UNIT 6. FARMING AT EASTBURN
Source 1
The farming year started in November, after the hiring fairs. Different tasks took place in
different months, and some times of the year were busier than others.
Months
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
Tasks
Root harvest, ploughing, muck carting.
Root harvest, ploughing, muck carting.
Root harvest, ploughing, muck carting, and threshing.
Ploughing, muck carting, threshing, and sowing roots, oats and sometimes
barley. Lambing and calving.
Finish ploughing, threshing, and sowing roots, oats and sometimes barley.
Lambing and calving.
Threshing, and sowing wheat, barley, roots and oats. Lambing and calving.
Sowing wheat, barley, hoeing and weeding.
Hoeing and weeding, and hay harvest.
Hoeing and weeding, hedging, and hay harvest
Weeding, and cereal harvest.
Cereal harvest.
Ploughing, and root harvest.
Source 2
Farming in the nineteenth century was intensive. The idea was to grow as much food as
possible, which was then sold in the markets in the towns and cities. So that the fertility of the
soil did not become exhausted, the same crop was not grown in the same field year after year.
Crops were rotated around the fields.
THE NORFOLK FOUR-COURSE ROTATION
The Norfolk four-course rotation system was practised on many farms. Each year a
different crop was grown in each field:
In the first year turnips or some other root crop were grown.
In the second year barley was sown and harvested for sale (a cash crop).
In the third year clover or a grass crop was grown.
In the fourth year wheat was grown as another cash crop.
Source 3
In 1869, a report was written on the farming at Eastburn. Here are some of the details:
WHEAT – On the stronger land the seeds are manured in July, immediately after
turnip sowing is finished, with about three or four ordinary wagonloads to the acre.
About the middle of October the land is ploughed to a depth of four inches, a presser
with drill attached following the plough, and drilling about three bushels of seed to the
acre. All the strong land wheat is got in by the first week in November, if possible;
because, owing to the severe winter climate in this district, it is important to secure a
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strong plant before the frosts set in, otherwise a very large proportion of it is lost
during the winter months.
The light land for wheat is ploughed and pressed earlier than the strong land, the same
quantity of farmyard manure having been used. It is allowed to remain five or six
weeks, and is then drilled with the same kinds and quantity of seed as the strong land.
Wheat sowing is completed by the second week in November.
In February the light land wheat receives a top-dressing of guano and salt distributed
broadcast, and in the first fine weather the land is harrowed and Cambridge rolled.
Wheat is cut by a reaper. After cutting it is sheafed and immediately stooked. Leading
is done with a pair-horse pole-waggon; and the corn is stacked in carefully made
round ricks, each of which contains enough for a day’s threshing by a portable steam
engine.
ROOTS – The wheat stubbles are ploughed five or six inches deep in the autumn,
immediately after wheat sowing is finished. As soon as the land is dry enough in the
spring it is cross ploughed, or “quartered”. After dragging and harrowing, the land,
especially that intended for Swedes, receives as much foldyard manure as remains
available after manuring for the wheat crop. It then receives a third and last ploughing.
Swede sowing commences about the last week in May, and is finished during the first
week in June, two-and-a-half lbs of seed being drilled to the acre. Turnip sowing
follows immediately, with about 2 lbs of seed per acre; and rape sowing is finished by
about the last week in June.
The bulk of the farmyard manure having been used for the wheat crop, great attention
is paid to the compost of artificial manures used as a dressing for roots. Early in the
year large quantities of half-inch bones and superphosphate are mixed together, at the
rate of 8 bushels of the former and 4 cwt of the latter to every acre of turnips, as well
as a certain quantity of ashes. This mixture is allowed to remain in a heap for a month,
when it is turned, moistened with tank-water, and covered again with ashes. The liquid
manure, besides adding a little to the strength of the compost, performs the most
important function of assisting in the solution of the half-inch bones. On its addition to
the heap the temperature becomes in a very little time very perceptibly raised, and this
“heating” is caused by the combination of the water with free sulphuric acid. When
ready to put on the land the mass yields about 3 quarters to the acre, the quantity of
ashes added having been about equal in volume to that of the bones and
superphosphate, and this mixture is drilled with the seed on the whole of the land for
turnips.
When the turnips are well above ground they are horse-hoed between the rows, and
when the plants are large enough they are hand-hoed by a man with a nine-inch hoe,
and singled by a boy who follows him. A second horse-hoeing between the rows is
then given, and hand-hoeing and singling are repeated at a cost of 6s per acre for the
hand-operations.
