The 1974 Winter Edition of the Foxfire Magazine contains a compilation of newspaper articles written by Harvey Miller. At the time of the magazine’s publication Miller’s weekly column had been around for sixty years and was till being published in the Tri-County News located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
Here are a few of Miller’s articles published during the month of May. I enjoyed them and hope you do too.
1964
Charlie Peterson, a farmer who lives on Byrd Creek at Pigeon Roost, has recently built and old timey brush fence clear around a field at his farm where he will pasture his milk cow this summer.
A brush fence never will last very long, not over three years, and it can’t be repaired but always has to be replaced by new brush out and as the bottom parts of the brush fence will rotten most of the time much quicker than that on top which keeps drier.
The brush fences has to be built on solid ground and if there is not a growing sapling within reach that can be left that the piled brush can be placed against it, a stake has to be drove up in the ground to build the fence against so to keep the brush from rolling down the mountainside. A locust stake if properly placed in the ground will last from 15 to 20 years and sometimes much longer. But the stakes made from the white variety of locust trees will only last about half as long as those of the yellow locust.
5/14/64
1963
Carmon Miller reported to the writer that he put a ten pound size lard bucket in a groundhog hole and he went back the next morning and found that the groundhog had cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket big enough to crawl through.
5/23/63
1962
It seems all the oldtime methods handed down through the years of scaring the crows to keep them away from the crop fields has all proven futile for the last few years. To put up scare-crows in the fields, tying horse hairs pulled from the tail of a horse to a grain of corn and scattered about or stretching white twine thread through the crop fields in this day and age sounds more like a joke than it does of doing something essential to scare or kill a crow.
5/24/62
I’d love to have seen the old timey brush fences. Talk about making do with what you have on hand! I always enjoy the stories Miller shared, but I also enjoy the language he uses. In the bit about the brush fence I liked the way he used the words clear and rotten.
Ground hogs are tough but I didn’t know they could chew through a lard bucket!
I’ve heard about a lot of different ways folks try to scare crows away from their garden. Crows love to pull up corn that has just started growing to get at the kernel. They lay the small green stalk down all nice and neat right beside the hole you planted it in. Frustrating to us today, but devastating to folks back in the day who really depended on the things they planted for food.
The farmer down the road kills a crow and hangs it in his garden to ward off other crows. Last year I saw a video from Justin Metcalf about using old VHS tape as a way to scare off crows. He wound it around the field much like Miller described using the white twine. Since the tape is so thin and flexible the smallest air movement makes it shimmer and move which frightens the crows away.
Last night’s video: Perfect Cake for Potlucks, Church Functions, and Family Dinners.
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Hi Tipper, I just to thank you for sharing Satterfield’s. Brier-patch with us. I have been looking everywhere for strawberry mint and no one around where I live has it. I called Satterfield’s (they are the sweetest people) and Betty agreed to mail some to me! Plus she sent me a bonus of some chocolate mint! They are the BEST!!!
The thing I remember most about locust wood was using an axe and trying to chop some firewood from it. Well, the piece I had was well dried and I guess my axe was a bit dull. It took me forever to just chop a bit off the end of the log and then almost as much time to split it into firewood. I don’t remember any wood tougher than a dry piece of locust.
I don’t know about white and yellow locust but a honey locust post (big thorns and edible pods especially if you are a deer) will rot as soon as you put it in the ground. On the other hand, a black locust post will get so hard you can’t drive a staple in it. I have heard it said that a black locust post lasts so long that it will wear out two holes…
I know about black locust and honey locust (snotbean) but have never heard of yellow or white locust. Now the new growth on a black locust is white but turns yellow as the tree ages. Maybe that’s where he gets his yellow and white from. I’ve never seen a honey locust used as a fence stake so I don’t know how long they last.
One year I cut a young black locust for a garden fence stake. It started growing limbs and leaves. It did that for 2 or 3 years before it finally died.
Did you know that a locust tree is a legume like beans and peas? The take nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil.
After I plant my corn I place a stake at each end of the row and run a string about 6 inches high. This works well to keep the crows from pulling up the plants when they emerge.
I hope I never get a ground hog that can chew through a lard bucket.
God bless Ms Cindy with Healing and Health in Jesus name, God bless Tipper and her family, thank you for the story, thank you God for mercy and forgiveness, thank you Jesus for dying for me on that cross, Thank you Lord for each day you let me live! God bless you friends of Appalachia ✝️❤️
I enjoyed reading all of the articles today. I have never seen a brush fence, but I think it’s wonderful that folks were so creative back in those days, making do with what they had. I loved the article about the groundhog. I wouldn’t want to tangle with one. They sure have some tough teeth to chew through a lard bucket!! Have a blessed day everyone!
Never heard of a brush fence and not sure how he meant one is made. I think maybe the brush is layed horizontal alternately before the behind living saplings or stakes, kinda woven. But I can see it would make a good temporary measure while a better fence was put up. The mention of white and yellow locust varieties is new to me to. I could see white locust being sapwood and yellow locust being heartwood but I would not call that varieties. The same yellow/white difference is said of yellow poplar and it is true that heartwood is more durable.
I had no idea groundhogs were that tough! The floor of my barn feels like a big fat marshmallow from so many groundhog tunnels running underneath. KY Fish And Wildlife suggested using smoke bombs to run them over to another county. That didn’t work any better than the lard bucket.
Praying for Miss Cindy again today!
