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RURAL STORIES THAT INSPIRE COMMUNITY 191 brucellosis. A bacterial infection, also called Bang’s Disease and undulant fever, found in various livestock, causing fever, arthritis, and spontaneous abortion in cows, and easily transmissible to humans. U.S. dairy herds are now tested yearly and infected animals are killed. chaff. The husks of grains and grasses that are separated from the seed during thrashing. check wire. At that time, corn was planted with a wire that fed through the planter with evenly spaced “knots” laid taut the entire length of the field; the planter was designed to drop a seed every time a knot fed through the seed mechanism. concave. A curved metal plate with teeth on its inner (concave) surface positioned adjacent to a rotating cylinder or drum on a threshing machine. When crop material passed between the cylinder and the concave, grain was separated from the stalk and seedhead. The replaceable concaves came with teeth in a range of sizes to accommodate a variety of grains. coulter. A sharp blade or wheel positioned ahead of a plowshare to cut the sod. dead furrow. Wide, ditchlike furrows resulting from two adjacent plowed furrows being thrown away from each other. GLOSSARY VOICES FROM THE HEART OF THE LAND 192 farrow. To give birth to a litter of pigs. gangplow. Individual plow implements,each with one or two curved blades called “shares” or “bottoms,”were sometimes connected together side by side (ganged) in a frame to form a larger unit; in this instance, large enough to require the pulling strength of four horses. M-80. Made illegal in 1966, the M-80 was a popular explosive firecracker known as a “report,” equivalent to a little less than 1/8 stick of dynamite and originally manufactured to simulate gunfire in military training exercises. mustardplaster. Once a popular home remedy,a mustard plaster was a piece of cloth coated with a mixture of mustard and rubber and applied to the skin as a counter-irritant. piss cutter. Something remarkable. (The term may be used sarcastically.) sickle grass. Local name for a short, wiry grass or sedge found in sandy and marshy soils. silage. Plants for livestock food preserved through fermentation in a silo. waterway. A grassed waterway is a conservation practice that can reduce the soil loss that might occur down the valleys during heavy rains or snowmelt. windrow. Long row of trees or bushes planted at the edge of a field to serve as a windbreak . ...

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