Farming

L1 A man who is employed to help with work on a farm:

L2 The extra house on a large farm where a hired man and his family live:

L3 A man who lives on the farm and does the work, but divides the expenses and profits with the owner:

L4a A general word for work done every morning and evening on a farm, such as feeding livestock, cleaning stalls, etc.: [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L4b What do you call the time early in the morning and at night when you have to feed livestock, clean stalls, and so on? A person might say, “I’ve got to go now, it’s ________.”

L5 When a farmer gets help on a job from his neighbors in return for his help on their farms later on, you call it ________.

L6a What do you call a piece of land under cultivation—less than an acre?

L6b A piece of land under cultivation—if it’s several acres:

L7 A piece of land with a hay crop planted on it:

L8 Hay that grows naturally in damp places:

L9a What kinds of grass are grown for hay around here? (Open question)

L9b Hay from other kinds of plants (not grass): (Open question) [Not asked in early Questionnaires]

L10 After hay has been cut, then it grows back and you cut it again, you’d call that ________.

L11 What do you do to hay in the field after it’s cut?

L12 What do you call the small piles of hay standing in the field?

L13 The kind of wagon used for carrying hay: (Note: special wagon, or frame put on ordinary wagon?)

L14 A large pile of hay stored outdoors: (Do names differ according to shape?)

L15 When you are putting hay into a building for storage, you say you are ________.

L16 Machines used around here in handling hay: (Open question)

L17 Other names around here for manure used in the fields: (Also joking names)

L18 Kinds of plows used around here, at present and in the past: (Get descriptions.) (Open question)

L19 When you plow land or sod that has never been plowed before, you’re ________. [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L20 The implement used in a field after it’s been plowed to break up the lumps: (Different kinds?) [Early QRs: The implement with points used in a field to break up lumps:]

L21 What kinds of grain are grown around here—anything special? (Open question) [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L22 When talking about a crop he intends to plant—for example, oats—a farmer might say, “This year, I’m going to ________ a crop of oats/corn/cotton, etc.” (Name the local crops in turn and record the verb.)

L23 What machinery is used around here in putting in the seed? (Which machine for which crop?)

L24 A crop or part of a crop that springs up and grows by itself from old seed:

L25 The implement used to clean out weeds and loosen the earth between rows of corn:

L26 Sayings about corn and other important crops around here—when to put it in, how fast it should grow, etc.: [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L27 When you turn the pigs into a cornfield to finish it off, you ________. [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L28 Tools used in the past for cutting grain:

L29 Machines now used for cutting grain:

L30a When grain is cut it is (or used to be) tied up in ________.

L30b Then these sheaves (or other word) are set together in piles called ________.

L31 What do you call the top bundle of a shock (or other word)?

L32a In early days, how was the grain separated from the straw?

L32b In early days, how was the grain separated from the chaff? (Describe methods.)

L33 How is the grain separated from the straw nowadays?

L34 What are the most important crops grown around here? (Open question)

L35 Hand tools used for cutting underbrush and digging out roots:

L36 What do you call it around here when you dig out roots and underbrush to make a new field? (New methods: bulldozing, etc.)

L37 A hand tool used for cutting weeds and grass:

L38 What do you use around here to sharpen tools in the field?

L39 An iron bar with a bent end, used for pulling nails, opening boxes, and so on: (Be sure of object named.)

L40 A long iron bar used to move rocks and other heavy things:

L41 A device for moving dirt and other loads, with one wheel in front and handles to lift and push it behind:

L42 Do you use the word ‘rig’ around here? What kind of thing do you call a ‘rig’?

L43a When somebody is going to get horses ready to work, he might say, “I’ll ________ the horses.”

L43b To get a horse ready to ride:

L44 On a buggy, two long pieces of wood stick out in front and the horse goes between them. You call them the ________.

L45 The long piece of wood that sticks out in front of a wagon, and you put a horse on each side:

L46 Behind each horse there’s a movable bar (the leathers or ropes from the collar are fastened to it)—what would you call this?

L47 The two movable bars behind a team of horses are fastened to a longer piece; this is a ________.

L48 The part of a wagon that goes crosswise underneath and has a wheel at each end:

L49 Leathers or ropes, fastened to the collar, that a horse or mule pulls by:

L50 What does the word ‘team’ mean on farms around here? [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L51 The leathers or ropes that a driver holds to guide a horse:

L52 Pieces of leather used to cover the sides of a horse’s eyes:

L53a The band that goes under a horse’s middle to hold a saddle on:

L53b The band that goes under a horse’s middle to hold a saddle on—what is it called if it’s a part of a work harness?

L54 If someone was transporting firewood (or dirt) in a wagon, you’d say he was ________ firewood.

L55 If the wagon was only partly full, you’d say he had a ________.

L56 The amount of wood a person can carry in both arms: “We’re out of firewood—I’ll just get in a ________.”

L57 A low wooden platform used for bringing stones or heavy things out of the fields:

L58 An implement with an A-shaped frame (Make gesture) that you put boards on to saw them:

L59 An implement with an X-frame (Gesture) to hold firewood for sawing:

L60 A fence made of stone or rock without mortar:

L60b A fence of stone built with mortar: [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

L61 Fences made of solid logs, now or in the past: (Describe construction.)

L62 A fence made of split logs: (Describe differences.)

L63 Kinds of fences made with wire: (Open question)

L64 The kind of wooden fence that’s built around a garden or near a house:

L65 What other kinds of fences, past or present, do you have around here? (Describe construction.) (Open question)

DARE Data Summary by Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.