I just heard a new idea for keeping birds out of your berries or just planted seeds. They scrunched up lengths of cheap netting to attach to the ground over seeds and around bushes or over rows. They said birds didn’t like the netting that tangled in their tiny claws. It sounds possible and that fine netting is usually very cheap. I don’t think it would work for chickens as they have bigger claws.
I have never saw or heard of a brush fence. Monday morning I saw a wild turkey hen in a corn field that was planted last week right before the rain scratching up the corn seed. The crows are not a problem, it is deer in my area. I have heard of many things to try to keep them out of your garden but the only thing I think that will work for any length of time is an electric fence and even that is not a sure fire cure.
It is 38 degrees at my home in southern Greenville County, SC this morning. Ninety years ago tomorrow a tornado came out of Georgia and across Anderson and touched down in Belton, SC pretty much destroying the cotton mill and square before coming to within about a hundred yards of my grandparents home before turning and hitting my great aunt and uncles home ( Thompsons of Lebanon community) killing 5 of them. My uncle was not at home. My mother was 6 years old and in Grandmothers arms watching it come straight at them before it turned. Mother was afraid of thunderstorms all of her life. Anyone interested can Google Belton, SC May 5, 1933 tornado. Several years ago, one of our local weathermen said it was considered to be in the top 5 of the worst tornadoes in SC.
In our garden, we put ivory soap around the edges and we usually don’t have problems with deer. I guess they smell that scent and they think somebody is in the garden.
While I was away from home 14 years or so, the Bluejays ended up moving away. By the time I finished wandering, crows moved into the area. The Robins no longer stop in their migration it seems or take a different route, altogether.
Perhaps, here in central FL. the regulars will eventually evolve into a new batch of creatures. Just hoping to stick around long enough to witness it myself.
About Miss Cindy, I have been praying that she finds peace & comfort, a place where she doesn’t experience pain nor fear. When we get to a certain point in life, we realize that some illnesses do lead to death. More often it’s that time where life ends quickly & suddenly. that is most tragic. Each morning when I awaken, I make a point to thank and praise the Lord for His goodness & another day. Am on north side of 75, a great grandmother of 10, have been at the bedside of my elders and a younger sister when they passed. Yes, they are all missed greatly. But soon, hope to be reunited with them when the Lord comes back for the children of the Father!
I am 69 years old and sometimes compare my life to a dollar bill. I realize I have spent most of that dollar and there is probably not much of it left. In the last 11 years, I have watched my mother, daughter, sister in law, mother and father in law, wife and 6 other family members die. It is a hard thing for their love ones to go through. In my case, I know everyone of them were Christians and showed it in the way they lived their lives and I will be with them again. I too, pray for Miss Cindy and her family. Even though we may have our pains every day is a blessing.
Just imagine sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair and listening to Harvey Miller tell a few tales. Wouldn’t that make for a wonderful summer evening.
I enjoyed reading those excerpts as well! I’m a groundhog lover! I sit here and watch a fat one wreak havoc over the hill. He’s mad a hill any mountaineer would be proud of in those people’s yard. They’ve used all sorts of stuff (cause I’ve watched) to get rid of him. They’ve used bricks, rocks and baits of all kinds. He always comes back. I like him personally. Don’t try to tango with one. He will come out swinging when cornered. Lol a brush fence? Maybe there’s one I have a chance at… not too PURTY but doggone functional to keep the cow in. I feed crows here every day. They know me and I guess I love them too! Who stays when it gets so cold in winter, not to mention dreary? That’s right our old reliable, gleaming black, gorgeous crow! Mine tell me when somebody’s approaching too. There’s way more dangerous, meal stealing, food stealing, money stealing, nasty critters in DC that need dealt with much more than poor old crows ever thought about! Just saying. Be blessed, all, as you go about your day the Lord has made.
Mr. Miller’s common knowledge of the trees available, and how their wood holds up in different uses, stands out to me. Good knowledge lost because we don’t have to depend on cutting trees to use.
Groundhogs!!!! Obnoxious, pesky critters.
Prayers for Miss Cindy.
Since you mentioned a groundhog…there’s at least 1 living under our shed, right beside our new garden. It is partial to leaf lettuce and radish tops, so far. We’ve seen all kinds of wildlife here- foxes live under the old barn next door, turkeys wander through every now and again, and we’re lucky enough to see deer on occasion. We’re covered up in squirrels and have lots of rabbits and chipmunks. Raccoons have plundered our garbage, compost bins and bird feeders. But this is the first time I have seen a groundhog.
Tipper, we drove from home (Chattanooga) up to Brasstown yesterday, just to see the beautiful area you write about and talk about in the videos we enjoy watching. We stopped at the little Wednesday market and bought some yellowroot, a Beauty Berry bush and a rhubarb plant. We had always driven straight through Murphy to the Nantahala or on to Cherokee. But your area is every bit as lovely as you’ve said.
That’s enough (too much) from me this morning…
I woke up with y’all on my mind this morning. Praying for all of you, especially for comfort, strength, grace, and peace for Miss Cindy. And praying all your appointments are going/have gone well through the week.
I like the language too. Seems like us southern folks are always trying to find more expressive ways of saying things. So why in the world would you want to say something as boring as “all the way around his field” when “clear around his field” is available. Or why say “very tired” if you can say “plum worn out”. Or better yet, “plum tuckered out” I love our language
Always interesting messages. I wondered about the cake though, could you use crushed pineapple, undrained. Prayers for Ms Cindy.
Glenda-yes I think the pineapple would work very well in the cake 🙂
I surely do love our language also. It is so much more interesting than just plain ordinary talk. It gives us memories also of some expressions and words we will never hear again. An old expression will come to me, and it always brings a smile.