All the roots are consumed by sheep on the land, except about one-tenth, which
portion is carried into the foldyards and eaten by beasts.
SPRING CORN – After the roots have been fed off, the land is ploughed three inches
deep, as soon as possible, to get into it what frost there may be during the winter and
early spring. In the spring it is harrowed, and drilled with barley about the end of
March or with oats at the beginning of April.
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Both barley and oats are mown with a scythe at a cost of about 10s per acre, including
sheafing, stooking and raking. The only difference between the harvesting of these
crops and wheat is that they are made into long stacks instead of round ones.
The quality of the barley grown is very good, and most of it is sold for malting.
ARTIFICIAL MANURES AND OILCAKE – The annual expenditure on linseed cake
and other artificial food is about £1600; for fertilising materials there are annually
bought (1) dressing for 300 acres of roots, at two guineas per acre, £630; and (2) topdressing for corn on the gravely light land about £200, making a total of £2430. In
addition to this a large quantity of lime is annually used at a cost of about 10s per ton,
including leading.
The annual average expenditure for labour, including harvest and turnip hoeing, is
about 30s per acre.
CATTLE – The cattle are principally bought in as young short-horn steers, and kept
from 9 to 12 months; but in addition a herd of about 20 pedigree cows and heifers are
kept on the farm. The calves are reared by hand in separate boxes, formed by dividing
a stall into 6 compartments by partitions; new milk is allowed for about 3 weeks. In
addition, about 80 steers are fed during the winter in the foldyards. These foldyards
are very large, and they are so arranged and used that the cattle are moved in rotation
from one to the next in order, as those previously occupying the latter are sold off. The
steers are fed in these yards with sliced turnips and an allowance of 7 lbs of oilcake
per day. On the average about 80 steers are wintered in this manner; and, as a rule, 20
go off at Christmas, 20 in March, 20 in May, and 20 in June. As a large quantity of
straw is grown, and none is sold, it becomes an object of great importance to convert
the whole of it into manure for spreading on the land.
HORSES – About 36 cart-horses are usually kept, and they are worked in pairs by
yoking abreast, being also kept in pairs in the stables. In winter the fodder consists of
chaff with 2 pecks of oats per day; and in the spring and autumn, and when work is
harder than usual, a small quantity of Indian meal or split beans is given in addition.
During the summer less corn is given, but tares are allowed to the horses in the
foldyards; and they are partially kept out on the pastures.
The manual labour connected with the horses is very methodically arranged. The hind
boards six lads who look after the horses, the hind giving out the corn. These lads,
during spring and summer time, get up at half-past 4, and in winter at 5, do the horses,
give them a little corn, and find employment in the stables until twenty minutes past 5;
they then go to breakfast, which occupies half-an-hour, leaving 10 minutes to enable
them to get into the fields by 6. At noon they come in with the horses and get their
dinners, being out again in the fields again at 1. Work continues from 1 until 6, when
the horses are brought into the stable and done up, the lads leaving for supper at a
quarter to 7; and at 8 they return to the stable to finish for the night.
SHEEP – The flock consists of 500 Leicester breeding ewes. The wethers are sold fat
at 1 year old, and the ewes are kept. In addition to the permanent flock, it is customary
to buy about 300 hoggets in the autumn, which are put on turnips with artificial food,
and sold in the spring as they become ready. All the sheep are shorn before they are
sent to market, and they are sent alive to Wakefield and the West Riding. Some few,
which generally remain over, are sold in the autumn.
The breeding ewes are given a small quantity of turnips on the grass during the day,
just before lambing, and are brought at night into the foldyards, where they are fed,
both before and after lambing, on chopped oats, linseed cake, and bran. They are
lambed in the foldyards, and are afterwards taken to the grass, where they are again
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given a few turnips. The lambing season commences early in March and lasts about
five weeks. The lambs are generally weaned about the middle of July upon grass freed
from the ewes, getting a supply of linseed cake and bran.
The sheep are usually put on rape in the early part of September, and on turnips at
Michaelmas. They are stocked when put to the ram, about the 12th of October, on rape
or turnips, the tups being pure Leicesters hired for the season. About Christmas the
whole of the sheep are put on Swedes, which they stock until the hoggs are sold off
and the breeding ewes put on grass.
