What Are Sheaves of Grain?
The word "sheaf" refers to a bundle, almost always of cereal grain (wheat, corn, oats or barley). In addition to meaning "a quantity of the stalks and ears of a cereal grass or sometimes other plant material bound together," or, "something that resembles a sheaf of grain," "sheaf" can also mean "a large amount or number" of anything, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary.
-
Etymology
-
"Sheaf" is a noun, from the Old English scēaf.
Scēaf was an important word for the Anglo-Saxons, as it was the name of their legendary earliest ancestor, Scēaf, who, while yet an infant, arrived mysteriously from the sea. As he grew older, his prowess and popularity grew greater, and he became king of the people. In Beowulf, the progenitor of the Royal Danish Scylding clan, Scyld Scefing, is based on this ancestor. In the Anglo-Saxon poem "Widsith" (sixth or seventh century), Scēaf is listed as one king among many, and as ruler of the Langobards.
Early Agricultural Practices
-
The practice of binding and tying cut grasses or grain stalks into sheaves is a step in the harvesting process.
In earlier times, farmers cut grass and grain by hand using long hooked knives, or scythes. Once cut, the stalks were bundled and bound into sheaves; then the sheaves were bundled together upright to dry. These larger bundles, made up of sheaves, were called "shocks." A shock of summer wheat consisted of 12 sheaves; a shock of winter wheat or rye contained 18 sheaves. When dry, the sheaves could be threshed. The seed was collected for food, and the remaining straw, or chaff, was used to feed livestock.
How Much Grain in a Sheaf?
-
Farmers in the UK with sheaves, about 1960.
Hebrew scholars equate the term "sheaf," an amount of grain large enough to require bundling, with the Hebrew term "omer." An omer was a unit of dry measure equal to 4 dry pints.
A sheaf was a size that could be put under the arm. According to Warren Ault in his book "Open Field Farming in Medieval England," "sheaf stealing is no doubt as old as open field farming ... in a field of a few hundred acres stretching for half a mile in every direction it must have been a constant temptation for a would-be thief to tuck a sheaf under his arm and quietly fade from view."
Sheaf as Symbol
-
Anthropologists argue that the conflation of grain with gods or royalty points to various earlier cults of a "Grain Mother," which they support with examples taken from a variety of cultural mythologies. The sheaf often symbolizes fertility and prosperity.
In Genesis 37:7, Jacob tells his brothers about his dream: "We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." The brothers (rightly) interpret the dream to mean that Jacob will become more prosperous than they, and so they throw him in a pit and leave him, and tell their father that he was killed by a wild animal.
Various artists have painted or photographed sheaves and shocks in their representations of the countryside and its inhabitants. Most famous perhaps are Vincent Van Gogh's studies of sheaves of wheat.
Modern Farming
-
In Western Europe, and later in the United States, the hand-cutting and binding method of harvesting persisted more or less unchanged from the Middle Ages until the time of the Industrial Revolution, when the invention of the steam engine led to the invention of a steam-powered plow. From there, inventions multiplied. Whereas before hired hands came to a farm during the harvesting season to bind the sheaves and shocks, the new plows had increasing capabilities, and eventually included the ability to automatically sheave the grain as it was plowed.
Today, in most industrialized countries, a giant piece of equipment called the combine is used to harvest grain. It cuts and threshes the grain all at once, thus eliminating the need for binding.
-
Related Searches
References
Resources
- Photo Credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahams__flickr/420162043/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortinbras/2948255560/
