RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



eighty-third year "raised 171 bushels, on the ear, of 

 corn to the acre" told me that the plowing was poorly 

 done in those days, but good crops were harvested be- 

 cause the land was new and rich. He also said that in 

 his grandfather's day, after a piece was plowed and 

 sown, "the farmer would cut down a good stout thorn 

 bush and kinder hetchel in the seed." Flax, rye and 

 wheat were "hetcheled" in, or scratched in with a 

 brush. This brush generally consisted of birch trees set 

 in a head. A long chain connected it with the ox yoke. 



For many years the grain harvest was entirely de- 

 pendent on the sickle— a slow, tedious process indeed, 

 and not so very much lightened by the introduction of 

 the grain cradle. It took a strong man with an un- 

 breakable back and an alert eye to be a good cradler. 

 Great are the stories told even to this day of the mighty 

 feats of cradling performed by our fathers or grand- 

 fathers. The usual day's work was two or three acres, 

 but there is a record of thirty acres in six days. It took 

 a skilful swing of the cradle to cut the grain close to the 

 ground and yet not close enough to hit the small stones 

 and dull the scythe. 



The corn crop, aside from the hoeing, was more 

 easily raised than the small grains. The ears could be 

 picked from the standing stalks, or more often the corn 

 was cut, the stalks dried in the field and then either the 

 unhusked ears picked off and carried to the barn, or else 



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