My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.
The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]
John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...
The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]
John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...
A Farm Journal continues :~
4 - 1 9 Mo[nth] Ditto weather Chest[er]f[iel]d M[onthly] M[eeting] S.A. & I attended & M.A. Moates
5 - 2 6 - 3 to 6 - 24 cut corn except a bit at S.H. - lead part O. Intake - poor crop - & only in mid condition very showery & windy weather thundry [sic] often - lead manure at S.H. thrash[e]d & drew thatch
7 - 25 Fine day lead Crags into Barn at Cales after milk[in]g
2 - 27 Showery cut corn at S.H. all but a little bit bo[ugh]t 4 sows at B[akewe]ll
3 - 28 Showery began to plough Crags - Thrash[e]d the corn it was heating bad
4 - 29 Showery day Thrash[e]d rem[ainde]r of Crags corn - bro[ther] Jos[eph] & W[illia]m up shooting
5 - 30 Ditto close & Thundry winnow[in]g oats Sidney drying
Any idea what he means by "it was heating bad" after "thrashed the corn"?
ReplyDeleteAfter the corn was cut and put in stooks it was left a few days to dry out before being taken to the barn. Some weeks [months] later the thrashing machine came round to our farm and the stooks of corn were thrown onto the thrashing machine [it's also called a threshing machine] so that the corn or wheat etc could be separated from the stalk of the cereal crop. The stalks were then tied into bales by the thrashing machine and sold or used as straw.
DeleteAs for "it was heating bad" I assume this related to the fact that the corn that had been stacked had started to hear up and could then start to rot/go bad. I know on Dad's farm when they stacked bales of hay in the haybarn they always left a hole in the middle of the bales to let some cooler ait get in and keep it from getting hot ... and going bad ... and even setting on fire. There was that belief that this could happen ~ self combustion !
It's not only a belief, this is a reality. It would be too long for me to explain but if you check this: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10721 you'll get all the details.
ReplyDeletehttp://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10721
DeleteInteresting reading Diane ~ I wondered whether it might have been one of those tales you might tell a young boy [as in pulling his leg].
DeleteWhen we had stacks in the stack yard we had very long metal rods to push into the stack,and you pulled it out to keep a check on the heat,if it got hot you had to pull the stack apart to stop it setting on fire.It was always a worrying time until it cooled down.Ann
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of long rods being used for that purpose Ann.
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