Google tells me: A man with a scythe could cut up to 2 acres of oats or wheat a day; barley took a little longer because it dulled the blade faster.
Alternatively:
They begin in the morning as soon as the corn is dry, rest but while at meals, and continue as late as they can see to work. Four men may cut, tie and stook a customary acre a day, leaving a stubble from nine to fourteen inches in length."
This is from http://www.fellpony.f9.co.uk/country/haytime/harvest.htm
A typical extended family - lets say ten adults and ten children - needs a hide to support itself - that's 120 acres, but includes fields, gardens, and pasturage. Your typical Heortling will have a mix of various wheats, oats and barley - lets simplify and say 20 acres of each. (This is incorrect - more the former and less of the later would be the norm, but heck, if I could do proper math I'd be Issarian.)
The harvest period for each crop is slightly different, thankfully.
Harvest, like lambing, is something that involves all the clan, men, women, children, hangers-on, sulky shepherds, forest dwellers *plus* whatever itinerants you can round up - the hiring fair of ancient tradition and recent Fairport Convention. It probably involves magic and spiritual help as well - see Mikael Raaterova's 'Spirits of the Far Place' on Questlines. But we're still looking at several week's work.
My arrow-'gainst-the-shieldwall figure would be an average of perhaps three weeks. Hard yakka. Thank the Goddess for cidernight afterwards.
Let me close with a Heortling observation - there are three types of Heortling, those who count, and poets. I definitely fall into the latter category.
Cheers
John
John Hughes
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2600
Phone (02) 6125 0587
Powered by hypermail