THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

farthest reaches of the heathen world— go forth with God! We owe our country, the church and the world, a big debt. And if we do not care to work, to do thorough physical and intellectual work, then, as a society and in spite of our advantages and relatively large wealth, we will become obese dunces like the domestic goose who is no longer able to help itself,— we will perish like some of our congregations we could name in foreign countries, who have already or are about to perish— and that as a consequence of our too great affluence and intellectual indolence. Documentary Supplement 181 But where are we? We have not yet helped grandfather or great-grandfather harvest his crop! To employ the Russians as hired help was unknown; this only began toward the end of the thirties. But even during the forties, fifties and sixties many fanners still cut the grain themselves with the scythe. 4. Threshing, which now comes to an end with the last cart-load of grain, cart-loads that begin to creak at the same time that the happy buzz of the mower begins and is shortly followed by the melancholy and always nervous and anxiety -causing 92 hum of the threshing machine,— took its beginning in those days when the last sheaf had been brought in. In part the grain was threshed with the horses’ hooves, with wagons, and since the beginning of the forties gradually with the very practical threshing stone. Until the latter appeared on the scene, the flail was the most important threshing instrument. Rye and oats (sometimes barley as well) were threshed only with the flail and during the winter months in order to keep the straw fairly long: rye straw was used for thatching roofs while the rest was chopped up for fodder. At times a stack of rye or oats remained until after seed-time! 5. The growing of flax constituted an important source of income. Today farmers probably seed a number of dessiatines with flax, not for the fibers, however, but in order to sell as much flax seed as possible. Formerly people were not concerned about the seeds; if one harvested more than was needed for seed the surplus was taken to the local oil presses, but this was of secondary importance since the first concern was for the linen fibers. About one-half acre (one-quarter dessiatine) or more was planted, and when it ripened properly it was pulled out by hand, tied in sheaves, set in shocks and, after it had dried, was carefully threshed. The further preparation of the linen was also very tedious, keeping the younger as well as older daughters, under the supervision of the mother, busy with spinning the fibers almost the entire winter. (At the most one will today find an occasional conservative grandmother spinning some sheepwool for stockings.) The yarn would be woven into linen by weavers, of which there were plenty in those days, and then it would be bleached for a long time— this “night bleaching” was always quite an occasion in the vi