Friday, October 18, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

October 18, 1963

Friday, 80 high, another hot day.  I did a big wash in am.  Doug went to Middleburgh after paint for the house but did not get any.  He raked the corn etc out of the garden.  Lillian, Earl and Bob rode horses over in afternoon.  Boys went out at night.

Comment: Unusually warm day, Doug working in the garden. Here is part of what Socrates Hubbard says about planting corn in mid 1800's in Scott's Patent: 

"An other weeks work...

          The corne ground is now to be ridged  my servises come in requisition again in driving the oxen.  This takes several days. This don about the 20th of May we plant the corne  This was always don with the hoe making a soft place drop in the corn and cover with soft dirt.  My business was droping corne.  Neer a week is ocupyed in planting the usual amount of ground five or six acres.  As soon as the corn was planted the crows came in for there share which they dug out of the hills.  To prevent this we took an old coat pants and hat drove stakes in the ground put the pants on stuffed them with straw then the coat stuffing it in the same way.  This crowned with a hat with stick in hand to represent a gun would deceive Mr. Crow for some time.  This was called a scare crow. Hence when a man is none of the best looking or dressed in the very best tast he is said to look like a scare crow.  There was still an other device that Father always resorted to which was to stretch strings of toptow all over the field  Mr Crow was very suspisious of these strings he could not make out in what the precise danger lay but that there was some infurnel trick in it some how he had no doubt and thought it prudant to keepe cleere of them.

          The corn begins to come up and now an other enamy appears that cant be scared by two strings, and straw men.  He coms in the shape of a brown grub.  He coms out of the ground cuts of the tender corne and then burrows in the ground again.  In the morning we go through the field and where ever his work is seen digg around and find him he is usualy clost by coerse him into measures by crushing him.  Then the little chip muck coms in for his share along the finces he has to be shot or drilled.

          A wise man a man of observation some years ago discovered a plan to prevent the Squerels diging up the corn.  It was this.  He had observed that they always dug up the outside row:  His plan was to have no outside row no doubt this would prevent it.

          The corne was now left for two or three weeks.  In the mean time the potato was to be planted.  A peace of sod ground was broken up furrowed then droped with potatos and covered with sods.  An acre of potatos put in in this way would produce several hundred bushels and the best potatos in the world.  They are howed but once then sods heaped around them for the hill.

            The corn is now large enough for the first howing.  I have to ride the horse to plough it out.  It is plowed one way two furrows between each row and then came the howing all the grass had to be pulled out between the stems of corne, and soft loos dirt dressed around it.  This was hard work I would take a row but of course could not keepe up.  Father would every now and then how some hills for me to encourage me.  The days were long, and as I counted every row it seemed as tho it would take forever. It is finely don and after a while comes the second, then the third howing.  This time the furrows were run both ways and the corne hilled up.