Audrey Mae SpencerSpencer Historical CemeteryHenry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
Vaughn Historical CemeterySpencers of East Greenwich, RI

Posts Tagged horse carriage plow

3 April 2004

Heather: Did you help your parents when they worked on the farm?

 

William J.B. Spencer with the horses, carriage, and plow with Audrey Mae Spencer behind the plow

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Audrey: I would follow Grandpa (William J.B. Spencer) along in the furrow (dirt flapped over) after the horse carriage plow. I was so small that I could follow (walk) in the furrow. I could only follow in the furrow at the beginning because after that, the harrow, an iron piece of rake that scrapes the dirt into little pieces (was used). (After the harrow was used) if I stepped on the dirt, I would sink in four to five inches, so I didn’t walk in it.

(There were many steps to prepare the land.) The land was then smoothed (smoothed it over) and then Grandpa would pull along a little feeder and the seeds would bury themselves. Grandpa would go over the rows with a board to flatten out the land. Going over the land a couple more times to sprinkle dirt over the rows as well as the rain and the sunshine in a few weeks, (resulting with) little green things would come up and then long stalks of corn.

I waited and knew when the (ear of) corn would be yellow and I would pull out the biggest (ear of) corn and sneak and hide and eat it (uncooked) because I loved corn. Grandma (MaryJane [née Vaughn] Spencer) wanted me to wait for it (ear of corn) to be bigger, because (by picking it early)I was wasting one-half of it. I loved corn!