One man attends to 200 feeding hoggs and cuts for them, the sheep being folded with
nets. The fleeces average 9 lbs each for hoggs and 7 lbs each for ewes. Shearing is
done at 2s 6d per day, with food and two pints of beer in addition.
Sheep-washing is done by the shepherd in a running stream at a cost of 3s 4d per
1000.
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Source 4
LEICESTER SHEEP
As their name implies, they are descended from the original Leicester, which is
regarded as the most important of our long-woolled Breeds, arriving early at maturity
and possessing great aptitude to fatten, points which have caused them to be more
largely used than any other in crossing and improving other Breeds of Sheep. By
continuous and judicious crossing with other sires of large size and heavy fleeces, a
class of Sheep has been produced of corresponding proportions, with a fullness of
wool, yet retaining the original propensity to fatten. They are very hardy and well
adapted for any climate or soil; during the severe winter months being folded on
turnips in the open fields on the bleak Wolds of Yorkshire, where they feed quicker
than any other class of Sheep that have been wintered on the same situation, requiring
less artificial food, and with a minimum proportion of loss; they are also remarkably
sound in their feet, and but seldom attacked by what is generally termed “foot-rot”.
This hardiness of constitution is very desirable in any class of Sheep, wherever
situated, and is of special importance in the case of those reared in exposed situations,
where natural food may at times be scarce, and artificial substitutes not easily
procurable.
Not only are the Improved Leicesters a well-constituted class of Sheep, but good
breeders, having for a long time enjoyed a reputation as the very best on the Yorkshire
Wolds. They are splendidly adapted for crossing with Colonial or Foreign Sheep, and
can be specially recommended for that purpose. In regard to Wool the Improved
Leicester is very wealthy, having frequently been known to produce Fleeces of clean
washed Wool weighing from 21 up to 28 lbs, and the coat is of a beautiful texture.
They are upstanding, a good size, exceptionally full in the neck and shoulders, the
chest broad and deep, back broad and firm to the touch, and quarters of a good length.
The Sheep attain to a great weight, records showing that they have turned the scales at
240 lbs.
J. Cranswick, W. Marshall, J.J. Simpson and F. Usher, The Improved Leicester Flock
Book 1, 1893.
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Source 5
In 1898 another report was written on Eastburn. Here is some of the information it contained:
CROPPING – 1898-99
Wheat
Barley
Oats
Turnips
Mangels
Rape
Sainfoin
Clover
Grass
228 acres
162 acres
178 acres
221 acres
6 acres
20 acres
20 acres
183 acres
272 acres
___________
1290 acres
LIVESTOCK – As on most Wold farms, the sheep flock is a large one. Between 1300
and 1400 sheep are clipped every year. A breeding flock of 450 Leicester ewes are
kept. Besides the followers of the ewes, a fair number of sheep are bought for feeding
on the turnips, the number purchased varying with the number of lambs raised, the
abundance or otherwise of the turnip crop, and similar matters. About 40 rams are
every year reared and sold and a fair proportion of these are exhibited at the Royal and
other leading agricultural shows. In 1896, 958 sheep were sold off the farm, and in
1897, 907. The number usually sold is close upon a thousand in every year.
Twenty dairy cows are kept, and there are on the farm besides the cows 30 steers two
years old and upwards, 50 between one and two years old, and 30 under a year old. In
1896, 68 cattle were sold, and in 1897, 68 were sold. Cattle are not fattened on the
grass in the summer, all being finished in the yards. On the average between 70 and 80
cattle are fed in the winter, and at least 50 of these attain the weight of 70 stones
(dressed weight). In 1896, six fat bullocks were sold at an average price of £40 2s 6d,
and the same year 16 of the bullocks averaged £35 4s 8d each. The calves bred upon
the farm are reared, and the herd is augmented by the purchase of older animals as
occasion may require. It may seem strange but no pigs are bred upon this farm. Only
just so many pigs are kept as are required to consume the waste products of the farm
and these are bought in young and fed in the cattle yards until they attain the weight of
10 or 12 stones, when they are sold and others purchased in their place. Yorkshire
Whites are the kind always bought. Poultry are kept in moderate numbers to consume
waste products. During the season about 500 eggs per week are sold, but as the price is
somewhat low, 21 eggs for 1s being often the rate of exchange when eggs are
plentiful, there is no inducement to go in extensively for poultry. Dairying is not
extensively carried on. Milk is not sold, and the cream is churned and sold as butter.
As the price this summer has fallen to 7d per lb, the returns cannot be considered
highly remunerative.
