect problem used to be very small. Some felt it had to do with the fact that people often burned off their gardens and fields before planting, and that the mountains were burned over every year. We were assured that there would have been little need for chemical insecticides even if they had already been developed. It must have been quite a blow to people who had for years grown healthy, relatively bug-free vegetables and crops, to witness the ever-growing insect population and watch them lower their gardens’ productivity.
Animals, however, both wild and domestic, presented a greater problem to people’s gardens years ago. For this reason almost everyone fenced their vegetable gardens, and while cattle, etc., were still on open range, most people fenced their fields. Following we present a general quote from Anna Howard about pests; after that we’ll give suggestions on dealing with individual pests, and finally, we’ll present a small piece on fencing.
ANNA HOWARD: [There are so many insects now] ’cause they ain’t no cattle nor hogs nor nothin’ in th’woods is my idea. An’ people don’t burn like they used to—burn off fields and big brush piles, kill all them insects.
I remember we had rats. They’d get in th’garden once in a while and eat a little in the garden. We didn’t do anything about them. Now crows would eat up your corn crop if you didn’t keep them scared out. We’d make scarecrows and put around the edge of th’field—that’d scare’em out. Sometimes they would get so bad, people would get out in th’edge of th’woods and shoot at’em.
Now we had rabbits. They was worse than anything else. We kids would have a couple of rabbit boxes set out in the edge of th’field, and every morning or two, we’d bring in a couple a’rabbits and Mama’d cook’em. Th’rabbits could get through a fence like that, but they had s’much stuff t’eat back then, they didn’t bother gardens like they do now. We had moles, an’ used to, one of us’d sit around through th’day with a hoe t’kill it, but then we got a mole trap. Th’ground squirrels got in a lot and we’d shoot [them] an’ eat’em. See, we kept dogs, and that was our pastime.
Well, now, ’coons, they’d eat corn in th’field after it got hard an’ dried up. But th’rabbits, they’d eat stuff some, but you could put up scare-boogers an’ keep’em out, an’ nearly everybody kept dogs to keep’em run out of their garden. People’ud make scare-boogers t’look like a man an’ put a hat an’ clothes on’em.
Ants:
plow the garden up good
sprinkle fireplace ashes, soot, or snuff over the anthills
pour hot water over the anthills
pour gasoline over them and light it
place cucumber peelings in the garden; the ants will avoid them
Bean Beetles:
plant marigolds in the beans
pick them off and put them in kerosene oil
Cabbage Worms:
pour warm water that’s had a red pepper soaked in it over the cabbage
dust with soot or ashes from the fireplace
sprinkle dry dirt on the cabbage
pinch off a leaf from the bottom of the plant, lay it on top of the
cabbage—in the morning it will be covered with worms
Cut Worms:
dig down to them and kill them
Flea Beetles:
dust them with soot or ashes from the fireplace
Potato Bugs:
sprinkle plants with sulfur or ashes
boil tobacco stems in water and sprinkle over the bugs
plant petunias in the patch
Tobacco Worms:
dust with ashes or soot
pick them off and kill them
Blackbirds:
shoot them
use a scarecrow
keep a cat in the garden
run out to the garden and make a lot of noise
Crows:
put up a scarecrow
shoot them
hang tin foil or aluminum pie pans in nearby trees and on the plants; they’ll rattle in the wind and reflect the sun intermittently and scare them off
shoot one crow and hang it up in the garden—it will keep others away
put an old hat high on a pole
hang a white sheet up in the garden—it will flap in the wind and scare them
Deer:
watch for them to enter the field or garden and shoot them
put up a tall fence around the garden
Groundhogs:
keep a good groundhog dog
stick a sock soaked in gasoline in his hole
fill his hole with tin cans
set a trap in front of his hole
sit around the garden in a concealed spot and shoot him
ILLUSTRATION 21 Jake Waldroop demonstrates one way of keeping pesky animals out of his garden.
Moles:
watch for them from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., and dig them out and kill them
put kitchen matches in the mole run—they will eat the heads and the sulfur will poison them
set a mole trap in the run
put mothballs in the run
stick rose stems in the sides of the runs—they’ll scratch themselves on the thorns and bleed to death
teach your dogs and cats to kill them
soak corn in lye or arsenic and put some in the run, and poison them
put very salty cornmeal dough or biscuit dough in the run—if they eat it, it’ll kill them
plant mole plants (also called castor beans) around your garden
put small windmills in the garden—the vibrations will drive the moles off
whenever you kill a mole, put him in another mole run and his body will scare off other moles
get a long metal pipe, fill one end with strong tobacco, light it, and force the smoke into the run by blowing on the other end of the pipe
sprinkle salt in the runs
ILLUSTRATION 22 Esco Pitts has used this mole trap for years and years. He told us
it has killed numerous moles.
