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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1959-08-27, Page 3• Golden Harvest Way Down South This was the day it happened Over most of south Georgia - just as it does every year about this time, This was the day that far- mers came to town to exchange their bright, golden ripe to- bacco leaf, for the debt-paying,shoe-buying money. This was the day that the markets open- ed. The flat, squatty squares of tobacco stood guard like silent soldiers In the tin -roofed ware- houses. Gnats and sweat clamored for position on those who came to work in these markets. No one bothered to swat the gnats and seldom did they wipe the pers- piration that rolled freely. Swiftly the feet trudged along the rows and rows of tobacco. Higher and higher, is the pitch of the auctioneer, "Fifty-eight, fifty-eight, nine, oh nine." Higher and higher go the tem- peratures. No one will deny that the heat inside is almost beyond belief. At the end of the row, a cool drink of water scooped from a bucket with an old- fashioned dipper. The pause is slight for the cry of the auctioneer must be heard over 100 baskets owl to- bacco every 15 minutes. So back clown the line they go. "Fifty- eight, nine All the buyers are here representatives of major tobac- co companies; independents, speculators and the house buy- ers. Their eyes seldom leave the piles of lemon -colored leaf, writes Harold Joiner in the Atlanta Journal. Years of experience tell them this is the right pile. A swift touch and then a nod, a lifted finger or maybe just a twitch. That's their bid, caught by the auctioneer and shouted to the roof -top. , Nearby the farmer, the real hero of this whole act, stands. listening. With fingers crossed, ALLIUM SATIVUM - .Manya cook would shun,a kitchen not stocked with good old cilium sativum. True on Formosa as well as Canada, this Nationalist Chinese farmer checks the neat rows. of Plants in Taichung. It's usually set between rows of rice. Allium sativum? That's Latin for garlic, he watts the final bid and eager- ly heads '.tor the office to res what his total will be. Next stop for many will be the bank. Paying off that fer- tilizer bill ertilizer`bill and hoping for a lit tie leftover. "I promised Mary, that's my wife, a new dress out of what's left," the sun-tanned,.;, wiry farmer said as he stuffed' the • check in his pocket. To get out of this sweltering, crowded warehouse he passes upwards of a dozen barefoot lads armed with baskets of pea- nuts, .boiled or parched for: your choice. A daily intake of $5,000,000 can be a big influencer in any field. It's a short period, but a golden one for the farmer, The merchant enjoys it, too. His sales pitch is designed for the money -laden' farmer. Usu- ally his plea is heard. This is, the annual party, It's staged all over south Georgia, in 23 market towns. And evet'y- one is. invited. They Don't Like These Modern Ways Far from the bustle and night life of the 'big, cities, The Nether- lands is still dotted with some of the world's dourest Calvinist communities, Among its grim- mest is the former islet of Urk (pop. 5,500), a fishing village on the Zuider Zee. On Sundays, Ur- kers still separate their hens from the roosters, turn their paintings to the wall, read only one book ((the Bible),take on1 Y one processional walk . (to. church). Doing anything elte is sinful. For years life in Urk was prettyroutine, and the town; con- stable's daily report invariably read: "Nothing has happened." That was before Urk ceased to be an island. Ten years ago a road was built on a dike that connected Urk to the mainland, and the 20th cen- tury begancatching up with Ur - kers, especially the younger ones. Traditions began to change, especially the pleasant one of "public ' cuddling," in which young lovers hugged and squeezed each other on Friday and Saturday nights in Urit's 400 - yard -, long main street, while around them a circle of shouting. and laughing boys and girls teas- ed the lovers ("Afterward," said_ one traditionalist, "the brides... were properly led to the altar )..ze With the advent of short skirts;' high heels and Dutch Teddy boys-. from the mainland, public cud- dling became more basic. On one wild night last winter, 500 youngsters, many of them drunk, rioted on the main street. Pubs therafter were ordered closed at 10 o'clock on Saturday nights. This ended neither the boozing nor the love -making on the dike. Recently Urk's irked, elders cracked down.' A new Urk law made it a crime to "trudge, ' slouch, lounge, saunter, flock to- gether" or "to sit or lie" after dark along public roads. Maxi- mum penalty: a fine of 300 guil- ders ($79) or two months in jail. Love -smitten Urkers hoped to get around the ban simply by taking to the woods on the main- land, a short bike ride away. ,Mourned one oldtimer: "Our., world is turned, upside dowit npwadays in Uric, and all because of that rotten dike." - From TIME Surprisingly ' enough, porcu- pines '' are excellent swimmers, and buoyed by, their hollewe quills, they can cross a sizable lake with complete confidence. They are solitary animals rare- ly 'found in one another's com- pany. In spite of this, they meet: on somewhat more .than platon- ic terms' on occasion; from these meetings, litters from ere to four young are horn. Thor- oughly armed with soft quills at birth, the babies need wa:t only long enough for the sun to harden them; then they make their own way in 'the world CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. whiter 6. River In China 11. Cossack chief 13, A diffraction' ring 14. Noticeably 16 Remnant 17. (tush 18, Simper 10 Lamprey 21, Rave a nhalr 22. Deep, glossy.. Mack 23, Performed 26. Long wayoff 26. Day of the •• week fah.) 26. Moccasin 80. Jurisprudence 21. Sun god 23.'Hydraulic tiydraul is 55, Dump eserve 37. Scouting group 28, Oh In college town 39. Shallow dish 40. 