The clip of wool is a material feature at Eastburn, as this year 853 stones 10 lb of
fleece wool was sold at 10s per stone, and 33 stones 4 lb of cast wool at 5s per stone,
and the total of the cheque received by Mr Jordan amounted to £427 10s. This is a nice
little sum, but it is a mere flea-bite compared with the record year at Eastburn, 1864,
when Mr Jordan’s father sold 1059 stones of wool at 35s per stone, and 73 stones 13
lb of cast wool at 20s per stone, the total amount paid to him being £1925 6s. The
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following figures, setting out the prices obtained for wool at Eastburn in recent years,
may be interesting as illustrative of the decline in the value of this commodity: 1872,
33s 6d per stone; 1873, 29s per stone; 1874, 24s 6d per stone; 1875, 28s per stone;
1876, 20s per stone, after which wool was held for a rise which came not, and so in
1886, 11s per stone for six years’ clip; 1887, 12s 6d per stone; 1888, 11s 6d per stone;
1889, 12s 3d per stone; 1890, 12s 6d per stone; 1891, 11s 6d per stone; 1892, 10s 6d
per stone; 1893, 12s per stone; 1894, 12s per stone; 1895, 12s per stone; 1896, 14s per
stone; 1897, 11s per stone.
FARM WORKFORCE – The farm horses are worked by men and lads boarded and
lodged in the houses of the farm foremen. One foreman lives at the Warren, and the
other at Eastburn, and each of the foremen has five young men who with him work the
horses. So that the ordinary staff, as described in local parlance, “yoke twelve
ploughs”. A shepherd and his assistant, known locally as a “shepherd-lad”, look after
the sheep in summer. There are twelve regular labourers on the farm engaged at
weekly wages and they reside in the cottages near. These labourers receive from 15s
to 16s a week during the ordinary part of the year, but earn somewhat more during the
turnip hoeing season, when many of them do piece work. During the harvest month
they receive from 19s to 21s per week, with full board. Full board means three square
meals a day, and an extra meal in the field at about nine o’clock, and another again in
the field in the afternoon about four o’clock. At each of these outdoor meals each man
has a pint of ale served out. In harvest the regular staff at each farm is 16 men, and a
fair amount of corn is tied up by casual employees by piece work. At each homestead
the corn is led by six waggons and the forking of the sheaves to the waggons is left to
two men at each place. In winter time, pretty nearly all the labourers are engaged in
waiting on stock, either upon sheep or cattle, and two men are employed in milking in
the summer, and in attendance upon the cattle.
HORSE POWER
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Although wind, water and steam could be used, heavy horses provided the main source of
power for practically all farm work from the eighteenth century up to the Second World War.
The increased use of horses, especially from the nineteenth century onwards, came about
because of:

The intensification of cultivation, which required more work to be done on the land.

The use of new implements and machinery, which required horsepower to pull them.
The number of horses on British farms increased dramatically during the nineteenth century:
Year
1812
1870
1887
1900
Number of horses
on
British farms
800,000
966,000
1,034,000
1,137,000
Number of horses
on
East Yorkshire farms
16,000
21,000
24,000
26,500
In the nineteenth century, the preferred East Yorkshire farm horse was the Shire. Shire and
Suffolk crossbreed horses were also common. In the twentieth century Clydesdale and
Percheron horses became popular.
With the gradual introduction of tractors in the twentieth century, the number of horses
working on British farms fell. The following figures are from East Yorkshire:
Year
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
Number of horses
27,000
24,000
22,000
18,000
6,000
2,000
-
After the First World War, tractors began to make their appearance on East Yorkshire farms.
In 1918, a tractor on a farm near Eastburn ploughed 47 acres of land in 30 hours. It would
have taken two horses with a single-furrow plough about 47 days to plough the same acreage.
Tractors were much more efficient than horses. Tractors were expensive to buy, but they did
not cost as much to keep as horses. Gradually, especially after the Second World War, tractors
became more popular as a way of saving costs and cutting down on the number of men
needed on the farm. Early tractors produced the same amount of power as 20 horses. The
biggest tractors of today produce the same amount of power as 230 horses. It would take the
latest tractors less than 8 hours (a working day) to plough 47 acres.
102
AUTUMN AND WINTER TIME
Old and new
The two oxen are called Arthur and Lancelot. They are pulling a wooden, single-furrow beam
plough. Oxen were sometimes used for ploughing instead of horses in the nineteenth century.
