Farming Fifty Years Ago About 40 or 50 years ago my Granda's farm was about 60 acres in size. He had to work very hard and he had a man employed to help him. Granda had about 12 cows; they were tied with chains in the byre in the same stall all winter. They had to be milked by hand twice a day. The milk lorry came early every morning to lift the cans of milk. The byre had to be cleaned out every morning with a shovel and wheelbarrow. The muck was built into a pile called a midden, to be spread on the land later on in the year to fertilise the ground. They kept about six sows and reared all their pigs. When the pigs were a certain weight a butcher came to the farm and slaughtered them. The pig meat was sold in Ballyclare to local butchers. They usually kept one pig to use themselves. It was cut up, salted and put in a barrel and that did them for bacon all year. The killing of the pig was great fun for everyone. There were about twenty breeding ewes and the lambs were sold at market. They also kept about 200 hens and the money they got for the eggs usually paid for the groceries each week. My Granda grew potatoes, corn, flax and hay and the rest of the land was used for grazing. He had two horses but about this time he got a wee grey Fergie tractor. They ploughed early in the year to let the frost get at the ground. The corn was usually sown in March and they used a corn fiddle to sow the seed. After the corn was put in they sowed the flax seed. It was very hard to sow as the seed was very fine. The next job on the farm was dropping the potatoes. This was heavy work. They put manure in the drills and it was spread by a man using a grape. Then the potatoes were planted by hand. The hay was cut at the end of June and meadow hay was cut in August. There were usually more people, especially neighbours, there to help with the hay. First it was cut using a reaper. Then it had to be turned, spread and left to dry. Pitch forks were used to shake out any lumps. If it was bad weather sometimes they would put it into lumps at night and then they shook out the lumps when the weather got better. When the hay was dry it was gathered up and built into ricks. This was hard work as the hay had to be forked up by hand. It sat in ricks for six weeks then it was drawn into the yard using a rick shifter. In the yard it was built into pikes. The flax was hauled out by hand and tied in bales. Then it was put in a dam of water called the lint hole to ret for about ten days. It was removed from the dam and spread over the field to dry. When it was dry it was gathered and taken to a flax mill. The corn was cut in late August using a binder which tied it into sheaves. The sheaves were stooked in threes or fours and left to ripen. It was then built into huts. After a few weeks the huts were carted into the stack yard and built into stacks. In the winter it was threshed. A contractor did this job and all the neighbouring farmers came to help. There were about twenty helpers in all. The potatoes were dug in October. First the ends of the drills were opened with a spade. School children got holidays at this time to help. The potatoes were dug out of the drills with a horse drawn potato digger. The digger would have thrown the potatoes about a yard across the field. The gatherers would have had to collect the potatoes into baskets and then put them into bags or pits. The potatoes that were put into bags were taken home and put into potato houses. The ones that were put in pits were covered with straw and soil. A farmer's year was a busy one from January to December. There were no holidays in the sun or even in rainy Portrush. A day at the Market was an outing and the annual visit to the Ballyclare May Fair was a real treat.   Matthew Warwick - P7 - Dunamuggy Primary School Another Story Competition Index Return to Main Page