The old agriculture

Languishing at home with bronchitis, I've been reading George Ewart Evans Ask the Fellows who Cut the Hay, of 1956 (the year I was born :-)). He doesn't gloss over the hardships of the old agricultural life, but he does have a great sympathy for it. Yes, it must have been claustrophobic to grow up, live and die amongst the same bunch of people, but your life would certainly have been well-populated: pre-WWI agriculture was highly labour intensive. That was one of the things I noticed also about The Return of Martin Guerre, which I finally got to see, courtesy of the Independent, who were giving the DVD away free. There were so many extras on set all the time, even in domestic interiors. No doubt authentic.

There was a great dependence on cooperation in the old farming life as well. This is obvious in the harvest gangs, but it happened in smaller ways too. For instance the barm for brewing was passed round from household to household.

They went in for some crazy amusements to relieve the monotony, though. Evans' accounts of flailing are hair-raising. The flail must have been a devil of a thing to use, and beginners were as likely to thwack themselves on the back of the head as not. Old-timers showed their insouciance by sticking six-inch straws in their mouths and flicking them with the swipple at each pass.