Clearing.The.Land.Breckinridge.HISTORY-OtherFrom: KyArchives [Archives@genrecords.org] Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 2:47 PM To: Ky-Footsteps Subject: Clearing.The.Land.Breckinridge.HISTORY-Other Clearing The Land Breckinridge County KyArchives History Other Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past When the home and other needed buildings were completed enough to be usable, all members of the family (old enough to work) turned their attention to clearing and preparing the land for cultivation. Women folks divided their time between keeping house and helping the men get enough land ready for the crops on which the family, livestock and fowls depended for existence. Workdays were long and tiresome, but the work had to be done. They began at the break of dawn and ended at sun down, with the home chores being done in the darkness of night. New farms had very little land ready for cultivation, thus making it necessary to clear the trees and underbrush off a few acres of land each year for the expansion of crops and the enlargement of their herds. With only axes, grubbing hoes and mattox (a hoe with a cutting blade on opposite side) as tools to use in this work; they toiled day after day until the planned fields were covered in brush piles and fallen trees. Enough timber was cut and split into rails to fence the fields. Those left standing were either cut down and chopped into logs to be piled and burned or chopped around to be killed by burning bursh or log heaps around them to prevent their shading the growing crops. After all remaining logs were cut in lengths ready to be piled and burned, time for another public working was at hand. This working was called a log rolling. As the name indicates, the logs were either rolled or carried and piled in heaps to be burned. Before the time set for the "log rolling", the owner made a number of hand- sticks. Cant hooks and other log-moving gadgets were unknown to pioneer farmers so the handstick was used for rolling or stacking the logs so that the workers could carry them. These sticks were made about five feet in length, three inches in diameter from straight dogwood and hickory saplings, pointed at both ends and smoothed with an axe and drawing knife. Besides the operations mentioned above, the same big dinners and refreshments were duplicated and this was the only compensation ever given or expected by all concerned. After the logs and brush was piled and ready to burn. The fires were started and kept burning until all useless materials went up in smoke. The ground was then ready for preparing and planting the crops. The fields were enclosed with crooked rail fences; eight or more rails high and held securely by poles on top and at each corner. This barrier insured confinement from within and prevented intrusion from without. The plows were called coulters and were made to function similarly, but technically there was a distinct diffeerence. The stocks and plowshares were the same each had an opening in the beam over the point of the share but the sword like cutter that went into them and extended to the point determined their name. The one with a cutting point forward over the tip of the shares so as to be drawn under tree roots for cutting was called a cutting coulter. The other with a straight blade, rounded and sharpened at the point so as to slide or jump over obstructions was called a jumping coulter. The jumper was usually pulled by one work animal, the cutter by two animals. These plows were used for all type of new-ground plowing until the soil was rid of roots and other obstructions that would make other plows practical. These others were shovels, double shovels and bull tongues, so called by the type point or share used. The bull tongue was used in plowing hard and rocky land; the shovel was used in plowing the surface for seeding. It was also used in spacing and furrowing the rows for planting and cultivation. New ground was not plowed the first year for planting; only the rows for planting were plowed. The rows were made in both directions, so as to have a cross (with loose dirt) in which to plant the seed and make cultivation between the rows easier. A culter plow was used in this operation. Seeds were dropped in the crosses and dirt-covered with a hoe. The middles were kept free of weeks and sprouts with a hoe in the hands of a worker and kept so by plowing a time or two. This type of cultivation was for corn, tobacco and similar crops. For wheat, oats and other small grains, the soil was completely torn up and seeded by broadcasting by hand, after which; the seeds were covered with a drag made of timber or the bushy top of a tree. New fields grew fine crops with little cultivation except the hoe. Some early settlers took their hoe off the handle, carred it home and washed it before putting corn batter on it to be baked into corn bread. From this procedure came the name hoe cake. Submitted by: Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/