Springtime in the Fields

The following was written by my father, Lawrence L. Weeks Sr. 
In the latter part of  April or the first of May, it was time to start getting the fields ready to plant.  We had gardens at both the down home farm and the Norton Hill Farm, large enough to raise all of the vegetables we needed for the year as well as a couple of acres or so of field corn for the livestock. (I don't know why they always called them that because it didn't make any sense to me to raise any for dead stock.)

In the picture, my father Frank A. Weeks and I are plowing with a side hill plow, (The furrow board is sort of rounded so you can flip it over at the end of each furrow letting you always roll the furrow down hill.  In the picture above, it is turning the furrow to the left. On the way back, we would be turning it to the right.

If your land was flat you might use a flat bottom plow that only turned it one way.  The were lighter and easier to handle. You started in the center and plowed in a circular motion out or vise versa.

We would take turns holding the plow and driving the horses.  I loved the teamster part, but holding the plow was hard work, when you hit a rock, the plow would jump six feet or so before you could get the horses stopped, then you would have to drag it back to start over.