How quickly people forget

2008

When I posted this photo of myself ridging potatoes by hand with a hoe, I had a number of comments and emails from people warning that working like this is not sustainable, that it’s too hard and age will soon take its toll. I’ve had similar responses before when I’ve mentioned some of the more physical jobs we tackle in the absence of a tractor. Actually, my own feeling is that we have it relatively easy on the croft. Yes, it’s harder than many Westerners would prefer, but it’s still a lot easier than people just a couple of generations ago (or for people in poorer parts of the world today). Then I remembered seeing this…

1966

James Hunter, an Aberdeenshire farmer, will still out hoeing his neep field in 1966 when he was 79—and his field was much bigger than my tattie field. There are more photographs of Mr Hunter doing similar jobs of hard graft scattered through Wirds an’ Wark ‘e Seasons Roon (Alexander Fenton, The Mercat Press, ISBN 1873644167). We also get occasional visitors who confirm that our way of working was once the norm, with one old bloke recently describing how his father’s farm used to employ eight to 10 men to hoe the tattie fields. They worked in lines across the field, working their way down the field from dawn to dusk—something I fortunately don’t have to do! I do like the length of Mr Hunter’s hoe handle, though.

Thanks to Thebeadden for the inspiration for this.