Page 12 - 4859_BedfordLife
P. 12

The old barns of Bedford County
                                                 continued from p. 9

                                                 clean it up the old fashioned way, with a manure  into bundles called “hands.” The hands were then
                                                 fork.”                                    wrapped with a longer, pliable “tie leaf” and then
                                                    “My granddaddy had an old horse drawn manure  the hand was split open.
                                                 spreader, with metal wheels. He had adapted it from   “Every leaf was handled,” Teague says. “I have
                                                 a horse drawn tongue to a tractor (hitch).”  memories of hanging tobacco in the barn ... I picked
                                                    Teague still has the Furgeson TO30 tractor they  up leaves in the field when I was 3 years old.”
                                                 used to haul his grandfather’s manure spreader. “As
                                                 long as we went about the speed of a team of mules  Form follows function
                                                 we wouldn’t tear it apart.”                  The design of a barn tells the history of a farm.
                                                                                           Barns with an attached silo were used for livestock.
                                                 Tobacco                                   In Bedford County it was usually a dairy operation.
                                                    Many of the barns of Bedford County were built   “It was very common for farms to have a handful
                                                 to cure tobacco. Tobacco barns were generally taller,  of Jerseys,” Teague says. “They’d hand-milk the
                                                 with horizontal tier poles set 5 feet apart. Six foot  cows, pour it into a milk can, set it out by the road
                                                 “sticks” of tobacco were hung from the tier poles.  and the truck would come by and pick it up. They’d
                                                    The tobacco was cut in late July and by early  store milk in a spring or a stream.”
                                                 August it was cured. Once cured the leaves were   A little masonry building called a spring house
              John Teague, from the Bedford      stripped from the stalks and the leaves were tied  was built on many farms. “My granddaddy’s
              County office of the University
              of Tennessee Agriculture
              Extension Service






















































         10   Bedford Life l Summer 2018
   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17