Now as to the tools which those hardy pioneers used to till their small farms. First they would plow the ground with a plow of their own or one they had borrowed. They used oxen or horses which ever they had or could get to pull the plow. They next smoothed it down with a brush drag. This was made by laying down a short pole say eight feet long to which was nailed a number of green hawthorns. A hard and tough brush or small tree. Later the harrow followed by other devices were used. However the brush drag was used for many years as the farmers found it effective in breaking the clods. and helping to hold the moisture. Even now in 1936 its used to combat the weevil that prays upon our crops as ln dragging it over the ground it forms a dust. After the ground was prepared, if they were planting grain, the farmers would scatter the seed by hand and it took one who knew his business to get it even. After the sowing they would go over it again with the drag.
In harvesting the grain the farmers would cut their grain with a sickle or with a cradle if they had one. Which ever method was used it was necessary to tie the grain into bundles. This was done by men who followed the one with the cradle cr the sickle. They would take a small hand full of straw out of the pile wrapping this straw around the pile and then twisting the ends together to form a knot. They would put the bundles in shocks today. Later the self binder was brought into use this machine not only cut the grain but tied it in to bundles. This was followed by the header and lastly by the combine which as you know cuts and thrashes the grain at the same time.
When the grain was dry it was hauled to the yard and stacked and again as in the sowing it took one who knew his job to 90 place the bundles so the rain and snow would not effect or spoil the grain. This was done by keeping the center of the stack higher than the outside, a nice trick in it self.
In those early years the only way the farmer had to thrash his grain was by beating the grain out of the straw with a flail or by tramping it out by oxen. The first machine used for thrashing what was called a chaff piller. It was the forerunner to our present day thrasher. While it could separte the grain from the straw, as today, it coulden't separate the grain from the chaff as today, so it was still necessary to do this with a fannill.
The hay mostly grass was cut in those days with a scythe and snath and raked in piles with a large wooden rake. A hard job and slow. Later James harvested some volunteer barley on shares for Bishop Dunn. He threshed his stare with a flail and took it to Farr's mill in Ogden to have it ground. The meal was then sifted and made into bread. His wife thought this the best bread she had ever tasted. Years after she tried to eat barley bread, but it was too course to be swallowed.