Village Squire, 1974-12, Page 14Help arrives
for the pioneers
The following is the third in a series of six
articles on pioneer life in Western Ontario
written for Village Squire by Glen Scott.
BY GLEN SCOTT
In the early days of settlement the only
source of power no matter what the task was
human muscle. A tree was cut down with an
axe, the stump was removed by digging
around the stump and then cutting off the
roots as they became exposed. Eventually the
stump could be pried out of the ground by
using a small tree trunk as a lever.
The first crops were planted by hand by
punching holes in the earth with a 'dibble
stick' after the ground had been dug with a
shovel. The seed was covered by dragging a
tree branch over the ground- the earliest form
of harrow. The first crops were cut with a
sickle, tied in bundles by hand with a wisp of
straw, then carried by hand or by a hand
barrow close to the barn and stacked there.
When there was time the grain would be
threshed with a flail on a specially levelled
piece of ground. Then the straw was carefully
removed with a wooden fork and stacked for
winter use as feed or bedding. What was left
on the threshing floor after the straw was
removed was carefully swept up into a pile
and on a windy day it was winnowed. This
was done by putting the swept -up material
into a basket or a fold of cloth and then
throwing the contents into the air. The grain
being heaviest would fall almost immediately;
the chaff and hulls were blown some distance
away by the wind. Then the grain was swept
up and stored in a dry place in baskets. The
largest and plumpest grains would, if
possible be saved for next year's
seed but old records tell us of years when the
seed had to be eaten to avoid starvation.
However each year seed was found
somewhere. A neighbour might share his
surplus or a storekeeper would import some.
Above I spoke of sweeping which implies a
broom. The settlers made their own brooms
from a beech or birch sapling and the only
tool used was the axe. They would select a
small tree perhaps two inches in diameter and
cut a piece out of it about four feet long. The
top three and a half feet would be trimmed
down to a suitable size for a handle. Then
they would carefully chop the bottom six
12, VILLAGE SQUIRE/NOVEMBER 1974
inches into ribbons leaving one end of the
ribbons attached to the handle. Soon they
would have a mass at the end of the handle
that looked like a tousled head of hair sticking
straight up. They would soak this in hot water
until the ribbons got pliable and then bend
them over so they all pointed down and then
they'd tie them in this position. When the
bottom was squared off they had a very
serviceable broom with no cash outlay
whatsoever.
So it was with most of their tools and
implements in the very early days of
settlement. The forest provided the raw
material and human muscle manufactured it.
It is possible to go into great detail about the
manufacture of everything from wooden pails
to corner cupboards. Many articles still exist
that were made at home with an axe and a trip
through any museum will show us that many
were well made too. But making them and
doing everything with them by hand took
time. This time could be used to clear more
land for a bigger crop next year.
As soon as possible the settler got some
help. Big families were the custom in those
days and children were a big help. Even a
small pair of hands could do many tasks
around the house and barn. The main help
however came from animals. A cow could be
harnessed to pull a log for a fence or a barn or
to drag a big tree branch for a harrow.
When her calves grew up the bull calves
would make draught animals which we know
under the general term "oxen". The heifer
calves would provide more calves and milk in
their turn. Soon a wooden plough would be in
use and grain would be taken to the mill on a
sled or stoneboat. Both these conveyances
could be easily made at home with' the axe
and auger. Even .the grain could now be
threshed by having the oxen tread it out on
the threshing floor. Often wooden teeth were
driven into a log; the log would be fixed at one
end so it could pivot and an ox would pull the
other end around in a circle threshing the
grain as the log rolled over it.
As the wolves were driven further from the
buildings many settlers acquired a few sheep.
These provided both meat and wolf- Wool
needs a lot of work between the time it leaves
the sheeps' backs until it is ready for human
backs. The sheep has to be shorn; then the
wool has to be washed and dried. Then it has
to be carded which consists of combing the
fleece 'till the wool fibres lay neatly side by
side. Then it has to be spun into yarn which
can be done by hand by twisting the fibres
into a string but as soon as possible they
either made or bought a spinning wheel
which made yarn much faster than by hand
but was still powered by human muscle. The
yarn was wound into skeins as it came from
the wheel and at this stage it was usually
dyed. The early settlers made their own dyes
from various roots, barks and berries (but this
is a story in itself). After the yarn was dyed
and dried it could be knitted into socks and
mittens or woven into cloth or blankets. It can
be seen that all this was a lot of work and very
soon after the first settlement mills were set
up to do the carding, spinning and weaving.
Many families took advantage of these mills
but not all and it was possible 50 years ago to
talk to many women who had sheared the
sheep and then done every operation on the
wool up to and including making it into
clothing for her family. Not every family had a
loom but in every neighbourhood there was
someone who was a weaver and local woolen
mills were still operating within living
memory.
Back in the middle of the last century a
long, drawn-out controversy raged in the
general stores and taverns and even found its
way into the pages of the newspapers and
farm magazines of the day. This was ox
versus horse. There were good arguments on
both sides. The ox men said the ox was easier
to feed. He could be turned out into the bush
to browse while 4 horse needed high-class
hay. Oxen could work in muddy conditions
that would bog a horse down completely
because an ox had a split hoof that was easily
pulled out of the mud while a horses's hoof
was like a vacuum cup and stuck to the mud.
Oxen moved more slowly and carefully and so
were easier to work in stumps or stones. An