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- BETWEEN THE BOOKENDS
- On the Cutting Edge
When you got a new cotton sack, you put a ring on one corner at the bottom; the cotton was then weighed by placing the weight (called a "pea") upon the long arm of the scale. Depending on the weight of the "pea," the value shown on the scale was a multiple of the true weight. Of course, this weight was for the "sack and all," and so from 2 to 4 pounds had to be deducted for the weight of the sack.
When I was 14 years old - 56 years ago - I regularly weighed out 900 to 1,000 pounds of cotton a day. This is pulling bolls, not picking cotton.
Onie Sims, 10801 S. Pounds Ave., Whittier, CA 90603; (562) 947-1452; e-mail: oniedot@aol.com.
SCALE, AND CORN COB FIRES
I think she is referring to a steelyard scale. It is a balance beam scale with a graduated beam a yard long. With a 1-pound weight, mine will weigh 100 pounds; with a 3-pound weight, 300 pounds.
As for the blacksmith using fir limbs in the old days - here on the farm we built our fire on the ground using corn cobs. Lots of heat in a cob fire.
I enjoy Farm Collector magazine. I have a 1926 McCormick-Deering 10-20 and a few pieces of machinery to go with it.
Stephen D. Wait, Topwave Farm, Greenville, III.
A DIFFERENT TONGS IDEA
I have an idea of what the two unidentified tools are in November 2001 "Letters."
The top one may be a gauging or inspection caliper, used for sorting out a lot of items that were nearly the same diameter. I believe it is upside down as pictured, the handle being at the bottom.