The CAT (Caterpillar) is a very modern 230-horsepower diesel tractor. Here, it is shown with
an eight-furrow reversible plough
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES

An ox plough team could plough 1 acre per day to a soil depth of 4 inches.

The CAT can plough 50 acres per day to a soil depth of 8 inches.
Yorkshire Ploughboy’s Song
(Traditional)
Early yan mornin’ at t’break o’ the day
The cocks they was crawin’, an’ the farmer did say:
“Arise mah good fellers, arise wi’ good will,
Yer hosses wants summat their bellies ti fill,
It’s past fower o’clock lads, so leeak sharp an’ rise”
So intiv the stable we merrily flies,
Ti start brushing and wisping
Ti clean, fother, an’ muck out, I’ll swear an’ I’ll voo
That we’re jolly fellers what follers the ploo.
When six o’clock comes lads at breakfast we meet,
Beef, bread or fat bacon we put oot o’ sight,
With a bit iv oor pockets away we will go
Ti see which on us the best furrow can row.
At neeght t’maister cums roond an to us he did say:
“What hav you been doing lads, all this lang day?
You’ve nut plooed half a yakker; I’ll swear an’ I’ll vow
You’re all idle fellers that follers the ploo!”
103
I stands up tiv him an’ makes this reply:
“We’ve all plooed a yakker, so you’re telling a lie.
We’ve all plooed a yakker, an’ I’ll swear an’ I’ll voo
That we’re all honest fellers what follers the ploo.”
Oor maister tonned roond, an’ laughed at the joke,
Saying “It’s past fahve o’clock, lads, time ti unyoke.
Lowse oot yer hosses an’ rub ‘em doon well,
An’ ah’ll stand you a jug of real stingo yal.”
Noo all you brave ploo lads, wherever ye be,
Tak this advice, an’ be ruled by me,
Deean’t fear yer maisters, for I swear an’ I voo
We’re all honest, jolly fellers what follers the ploo.
Ploughing in the nineteenth century
104
In the nineteenth century this was a common sight during the autumn and winter months:
ploughing with a horse team and single-furrow iron plough. This team could plough 1 acre
per day to a soil depth of 4 inches.
105
THRESHING
Threshing – separating the corn from the straw – took place during the winter months.
Before the invention of the threshing machine, grain was separated from the straw by using a
hand-held flail. This was an onerous and monotonous task that farmworkers disliked, but
which provided them with winter work. It was also very labour-intensive. In 1800, on a 250acre corn farm, threshing using a flail would take about 1,400 worker-days.
Threshing with a flail in the early nineteenth century
106
Threshing with the flail in the early nineteenth century
After flailing, the grain was then winnowed. Winnowing was a finishing process where the
ears of grain were separated from the chaff. The traditional method was to throw the corn into
the wind from a basket (called a winnowing-fan); the light chaff would then be blown away,
while the grain fell back into the basket.
Threshing was the first farming operation to be fully mechanized. A threshing machine was
first recorded in 1636 but it was not until the late eighteenth century that the drum thresher
was invented. They were first operated by men, but from the early nineteenth century horseand water-driven threshing machines were installed on many farms.
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A four-man hand threshing machine of about 1840
Two-horse threshing machine of about 1850
During the nineteenth century, portable threshing machines became popular. Unlike the
earlier machines these could be moved from place to place. Here is an advertisement for a
portable threshing machine:
108
Advertisement for steam threshing machines, 1851
From the 1840s steam began to take over from horse- and wind-power. Threshing machines
were powered by steam engines. The first engines were called ‘portable steam engines’
because they had to be moved from place to place by teams of horses. Later, traction engines,
which could move by their own power, replaced the portables.
109
A mid-nineteenth century illustration of a threshing scene with portable engine. The set could
thresh in less than a week what would previously have taken ten men with flails six or more
months
Threshing was a dirty and noisy job, which took place between January and March. As
threshing sets – a steam engine, the threshing machine and straw elevator – were expensive to
buy, most farmers hired them by the day from specialist contractors. Eastburn Farm, however,
had its own threshing set.
The steam traction engine and threshing set arrive on the farm
110
Where a farmer was hiring a threshing machine, it would usually arrive the day before it was
needed. Early on threshing day, the engine driver and his mate would remove all overnight
waterproof covers, light the engine’s fire, and put all belts on their pulleys. The machinery
would be running and ready to start work by 7am. There would be a half-hour meal break at
9.30am, followed by a one-hour lunch break at about mid-day. The day’s work would
normally finish at about 5pm. The meal breaks allowed the engine driver and his mate to
check all the equipment and make whatever adjustments were necessary.
