Doug Atwood Stories

Molasses Making

The sorghum was raised in the fields and chopped and brought in on a wagon. It was piled in a stack where the juice would be extracted.

A horse was harnessed and attached to a pole. As the horse walked around and around the two steel rollers turned. The pieces of sorghum were fed into two the rollers, which pressed the juice from the stalk.

The juice drained down and was collected. Buckets of the juice were carried to the barrel which hung on the outside of a building that contained the fire for cooking. The building had a door to enter and openings down the side for windows.

As they replaced the old wood fence with steel fence, the old rail was used as wood for the fire.

From the barrel hung on the outside of the building, the juice drained inside into a long shallow evaporating pan, which was probably stainless steel. The tray was divided with partitions and was heated by the fire. As the juice cooked and became thicker, the partitions were lifted to let it move down to other tray partitions. When it reached the end the juice had cooked down and had become thick. The molasses was poured into cans and sold.



Broom Making

The broom corn was raised for the top. After the tops was harvested, the rest was feed to the cows. The tops were bent over to keep the sweeps straight. Then the seeds were removed. A press held the broom together where a handle (saved from previous broom) and the top of the broom was wrapped with wire. The sweeps were then stitched with about four rows of string. The brooms were sold.

Honey Collecting

The Queen bee was put in the hive and the rest of the bees followed. A wooden box held the hive. When the honey was collected, the bees were calmed before collection with a smoker which was a can (about quart size) with some kinds of pump.

Grinding Grain for feed

They used an old car with a belt like those used on thrashing machines. The belt pulled the hammer mill. Every Saturday the grain was ground and collected in box under the mill. It was then bagged. Each farmer would grind enough for one week and would come back the following Saturday.

Jim Huffman caught fish which helped feed the family.

Other sources of money: Watermelons were under a big tree and sold for 3 cents per pound (some weighed 50 pounds), honey, eggs, and other farming endeavors.