Owls:
set a steel trap baited with a piece of chicken on top of a pole
Rabbits:
get a good rabbit dog
sit around out of sight and shoot one when you see it and then make rabbit stew
set up stakes around the garden and run a string about six inches off the ground around the garden—they won’t cross the string
set out rabbit boxes (traps)
sow lettuce in your squash—it’ll put the rabbits to sleep
put up a fence
plant marigolds in your beans, or petunias in your potatoes—the smell will keep them away
set an old shoe out in the row
feed them all they can eat, and they won’t eat up your garden
set glass jars around in your garden roughly twenty feet apart. The sound of the wind blowing over their tops will scare them away.
fill a gallon jug with water, add one tablespoon of kerosene, and sprinkle it on and around the plants the rabbits will eat; the smell will keep them away for several days
take a piece of paper like the Atlanta Constitution, two or three folds of it (it has to be this big because it won’t rattle if you don’t) and fold the paper down over the stake at the top. Tie a string big enough to fit around the stake so the paper won’t blow off. It looks just like somebody’s head and arms flapping. When the wind blows, the paper rattles and flaps and scares them something awful.
string some aluminum pans on wire. Be sure you string them over whatever the animal is eating. You can tie the wire to two stakes, trees, or anything that’s near around. Don’t put on too many—just enough so when the wind blows, they’ll rattle. And they shine in the dark, so that helps.
Raccoons:
keep a good ’coon dog and hunt raccoons regular during gardening season
set a trap for them
Rats:
set mothballs around where you last saw them
set a rat trap in a mole run, as rats often use mole runs
teach your cats to hunt and kill them
Squirrels:
get a squirrel dog
shoot and eat them
poison corn with lye or arsenic
The following people contributed information on how to deal with garden pests:
Joe Arrowood, Ednie Buchanan, Mrs. Cecil Cannon, Carl Carpenter, Leana T. Carver, Doc Chastain, Mrs. Norman Coleman, Imogene Dailey, Fred Darnell, Mimmie Dickerson, Barnard Dillard, Bobbie Dills, Harriet Echols, Tom Grist, Lonnie Harkins, Mrs. Earl Holt, Mrs. L. D. Hopper, Mrs. Ray Kelly, Ted Lanich, Aunt Faye Long, Pearl Martin, Jim McCoy, Ulysses McCoy, Belzora Moore, Mrs. George Nix, Mrs. J. D. Quinn, Kenny Runion, Will Seagle, Vina Speed, B. J. Stiles, Lake Stiles, Mrs. Oren Swanson, Gladys Swanson, Gladys Teague, Cal Thomas, Nell Thomas, Mrs. Birdie Mae Vinson, Ralph Vinson, T. F. Vinson. Pearl Watts, Grover Webb, Naomi Whitmire, Mrs. Ben Williams, Mrs. Grace Williams, Lee Williams, Will Zoellner.
Fences
Most people put up a paling fence around their vegetable gardens. A paling fence is sort of a rough picket fence made of hand-split boards, pointed on top so the chickens wouldn’t fly up on it and then into the garden. Many people fenced in their farm crops, too, but there they used split rails put together in a zigzag pattern for that. These fences kept out larger domestic and wild animals which would eat the vegetables and/or farm crops.
ESCO PITTS: You had to enclose your garden so my daddy split chestnut palings in those days. Chestnut trees was mostly what he built his house out of. Chestnut trees would be sixty feet to the first limb and long straight trees. And they would split awful easy and he would just split palings about six to eight feet long. They’re thin slats about three quarters of an inch thick, about four to six inches wide, and as long as you want to make them. Then he put his locust posts in every eight feet and made his railings one at the bottom and one at the top to nail his palings to. The palings went up and down; they were sharp on the ends.
ILLUSTRATION 23 This old paling fence surrounds Aunt Arie Carpenter’s vegetable garden.
ILLUSTRATION 24 The rail fence in front of Thomas Stubbs’s cabin is very much like the ones people used to put up around their fields.