On threshing days, the farmer who was hiring the machinery had to provide coal and water to
keep the steam engine running. Between 200 and 250 gallons of water and between 8 and 12
cwt of coal were used on a single day when threshing. The man walking towards the steam
engine is carrying two buckets of water. He would do that job all day
In this photograph you can see the various jobs done on threshing day. The engine driver is on
the steam engine (left). The farmer would provide men for all the other jobs. Two men are on
the corn stack (right) pitching the sheaves on to the threshing machine. Two men are on the
threshing machine – one man to cut the string binding holding the sheaves together and the
other to put the loose sheaves into the machine, where the grain was separated from the straw.
Several men would be needed to carry the sacks of threshed grain from the machine to the
waiting wagon. An elevator, behind the threshing machine, takes the straw away, which is
then stacked for later use on the farm.
The straw would be used for animal bedding. The animals would turn it into manure, which
was then spread on the land. In the days before the invention of modern chemical fertilisers,
this was essential if soil fertility was to be maintained.
111
Maintaining the farm hedges was an important job in the winter months. This photograph
shows a new hedge being made
112
SPRING TIME
Preparing the seed bed, using harrows to break up the soil
A seed drill of about 1805. The seed drill was first invented in the seventeenth century, but it
was not until the early nineteenth century that it became an efficient piece of farm machinery
113
Sowing time. Here turnip seed is being sown
After sowing, the seedbed is rolled
114
SUMMER TIME
Hoeing was back-breaking work
115
Hay-making. Once cut, the hay had to be turned frequently so that it dried. A lot of rain could
spoil the hay. After drying, it was then taken back to the farmyard and stacked
Hay-making about 1910
116
Leading the hay from the field to the farmyard
Once at the farmyard, the hay is stacked and will be used for animal fodder throughout the
winter
117
HARVEST TIME
The corn harvest was the busiest time in the agricultural year, and took place during August
and September. In the days before the combine harvester, as much labour – including women
and children – as possible was needed if the harvest was to be got in before it was spoiled by
the weather.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, men using sickles or scythes cut the corn. From the
middle of the century, machines called reapers were invented. These were pulled by horses
and cut the corn mechanically. The corn was then collected and tied into sheaves, which were
then stood in the field to dry. A little later, a machine called the self-binding reaper was
invented. This automatically tied the corn into sheaves. The use of machinery also meant that
fewer people were needed in the harvest fields.
The binder remained in use until the coming of the combine harvester. The first combine
harvesters to be used in Britain came from America in 1926. At first tractors pulled them
through the fields. A little later the self-propelled combine was invented. This machine had its
own engine, so it did not need to be towed around the harvest field. The combine separated
the grain from the straw in one operation.
FACTS AND FIGURES
In 1800 a farmer would need






20 sickles
10 scythes
6 rakes
6 pitchforks
10 flails
3 waggons
to harvest 200 acres of corn. In total, this equipment
would have cost about £100.
THE HARVEST FIELD
Next day the village sent forth its army with their crooked weapons to cut and slay …
More men and more men were put on day by day, and women to bind the sheaves … as
the wheat fell, the shocks [stooks] rose behind them, low tents of corn. Your skin our
mine could not have stood the scratching of the straw, which is stiff and sharp, and the
burning of the sun, which blisters like red-hot iron. No one could stand the harvest-field
as a reaper except he had been born [to it] … The edge of the reap-hook had to be driven
by force through the stout stalks like a sword, blow after blow, minute after minute, hour
after hour; the back stooping, and the broad sun throwing his firey rays from a full disc on
the head and neck … Their necks grew black … Their open chests were always bare, and
flat and stark … The breast bone was burned black, and their arms, as tough as ash,
seemed cased in leather. They grew visibly thinner in the harvest-field, and shrunk
together – all flesh disappearing, and nothing but sinew and muscle remaining. Never was
such work … So they worked and slaved, and tore at the wheat … the heat, the aches, the
illness, the sunstroke, always impending in the air – the stomach hungry again before the
meat was over … No song, no laugh, no stay – on from morn till night, for the more they
could cut the larger the sum they would receive.
Richard Jefferies, Field and Hedgerow, 1889, pages 131-133.
