-
Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
ant this post, farming the old way
-
Farming the old way
Dear readers, this
post is the continuation of our previous post; farming today compared to the
old way; in order to explain how farming was done at the time when I was young,
what we are going to write here-under is the way of farm life that was going on
then, we know that things have changed for the better since then, as we have
already written in our previous post, because of the tractor and new farming
machinery that have come out since then, all this progress has been due to the
modern industrial progress, but when I was young these advanced machinery were
not available yet, of course there were some, but they were a lot less advanced
farming machine that could make farming easy, so we had to do most things the
old ways, so 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 were/are two times during the
year, when in the farms everybody would be really working hard and working very
long hours; one of this was/is 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 in order to go into the fields at daybreak.
At that time of the year in the
morning it would be 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, in this hub, in a sub article we
describe what we did after sowing our wheat and during the winter.
Anyhow, now that we
have said what we did in the farms at sowing time, 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 labour that they have done during
the year, so there is no time to waste at harvest time, therefore this was and
still is the most hectic time of the year for all the farmers, and it is a very
worrying time too for the farmers as well, 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 main 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 perhaps the most important
farm produce that we use. So, let us compare what is changed in wheat farming
since I was young:
---------------------------
Wheat harvest in the fifties
The following
description is the way of wheat harvest time in the fifties when I was young.
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 half way down the track of progress, as this machine saved
us a lot of work, because we did not have to harvest by hand. Anyhow, at this
time of the year everybody in the farm works hard and for very long hours, it
is very hot at this time of the year 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 on when we finish with the harvester, perhaps
in a week or two, we will go back to the fields with a cart to take everything
on a special plot near the farm house, where the trashing 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 could go up in smoke. So we all would be waiting for
the trashing machine to come and finish our harvest.
When some famer did
not have a lot of wheat to trash, they could use a place in common with other
farmers, so that, the trashing machine would not have to be set several times.
The trashing machine that were around and we would hire together with other
farmers came with a large crew, because it was a much larger machine than the
one shown in this post, it had a crew of about twenty people, it was a very
interesting time when we were trashing 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 would be able to tell you, but I better not just to make it
short; but here I would like to say that when one goes through these life
experiences in the farm one knows that it is really hard life farming, but
since this is the only way to grow these things for food, we the farmers keep
working in our farms to feed the rest of the community.
So we feel that it
would be right if the rest of the community should be thanking us for all the
hard work that we have done, 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, just
because we are farm people, but we did our part of hard work for our own
benefit and also for the benefit of the entire town community.
This is how life
was then in the small farms of Southern Italy. Now this town people attitude as
I have said above, plus some very lean years when we hardly could survive and
also because we had only a very small farm and it would have been hard to
expand was one of the reasons why I migrated to Australia. But anyhow let us continue
and describe how harvesting was done the very old way, so that we could compare
it to today’s living.
------------------------------------------------
Genzano it story
Farming the old way
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, framing the very old way
------------------------------
Some useful linksGenzano it story
Farming the old way
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, framing the very old way
------------------------------
Some hub links
