Wednesday May 2nd. 1923
Fine
At home
E. Mayes cross ploughing Fallow
J. Howe & myself finish hoeing barley in Rattlesden meadow & start Drilling Sanfoin in Sandy Layer
Farm Work for the Year
May
Arable Farm: The principal work for the early part of the month still is getting in the last crop of mangels, and in the later weeks the earliest-sown swedes and turnips. In the Northern counties swedes are all got in this month. Wheat receives its last weeding. Beans will require horse-hoeing; and the earliest-sown mangels and kohl rabi also will want horse-hoeing and singling by hand-hoe.
A diary kept by Fred Knott in 1923, when he was 46, detailing working life on his Fen Farm at Rattlesden, near Stowmarket. There were 84 acres of land, worked with horses; Fred reared pigs and bullocks, and grew crops which included potatoes, turnips, swede and sugar beet. Four men worked for Fred, including a head horseman. The days were 12 hours long, with only Sundays and Christmas Day off - and, of course, the animals still needed attention on those days too.
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