Muck Spreading

The muck bury in field 157, was a useful source of mushrooms in September, some being the size of dinner plates. In early spring the pasture was treated to a generous coating of manure as the rotting dump was disposed of. Just after the war there were lots of military bits floating around, and the back half of a small lorry towed behind the tractor was used to transport the worm infested muck to the fields. Modern farms have a loader on the front of the tractor, we just had a hand fork. The foul smelling forkfuls were deposited on the trailer until a great pyramid had been formed. News of the advent of the mechanised muck spreader had not yet reached Mr Harper's modern Dairy Farm, so we had to chuck it off by hand. This was made even more exciting by jumping off the tractor and leaving it to chug along on its own in bottom gear whilst we proceeded to heave it off in sticky forkfuls.

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