The Changing Scene at Harvest Time (23 September 1977)

The other day I saw a good deal of harvesting going on in the countryside.  I did not notice a combine harvester anywhere.  Maybe conditions were still too wet for that, or else the fields concerned were too small.  But the songs of the birds were drowned for the time being by the throb of the less-comprehensive forms of machinery in the fields and yards.

It struck me how much harvesting has changed in historically-recent years.  Time was when all the work was done by hand.  Not that I can remember those days myself.  My memory goes back only to horse-drawn reapers and binders.  But in my time I have interviewed many people who not only remembered all-hand harvesting but took part in it.

They told me how extra hands were enlisted to help in what was then a very labour-intensive process and how they were divided into reapers, pook-forkers, binders and stookers.  The names of the processes varied from region to region and so did the name of the implements.  But in general it went like this:

First came the reapers.  They cut the standing corn with a sickle called a rip-hook.  This had a fine-toothed edge.  The reaper grabbed the stalks with one hand and dragged the rip-hook across the bottom of the stalks with the other.

Another type of sickle called a fag-hook was also used.  This had no teeth.  Its special feature was a step-down at the point where the blade was set in the handle, which brought the blade into a lower plane than the handle.  This protected the hand when cutting through thistles and the like and also prevented it being scratched by the stubble.  The reaper bent the stalks with a stick in one hand and cut them with the other.  The reapers laid the cut corn in swathes.

Following-up the reapers came the pook-forkers.  The pook-fork had a spade-like handle with two long up-turning tines at the end and another tine set in the handle with its point turned downwards.  It was pushed along the ground until it had gathered enough swathes between its upper and lower tines to make a sheaf.  Then it was turned upright and its load allowed to slip out.

On the heels of pook-forkers came the binders and finally the stookers, who set the sheaves upright in stooks (or shocks) where they stood until ready for carting away.

For refreshment, the workers of this region drank home-brewed small beer.  They called it their “baver,” a word that has had a derivation similar to “beverage.”  It was carried in a small keg slung horizontally across the bask(sic).

Round the middle of the keg was a projecting piece of wood, which had a hole in it for drinking through.  Near it was another hole to let air in.  When not being used, the holes were stopped by pegs tied to the keg.  In hot weather, the keg might be placed in a stream to keep its contents cool.

After the general harvesting gang had finished their work, the corn was carted to the barn for threshing with flails.

The barn had a plank or two placed across the bottom of its doorway to prevent corn being whisked outside and this is said to be the origin of the common domestic word, “threshold.”  Finally, the corn was taken to the mill for grinding into flour.

But that was only the beginning of the corn harvest as far as some parishioners were concerned.  These were the gleaners – women, girls and old men who needed corn either for their own consumption as flour or to feed a few hens during winter.

But they could not go into a field straight away and collect these “perks.”  The farmer left one stook or shock standing in the field until the rakings had been gathered.  After that he removed the stook and then – and not until then – the gleaners could enter and pick up what was left.

Another time-honoured rule was that a person living in one parish could not glean in another without the permission of the parishioners of the other.

As we know from the story of Ruth and Boaz, gleaning goes right back to Old Testament days, and from the above we can see the significance of some of the points in that story.   Boaz told his reapers to let Ruth glean among the sheaves and to let some handfulls fall on purpose for her to pick up.  He also told her to go to the vessels and drink when she was athirst.  I wonder what the other gleaners thought about such outright favouritism.

Harvest time was accompanied by much jollity.  But do not on that account yearn for the days of yore, with their “harvest homes” and so forth.  The sound of a tractor may not be as sweet as the songs of the birds, but it means fuller bellies and a better life for us all.