R. M. DICKERSON: Ever’body had to fence their own fields. You had fence logs and you were supposed to take care of your own cow yourself. But back when I was out here, they had what y’called an open range and anybody could turn their cattle out, and if you had a cornfield; you had to keep it fenced up to keep the cattle out. But after we voted out the free range and voted in the fencin’, ever’body that had cattle had to put them up and keep’em in their own pasture. After that we didn’t have to fence our cornfields so much.
DIFFERENCES IN THE OLD AND NEW
Many people we spoke to felt that the vegetables they used to grow tasted better than those they grow today. The differences were attributed to the facts that they used to grow non-hybrids, whereas today most seeds are hybrids; that they used to grow vegetables totally organically, but don’t now; and that age may have hindered their sense of taste.
ANNA HOWARD: I think the fertilizers make a difference. I think that makes th’difference in the taste of the plants we eat. You take people that use stable manure for their garden; I think that makes a difference in the flavor of the food—it grows off better. Now I garden with store-bought fertilizer, and I don’t like it either. I can’t get a good pretty garden like I want to. I think about back when I was a kid and my father used t’have those pretty gardens. And now I can’t get one like that, and I’m sure it’s that stable manure. It’s really good for a garden.
ADA KELLY: I really believe that some of them had a richer flavor. They were grown just from the soil with no additions at all, and it just seems that they had a better flavor.
LAWTON BROOKS: They have a lot of difference—in th’beans an’ in th’tomatoes and things like that. Th’beans taste altogether different from th’kind they used to grow then.
HARRIET ECHOLS: There is a difference in the taste of vegetables now and then. I don’t know whether it’s that we people have grown older and our taste buds arc getting away from us, dimming, like our eyes, but it doesn’t seem like the vegetables here taste as good now as they used to. You know, I used to love fruits and I ate them all the time. I still do, but I have to force myself. I don’t care for them like I used to, I don’t know why.
WEATHER SIGNS
FORECASTING WINTER BY ANIMALS
It will be a bad winter if:
squirrels begin gathering nuts early (middle or late September).
muskrat houses are built big.
beaver lodges have more logs.
the north side of a beaver dam is more covered with sticks than the south.
squirrels’ tails grow bushier.
fur or hair on animals such as horses, sheep, mules, cows, and dogs is thicker than usual.
the fur on the bottom of rabbit’s foot is thicker.
cows’ hooves break off earlier.
squirrels build nests low in trees.
wild hogs gather sticks, straw, and shucks to make a bed.
animals grow a short fuzzy coat under their regular one.
crows gather together.
hoot owls call late in the fall.
screech owls sound like women crying.
juncos arc feeding in the trees.
birds huddle on the ground.
you hear an “old hoot owl on the mountain, winter’s comin’ soon—better put on your boots”—Kenny Runion.
birds eat up all the berries early.
FORECASTING WINTER BY INSECTS
It will be a bad winter if:
hornets and yellow jackets build their nests heavier and closer to the ground than usual.
worms are bending up and going into peoples’ houses and abandoned buildings in October.
there are a lot of spiders, frost worms, and black bugs about in the fall.
miller moths hit the screen trying to
get in.
crickets are in the chimney.
an ant builds its hill high.
The woolly worm tells of a bad winter if:
there are a lot of them crawling about.
he has a heavy coat.
the black band on his back is wide. (The more black than brown he is, and/or the wider the black stripe, the worse the winter.)
if he’s black in front, the bad weather is to come; and if he’s black behind, the worst weather is past.
if he’s brown at both ends and orange in the middle, the winter will be mild.
you see him crawling before the first frost.
Three months after the first katydid begins “hollerin’,” the first killing frost will come.
When butterflies:
migrate early, winter will be early.
gather in bunches in the air, winter is coming soon.
FORECASTING WINTER BY PLANTS
It will be a bad winter if:
blackberry blooms are especially heavy.
carrots grow deeper.
grapes, cockleburrs, and apples mature early.
sweet potatoes have a tougher skin.
onions grow more layers.
trees are laden with green leaves late in the fall.
the crop of holly and dogwood berries is heavy.
hickory nuts have a heavy shell.
there’s a heavy crop of berries, acorns, and pinecones.
bark on trees is thicker.
tree bark is heaviest on the north side.
Planting By the Signs: Mountain Gardening: The Foxfire Americana Library (10) Page 5