118
This illustration shows a harvest scene in the early nineteenth century. Many people – men,
women and children – were needed to get the harvest in before it was spoiled by the weather.
It was a very labour intensive activity. Reapers c, d, e, and f are cutting the corn, a is making
bands, g is filling her band and k, having tied the bundles or sheaves together, is building a
stook at i. The corn was cut about 9 inches from the ground, leaving a field of stubble. After
the stooks had been taken to the stackyard on the farm, the elderly and poor were sometimes
allowed into the field to pick up the grain that had fallen to the ground during the harvest.
This was known as gleaning. This activity provided a useful supplement to the household
budget, and the grain was used for making bread.
Reaping with a sickle
119
An illustration from an implement maker’s catalogue, showing different types of scythes for
use in the harvest field. They could also be used for mowing grass in the meadows to make
hay
120
A busy harvest scene of about 1870, with men, women and children all working together to
get the crop cut
The Reverend Patrick Bell of Forfar, in Scotland, designed this reaper in 1828. It had a
moving canvas band to deliver the cut corn at the side in swathes. The idea of a pushed
machine was abandoned when it was realized that pulling made better use of horsepower.
Pulling was also more comfortable for the horses
121
This Bamlett mowing machine, for cutting both hay and corn, was manufactured in 1866.
This machine deposited the cut crop behind the cutting knife. In order that the crop was left in
convenient sheaves for hand-binding by women and children, a second man on the mower
held a length of the standing crop to the cutting knife
On the previous picture, wooden tines at the rear of the mowing machine combed the straw so
that it lay all one way. The tined sails on this reaper of the 1870s did the same job
mechanically
122
This picture shows a McCormick self-binder, which was invented in 1879. The tying of the
cut sheaf of corn on its way through the reaper from the cutting blade to the delivery canvas
was made possible by the invention of the automatic knotting mechanism. This type of binder
was in use until the arrival of the first combine harvesters in the twentieth century
A reaper-binder at work. The boy on the right is collecting the sheaves for making stooks
123
After sheaving, corn needed anything up to twenty days field room for final ripening and
drying out. The stook was constructed to allow the sun and wind to do their work and, at the
same time, to give protection to the corn from rain and storms. The greatest danger was that
the corn would sprout in the sheaves and be destroyed
A standard eight- or ten-sheaf stook
124
These two illustrations (above and below) show some of the different methods of tying the
sheaf together using plaited and knotted straw
125
When the corn in the stooks had ripened and dried, they were taken from the harvest field
back to the stackyard on the farm
Once in the stackyard, the sheaves were stacked. This photograph shows a stack being
constructed. Two men are using pitchforks to pass the sheaves up to the men on the stack. A
man is standing on a wooden platform half way up the height of the stack in order to pass the
sheaves to the men at the top. The wooden platform was called a ‘monkey’ and was leant
against the side of the stack. This is a round stack, known as a ‘pike’. When it was finished,
the top would be thatched to prevent rain and snow destroying the grain. One stack would
contain sufficient sheaves of corn for one day’s threshing.
126
With the invention of the combine harvester in the early part of the twentieth century,
harvesting the corn became quicker and more efficient. The combine was a major
technological advance. It represents the ultimate labour-saving machine on the farm. All
harvesting operations – cutting, threshing and cleaning the grain – are combined in a single
operation. Also, many other activities – stooking, carting and stacking – have been eliminated
127
SOME HARVEST FACTS AND FIGURES
Harvesting with
hand tools
Sickle
Scythe
Cutting rate per day
(in acres)
Worker days per
acre
0.25
1.15
4.8
2.4
10.00
10.00
16.00
1.1
0.5
0.3
Harvesting with
machines
Reaper
Reaper-binder (horse drawn)
Reaper-binder (tractor drawn)
Threshing
Flail
Steam threshing machine
Harvesting/threshing with
combine harvester
In 1930
In 1950
In 1960
In 1980
In 2000
Tons of wheat per
man-day
0.15
1.25
Wheat-acres per
man-day
0.25
4.00
Tons of wheat per
day
6.00
14.00
28.00
64.00
200.00
2 men per day
1 man cutting +
1 man leading
(wheat acres per man)
3.00
4.00
6.00
10.00
25.00
128
LIVESTOCK
SHEEP
In the nineteenth century, most East Yorkshire farmers favoured the Leicester Longwool type
of sheep. Robert Bakewell of Dishley in Leicestershire developed this type of sheep through
selective breeding in the eighteenth century.