'Urge 41. Baseball team 43, 70ra 44, Boa 45, ThnughtfullY. 40, Bout 49, Apart froin th so, College offtetal 51, Show, the way 1. Stride 2. Make reparation .. N, rt uw ef•511, Si ;v wows of water receiving sets 10. Yucatan 29. Sea -green Indian 30. True to fact 12. Snatches 31, i0ntertnln 13. Blunt 32. Incensed 16, Russian 84, 1'''urnlehed a composer mew.. 3 went ashore 20. Ldge of a 30. Frenzy 4. German pity pitcher' 37. Trust 6. Knocks 4: Scolding 42 Italian town G. whistle blastfslnngt 44. Portico 7. Irish 24, braid 40. Philippine expletive 26. Destiny aborigine , 8. Register 26. 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The., deer lost part of her left fore- leg in farmmachinery and was taken to an animal sanctuary in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England,, IIESMM FRONT jpkzi?uea: This article about wheat - threshing in the days not -so - long 'ago started happy' mem- ories in the mind of one reader - who passes it along. to you, wishing.: you the same: It was, written by ,-Charley • Stookey and and appeared in The Christian Science Monitor. • e • Wheat-threshingseason was a glorious time of year for the boy on a farm 40 -odd years ago. It meant trips to farms three and four miles away -trips not made 'at any other.time of the year. It meant helping play host' to a -,sdore more of men, some ,of them neighbors, others "help" 'whofollowed the'•harvest. For the boy•with a pony or riding horse it meant •'extra money for carrying water to the workers in the fields. , In our neighborhood I was the .fortu- nate fellow with a pony, and for several years carried water for many farmers in the area. In those days wheat was the major crop in our county in southern Illistois. , In fact, St. Clair County :was:. the 'leading wheat-producingcounty in the state. • • - Wheat was harvested with a reaper which bound the. grain and kicked out the sheaves as it made the rounds of the field pulled by a four - horse team,. later by a tractor. These sheaves (bundles) were 'set upright in "shocks" of 12 to 16 per shock and capped with two whichhad been spread • to form a roof of straw for the heads 'of the standing sheaves. ' Harvest usually began late in June .•with threshing starting about July .1. I cannot remem- ber a Fourth of " July when threshing was not in progress. Often I wished for a shower to blow up on that day - just enough rain to stop the work. so I' could celebrate the Fourth. Seldom was my wish granted, although one 'rainy season the threshing machine' remained at our place a full week without turning a wheel. The , threshing rig I recall most vividly consisted of a "sep- arator" pulled from farrn to farm and operated by a coal. fired steam traction engine. There were two of these outfits in our community, both of which threshed at our place clueing my boyhood. My .father always insisted the operator clean his separator thoroughly before moving to our place. This was to remove any wild onion bulblets which might have lodged in it from wheat on farms of men not so particu- lar about this pest. Frequently onions or garlic in 'wheat cut the price as much as ten cents a bushel. On occasions when my father 'suspected the cleaning job had not been well done he would switch to the other operator for a year or two, I firmly believe the operators respected Dad's de- sire to -keep our farm free of wildonions, and that hisin. sistenoe on cleanlinesshelped reduce thd pest in our township. • • '0 Arrival of the threshing crew at our place was anticipated 'several days'ahead with exten- sive preparations for feeding the men, and quartering and feeding their horses. -�w Our dining room was large, and the solid - oak table with which my folks started house- keeping in 1884 could be ex- tended to seat 14 persons. This meant a second table, as the average crew numbered 25 men. Usually the second table pre- sented no problem, as the "pitch- ers," the men in the fields who loaded the wagons with sheaves Of grain were later getting in for dinner than the men who drove the wagons. The drivers were neighbors, helping with teams and wagons, while the. pitchers were often itinerant laborers. Buying food for threshers was a wholesale operation. For a.sin- ,gle meal a roast of beef costing as much as a dollar was bought., In those days a dollar bought a man-sized roast, too. The garden ,supplied new potatoes, string beans, peas, beets, cabbage, to- matoes, onions, and cucumbers. Usually all,of these appeered on RUNNER-UP - Despite a tooth- less victory -type grin, Bobby Schwenker, 8, finished' only second in a blueberry pie en:• fest. the dinner table along with the. meat, homemade pickles, jellies, Preserves, calce, and two or three kinds of pie. This was the one tine of Year we had "baker's" bread. There was not time to bake enough bread to feed 26 men four or live times a day. From a bakery we bbught a dozen or more loaves at a time of Vienna bread. Mama used to tell me to get the bread with "crust all around." It was hand -sliced diagonally. * • • We fed the men four or five times a day. In our community, lunch at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. was a "must." However, the crew did not come to the house for this repast. It