IMH 74:4 p332-33

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Monday October 18th

To-day a variety of things were done. Father worked part of the time at his stable and part of the time at digging sweet
potatoes. I went into Bill Hand's field a pulled of five rows of corn throwing the ears on the ground. Mother and Alvin
washed. After dinner Alvin and I went with the wagon and got the corn I had pulled There was a wagon-bed full of it.
Then I hauled a load of wood for the fire-place by myself while Alvin went around and dug two baskets full of his
sweet potatoes. Father had finished the patch close by. He and I went down to the gravel-pit below Bain's and got
some rock to put under the shed-sill. I then hauled Alvin's sweet potatoes and quit. Rhoda Hand35 came this afternoon
and begged a lot of old papers. John Crone36 was here just before night to get Father to fix their chimney Promise
given to do so. Mrs. "Meter" Benge37 was around trying to buy corn but could'n't here. It froze pretty hard last night
and was cold all day. We have probably five bushels of old corn.

Teaching Notes: The approaching winter made October a month of harvesting and gathering. The traditions of
Thanksgiving and Harvest Home were celebrations that came after one was prepared for the onslaught of the
coming winter weather.

They might be a bit late for digging sweet potatoes. The old gardeners say that the sweet potatoes
will be bitter if they are not dug before their foliage is killed by a frost. As noted in the journal, it frosted on the 13th.
One certainly did not want to let them get frozen in the ground. Sweet potatoes are pretty good "keepers" if kept
cool and dry.

Corn was the most important crop grown. It was feed for both man and beast. It could be stored in the field in a
large corn shock or it could be picked and the ears stored in a crib. Picking was tedious work..so was cutting and
putting the stalks into a shock. Here is a page describing corn picking by hand and here is a picture of shocks
taken near Odon Indiana on an Amish farm. It is interesting to note that William "pulled" the corn and threw it on
the ground. If you had a well trained team of horses, they would follow your voice commands and move the wagon
with its bang board through the field and save you the labor of having to handle the corn twice before you put it in the crib.

The Harrisons evidently still warmed their home with a fireplace instead of a wood stove. Fireplaces consume a
great deal more wood and are not very efficient as most of the heat goes up the chimney.