Barsi Ernő: Sály : egy bükkalji falu a hagyományos gazdálkodás idején (A miskolci Herman Ottó Múzeum néprajzi kiadványai 17. Miskolc, 1965)
home every day. The master took care of winter-feeding of animals in the stable, for this end cornstalk, shaff, barley -straw, hay, lucerne and beet were stored. Was hay low, straw was added to it and chaff was mixed with beet. It was a usage to chop up hay, straw to make chop- feed and sometimes it was enriched with lucerne. Horses consumed pumpkin as well.it was given also to bigger swine. Horses, cows, calves were placed in common stable, where the master made a resting-place, where he or his eldest son slept depending on whether which one tended the animals. Pig-pen was usually made of wood and was built about two feet above the ground fitted out with floor and runway. The loft was for hen-house. At the beginning of the century there were still a lot of yards without hen-house. Hens, pullets, roosters passed the night on mulberry tree near the gate. Was it cold, they crowed particularly much. A small kennel was scamped only for the dog from among all other domestic animals. The cat stayed usually in the kitchen. Veterinary was very scarce in the country. Animals were attended mostly by herdsmen. Agriculture played the most important part in the life of population at Sály. Until World War I. the land was cultivated according to three-course rotation and sowed in compliance with severe raising norms: one year with winter wheat, the next one with rye, barley, oat, there-upon clover or vetch, then the land was let rest for a year. This latter was called fallow land , that was used for grazing and meeting the requirements on feed stuff. There was a meadow in the field, but it was not enough to go round. The fallow land was not only grazed but also manured by the animals and three times tilled. At beginning of the century the change over from three-course rotation to crop-rotation-system was started and completed in the twenties. During resting period - every fourth year - corn or lentil was sowed. The land sowed by corn or papilonaccae was called „green fallow land", while unsowed land was called „black fallow land". At the time of three-course-rotation-farming there was still the Plot, that could be sowed according to requirement. It was not prcfercd after all, since it rained often in strips and while one part was under rain, the other part remained dry. Land was tilled with wooden plough till middle of the last century. It was followed by so-called „vidacs" - plough, where the steer was already made of iron. It was produced in Pest, however copies were made also in the country. Merely the sock was obtained from the factory, all other wooden parts were trimmed on the site. At beginning of this century also ploughs of this kind gave place to the iron-ploughs. At the same time from carts having wooden axle it was changed to those with iron axle. Beside plough also harrow and roller were applied for soil cultivation. Changeover from manual sowing to mechanical one took place at turn of the century. At beginning of the century the Hungarian red-ear and white-ear wheat were raised at Sály, they were replaced by wheat of improved qualities around the twenties. Until beginning of last century harvesting was performed by means of sickle, the use of scythe was adopted thereafter. Only little cereal was harvested with sickle, it was used merely for cutting grass and sheaving. Women used sickle, while men used scythe for harvesting. After the mower the laying in swaths was performed only by women gathering the wheat with sickle and putting it on their left arm. Was it full, they turned to right and set it down on straw-rope on the ground. It was one swath bound by the sheaf-binder. It was done bare fisted at Sály. The sheaves were shocked up and a shock consisted of 18 sheaves. Who had no land of his own, was employed for share-cropper and undertook the work for one-eleventh part of the yield, while hired men engaged themselves to work for daily bushelful crop. Transport of wheat shocked up to the site of threshing began on the eighth day after harvesting. For serving of transport-cart two persons were needed: one, who threw the sheaves up, this person could be a young man or girl and another one up on the cart, this latter could be only a man. The corn was never got into the barn, but left out stacked up in open air. The grain extraction was carried out by means of horses stamping out the grains then it was cleaned from chuff making use of wind and sieve. Man-power-driven threshing-machine was never known at Sály, only that driven by horse. Domaines obtained the first steam-engine-driven threshing-machines in 1870. The first petrol-driven threshing-machine appeared at Sály in 1906, it was pulled by four horses or oxen to the site of threshing. Towards the thirties came the tractors performing the hard Job of Machine-traction. Vine-growing played very significant part In agriculture of population at Sály. Till 1851 the ploughland had hardly larger extension than that of vineyard. Older kinds of grape did not require treatment with copper sulphate spray. Phylloxera ravage culminated in 1890, thereafter grape-vines had to be introduced again. Grapes of American kinds were brought in and the fine species were engrafted into feral stock offering resistance to phylloxera. Vine was stored in caves hewed in eule tuff, where almost same temperature prevailed around the year. 204"