Leicester Longwools were important for two reasons:

They provided high quality, lustrous fleeces. After clipping, East Yorkshire farmers sold
the fleeces to wool merchants in the West Riding of Yorkshire, for use in the clothing
industry. In factories in Leeds and Bradford the wool would be turned into clothing.
Large profits could be made from the sale of fleeces and it was often said that farmers
could pay the rent on their farms from the money they made.

They provided good quality meat. As many local farmers did, Francis Jordan sold his
sheep at Driffield market. His farmworkers would walk the sheep the three miles to
market, where they would be sold to the highest bidder. Usually, they were sold to
livestock merchants from towns like Beverley, Hull, York, Leeds, Wakefield and
Bradford, who would then take the live sheep back to their own town. After slaughter, the
meat would be sold in local butchers’ shops. Meat formed an important part of the diet of
town-dwellers, who earned higher wages than people in the countryside.
The railway system was important in transporting the wool and sheep to different places.
There was a railway station at Driffield and also one at Southburn, which was just a mile
away from Eastburn Farm. From either place, the wool or sheep could be transported easily
and efficiently to their destination.
The shepherd and his dog during lambing time. During lambing the shepherd lived in a
mobile hut out in the fields, to be on hand in case of problems
129
Leicester Longwool ewes and lambs
Washing sheep to get their fleeces clean
130
This picture shows the shearing of sheep with hand clippers. The fleece would then be sold to
wool merchants for use in the clothing industry
These two photographs (above and below) show hand clipping in more modern times
131
Sheep eating a root crop out in the fields. This was known as folding. As well as eating the
crop out of the ground, manure from the sheep helped to return the soil to fertility
132
Dual-purpose dairy Shorthorn cattle. These animals not only provided milk but beef also. At
the end of the nineteenth century each cow would have taken about 20 minutes to milk by
hand and would have produced about 3 gallons of milk per day. Milk, cream, butter and
cheese would have been sold at the farm gate or in the local market
A litter of Middle White piglets. Middle Whites have short pricked ears and short snouts
133
Most farms had many hens. Their eggs would be sold at the farm gate or in the local market
134
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Farming at Eastburn
Questions I want to ask
Answers
135
Name ……………………………
Date ……………………………..
Farming at Eastburn
Study Source 2 and then write down six facts about farming in the
nineteenth century.
1. Farming was
2. As much food as
3. Crops were
4. This was to
5. The Norfolk
6. The crops were
136
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Write down all the facts you know about the corn harvest
137
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Write down all the facts you know about farm work during the
autumn and winter
138
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Study the photograph. Put a tick by the things you can see and a cross by those
you cannot see.
Tractor
Stooks
Reaper-binder
Combine harvester
Horses
Stubble
Bales of straw
Sheaves of corn
139
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Study the two photographs:
What is the same and what is different? List your findings.
The same
Different
____________________________________________________________________________________________
140
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Study the two photographs:
What is the same and what is different? Make a list of your findings
Same
Different
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
141
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Threshing day
Using the information in this Unit, write a description of the threshing
scene in this picture
142
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Harvest
Study the picture:
Using the information contained in the harvest section of this Unit,
write a description of the scene in this picture
143
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Harvest
Using the information in Richard Jefferies description, write a letter to
a friend describing your day in the harvest field.
Dear
144
Name …………………………..
Date ……………………………
Harvest Time
sheaves
stacked
sickles
dry
September
year
tied
reapers
busiest
harvest
August
children
labour
stook
The corn _ _ _ _ _ _ _ was the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ time of the farming
_ _ _ _. The harvest took place in _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. As
much _ _ _ _ _ _ as possible was needed in the harvest field – men,
women and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. The corn had to be cut by _ _ _ _ _ _ _,
scythes or _ _ _ _ _ _ _. After cutting, the corn was _ _ _ _ into
_ _ _ _ _ _ _. Six or eight sheaves were then stood together as a
_ _ _ _ _. The stooks allowed the corn to _ _ _. After drying in the
field, the sheaves were then taken back to the farm where they were
_ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Name …………………………..
145
Date ……………………………
LEICESTER LONGWOOL SHEEP
Write down seven facts about Leicester longwool sheep.
1. East Yorkshire farmers favoured ….
2. They provided high quality ….
3. These were sold ….
4. Large ….
5. The Leicester sheep also ….
6. This was ….
7. The railway …
146