Manure."[24] Scientific farming had not yet come to the West Branch
Valley, although the Philadelphia area had been awakened to its
possibilities through the publications of Franklin's American
Philosophical Society.

Fertile soil was practically essential when one considers the crude
implements with which the frontier farmer carried on his hazardous
vocation. In addition to the crude wooden plow, which we have already
mentioned, the agrarian pioneer of the West Branch possessed a
long-bladed sickle, a homemade rake, a homemade hay fork, and a grain
shovel.[25] All of these items were made of wood and were of the crudest
sort.[26] As time went on, he added a few tools of his own invention,
but these, and his sturdy curved-handled axe, constituted the essential
instruments of the farmer's craft.

July was the month of harvest for the mainly "subsistence" farmers
scattered along the West Branch. The uncertainties of the weather and
the number of acres planted had some influence upon the harvesting, so
that it was not unusual to see the wheat still swaying in the warm
summer breezes in the last week of July. However, if possible, the grain
was generally cut the first part of the month in order that buckwheat,
or other fodder, might be sown and harvested in the fall.

Harvesttime was a cooperative enterprise and whole families joined in
"bringing in the sheaves." The grain had to be cut and raked into piles,
and the piles bundled into shocks tied together with stalks of the grain
itself. This took "hands" and the frontier family was generally the only
labor force available. In time, however, field work was confined to the
men of the family among the Scotch-Irish, who attached social
significance to the type of work done by their women.

Fithian's _Journal_ reveals, however, that class-consciousness was not
yet apparent in the division of labor on this frontier. On two occasions
he describes daughters of leading families engaged in other than
household tasks. Arriving at the home of Squire Fleming, with whom he
was to stay for a week, Fithian notes on July 25, 1775, that Betsey
Fleming, his host's daughter, "was milking."[27] The very next day, upon
visiting the Squire's brother, who had "two fine Daughter's," this
Presbyterian journalist found "One of them reaping."[28] If Leyburn's
comment that social status among the Scotch-Irish depended in part upon
the work done by the women of the family, then these examples attest