was taken to a spot preferably in the shade of a tree near the threshing ma- chine, and served on a checkered tablecloth spread on the ground. Lunch consisted of big platters of cold cuts of meat, sausage, andcheese with pickles, bread, cake or cookies, and pie.. When I carried water on neighboring farms it was lunch- time that intrigued me. It was a German community and certain types of German cheese and sausages which I relished - but were never served at our place - were always to be had at the neighbor's. e * A fifth meal would be break- fast for the man who came early to fire the engine and have steam up by the time it was dry enough to thresh, and any of the itinerants who slept in the hay- loft. In the usual threshing ring of those days, getting help was a matter of trading and sharing. It required at least eight teams with bundle wagons to haul the sheaves from the field to the ma- chine, and two teams with box wagons to haul the grain from the machine. When we were helping elsewhere we furnished one team and wagon. This was handled by my father or a hired man until. I was big enough Then I took Dad's place. • • • The pitchers were hired for the season by the operator and paid by the farmer on the basis of number of bushels threshed. If the yield was good, and threshing was uninterrupted by rain or breakdown, a pitcher could earn as much as five dol- lars a day. That was an excel- lent day's wage. * * • Help in the kitchen was a community affair too, as was lending of dishes and silverware to set a table for 25 men. The five -woman 'crew in our kitchen consisted of my mother, two aunts, a hired girl, and a neigh- bor whom thy mother helped In return. Frequently Mama fretted about how long they had worked to fix a big meal to have It disappear in a matter of minutes in a most unappreciated manner. Dad was always glad to see the end of the threshing season, as it accounted for about four weeks of the year's hardest work. However, it did have com- pensations, occasionally in the form of a shiny new Ford, Max- well, or Overland made possible by the extra money from wheat, which in those days was the big cash crop of 'the region. Some poet has written: "Backward, turn backward, 0 Time, in your . flight, Make me a child again just for tonight." For my part, I'd settle for the opportunity to put my feet un- der the dinner table during wheat harvest in an old-fash- ioned threshing ring. Deer antlers are made of solid bone and are shed once each year, while horns have .only a bony core surrounded by a` horny sheath and are a per- manent fixture. These are never shed except in the case of the• prong -horned antelope ike #UI DiY SC1IOO1 ��� JJSSON By Rev E. Barclay Warren 'B.A., B.D. A NEW SFI11IT RENEWS PEOPLE Joel 1:15-20; 2:12-13, 21-23, 28-29„ Memory Selection: Fear not, 0 land, be, glad and refoice: for the Lord will do great things. Joel 2:21. The people of Israel were is trouble, A great plague of lo- custs had passed over the land. There was a great drought caus- ing distress to the animals as well as to the people. The pro- phet, Joel, called the people to fasting and prayer. It was not to be a mere ritual but the sym- bol of genuine repentance. "Rend your heart and not your gar, meats, and turn unto the LORD your God," was God's message to them. The priests were to lead the people in repentance to God. "Let the priests, the min- isters of the LORD, weep be- tween the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, 0 LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them." Such exhortations to earnest seeking of. God are al- ways accompanied by great promises. God promises that they shall have plenty and they shall be satisfied. He says, "My y people shall never be ashamed." The prophet in his vision of the blessings to come to the people if they turn to God, is carried to a later day. He sees beyond the time of our Lord's ministry on earth to the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This is the day im which we . live. But arewe re- ceiving the blessings which are available to us? Has the Spirit come to us, purifying our hearts as He did those of the early dis- ciples? Acts 15:9. Are we endued with power from on high? Acte 1:8. Are we making disciples for Jesus Christ as did these Spirit -filled disciples? Alas, we must confess to much weakness in the church. Many are but babes in Christ. There is strife and division. 'Others have joined the church without experiencing thenew birth. They have never surrendered their will to Jesus Christ We don't want to be gloomy but we must confess that thers is a spiritual drought affecting many people. We need to tura to God in genuine repentance lie the prophet urges in this book. Then God will pour out of His Spirit upon us and great bless- ings and happiness will abound. The hornbill, an African bird, walls herself up with mud in- side a hollow tree at nesting time. She leaves a small hole through which her mate feeds her and the young. • When the brood is ready tofly, the mother bird breaks out of her self-made prison. ISSUE 34•- 1959 Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking 3 a N 3 1 1 V N V3 a O 1 J. 3 5 A 3 .1. V 3 0 IS N 0 d d 5 3 9 V 3 N N .5 9 3 3 J. V 1 d v a V N v V 3 .1. 3 a 3 1 M r 1 1 V1 a 3 w V w V a 111 d 5 a 3 A 1 N 5 O 0 n 0 N d 9 VW 14 V 0 1 1;1 21 V 1; ki31 Vel FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE - A fire fighter makes a hasty retreat after setting .a "back ri e'v in an 'attempt to check blaze which blackened 10,000 acres in the, San 'Bernardino National Forest.