STEAM in ENGLAND

I myself can well remember some amusing events which occurred in
our village of Bassingham near Lincoln over 60 years ago.

There was a farmer named Sam Martin, and in those days a great
deal of the harvest was cut in the fields by hand, using a scythe.
Every summer hundreds of Irishmen used to come over to England to
help with the harvest. I have seen several of these men, each with
a scythe in his hands, in a large field, making sweeping strokes
with this queer looking tool in a wonderful easy rhythm like
manner. It would break peoples hearts as well as their backs to
attempt such ‘labor’ today. These Irishmen would mow all
day as long as there were a few pints of beer available. After
cutting the corn down, it had to be turned over with a fork for
several days to let the sun and air dry the corn straw. Then
bundles were made and tied up. This tying business was really a
clever piece of work. A number of strands of straw were twisted up
to form a band of straw-like cable, which was used for the tying. I
cannot describe accurately, how it was done or how the
‘cable’ was knotted or fastened round the bundle, which was
called a sheaf. These sheaves were then stood up, and stacked
together in fours or sixes in the field, where they were again left
a few days for final drying. Later on, horses and wagons would go
into the fields and collect up the sheaves and transport them to.
the farmyard. Here they were piled up to make a stack, and left
there for several months. Sam Martin did so, and would start
threshing in the winter time.

As a boy I used to go into his stack yard with other boys at
threshing time. I loved to see the steam engine working, and then
at lunch time it would blow its whistle to notify the men that the
machine was about to stop. The aroma all around was quite
appetizing and had the scent of the harvest field again.

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