FARMING TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS 



opened and the threshed grain was tossed in the air by 

 clean wooden scoop shovels and the lighter chaff blown 

 away. In a collection of old implements I saw not long 

 ago were several broad, shallow, close-woven baskets 

 of splint work, which were labeled "Use Unknown." 

 I may be mistaken, but I strongly suspect they were bas- 

 kets woven for the special purpose of winnowing grain. 



The cleaned grain was now ready for the mill. 

 Among the earliest grants in nearly every township was 

 the water privilege which was given on the condition 

 that the grantee should grind all the grain for the com- 

 munity. It is probable that until after the establishment 

 of grist mills not much use was made of the small 

 grains. Indian corn was the staple grain in the earliest 

 times and was ground into meal in the Indian fashion. 



The corn when husked had to be shelled, and many 

 and various were the devices employed to make the 

 flinty kernels rattle off faster. The common method 

 was to rub one ear across another in the hands and thus 

 make them shell each other; but seekers after an easier 

 way used to rake the well dried ears across the edge of 

 a clean shovel or the sharp edge of a skillet. Yankee 

 ingenuity soon devised a crude shelling machine, and 

 those in use to-day are fashioned upon the same prin- 

 ciple. 



The shelled corn, in the absence of the power mill, 

 might be pounded in a hollow stump made for the pur- 



[47] 



