Toils of farming in late 19th century

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Thu, December 1, 2022 | 13:38

Toils of farming in late 19th century

Posted : 2022-10-01 09:53

Updated : 2022-10-02 14:38

Farmers plow a field in the late 19th or early 20th century. Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

Farmers have always played a vital role in society, but in the late 19th century, they were often overlooked by the pens of visiting Western writers and only occasionally captured in their photographs.

While many of these images are unflattering, they are ― through their relative simplicity ― beautiful and provide a rather fleeting glimpse of life outside of the capital and the main open ports of Jemulpo (modern Incheon), Fusan (modern Busan) and Wonsan.

Horace N. Allen, who came to Korea in 1884 as a missionary physician and left in 1905 as the last American ambassador before the colonization of the peninsula by Japan, devoted a couple pages in one of his books to describing the life of a Korean farmer. His description, of course, had a healthy dose of patronizing mixed in with a pinch of humor.

He began by describing Koreans as "an agricultural people" whose principal crop was rice. The Korean farmers' culture revolved around the old methods of the past which involved extensive manpower.

Farmers plant rice in the early 20th century. Robert Neff Collection

Because of the mountainous terrain that dominates much of the peninsula, terraces had to be constructed along the hillsides. Water often had to be raised from lower to upper fields:

"For this purpose a crude sort of water-wheel is often arranged, sometimes being operated by animal power. The common method, however, is by the use of a kind of scoop, shaped something like a shovel and hung on a tripod; the farmer works the handle of this appliance and with every thrust scoops a lot of water from the lower to the higher fields."

There was also the matter of plowing the fields. Allen described Korean plows as "very crude affairs, heavy to handle and with a flat blade or shovel which makes hard dragging for the plow animal and is very inefficient in sod or hard ground, while at best it only tickles the surface."

A water mill in the countryside in the early 20th century. Robert Neff Collection

According to Allen, missionaries introduced Western plows to the Korean farmers, who were at first appreciative but soon went back to their old plows. "Rather than suffer the odium of introducing some foreign innovation," the conservative farmers preferred to toil much as their fathers and forefathers did.

Describing rice paddies, Allen wrote:

"When the wet fields have been well manured, plowed and harrowed, with the clumsy tools drawn by great bulls wading up to their bellies in the mire, the bunches of young rice, each tied with a strand of straw, are thrown about in spots convenient to a row of men and women who wade out and jab a few stalks of the rice taken from the bundle, into the soft mud in fairly regular rows."

Pumping water in the early 20th century Robert Neff Collection

Once the seedlings took root, they had to be attended to constantly ― kept well-irrigated and protected from the many birds, deer, boars and, in a round-about way, dragons.

The rice was harvested and the sheaves were left on the small dikes between the paddies or on the hillsides to dry before it was threshed.

"The threshing is done on a prepared clay floor by means of a flail. The rice is then husked in hand mills made of serrated sections of a tree trunk fitted together for grinding. After this is done the close envelope is removed by pounding in a stone mortar with a wooden or iron pestle. This results in many a broken tooth from biting upon a piece of stone that has been chipped off in this process and become mixed with the now white rice."

A Korean farmer plows his field with an ox and calf in the late 19th or early 20th century. Robert Neff Collection

Allen ― as well as many of the missionaries ― had notoriously bad teeth and, for the most part, envied his Korean hosts' clean white teeth.

While much has changed since Allen left Korea in 1905, it is still possible to find visages of the past in the countryside. In some places, farmers still dry their crops on the shoulders of roads or small lanes. And, for the unwary and unlucky, small pieces of rocks can still be found in your morning rice.

Winnowing grain or rice in the early 20th century Robert Neff Collection

Cleaning and grinding rice in the late 19th or early 20th century Robert Neff Collection

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.

robertneff04@gmail.com Article List