took several days to thresh all the grain from an average-sized field.  Then the straw was raked away, and the grain was left mixed with chaff and dust.  The next windy day the winnowers, with large “fans,” or wooden shovels, came and tossed the mingled chaff and dust and grain in the wind.  The kernels of wheat fell back and the chaff and dust were blown away.  Last of all, the good clean grain was gathered in baskets and bags, and hauled to the farmer’s house, or to the granary, which was a round brick building standing beside or behind his house.

VINEYARDS AND OLIVES

Another new experience of the Hebrews in Canaan was the culture of grapevines.  The vineyards were often on hillsides, especially those facing the south, and hence warmed by the early spring sunshine.  The soil on these hillsides had to be terraced so that the rain would not wash it away.  The vines had to be planted, trained on trellises, and pruned.  At the time of the grape harvest many of the grapes, especially of the sweeter varieties, were set aside for raisins.  They were spread out on sheets in the hot sunshine until they were dry and wrinkled.  Then they were packed away in jars, where they settled into delicious cakes.  Figs were dried and packed in the same way.

=The manufacture of wine.=—­Many of the grapes were used for wine.  The juice of these was trodden out in wine-presses.  These were large hollows several feet square, cut in the solid rock on the hillside.  There were always two of them, one lower than the other, with connecting passages.  The bunches of grapes were piled in great heaps in the higher of the two, and then it was great fun for the boys and girls and youths and maidens to jump barefooted and barelegged among the purple clusters, and trample them until the foaming red juice ran down into the lower of the stone chambers, where it was taken up with gourd dippers and poured into skins.  The youngsters would come home with their legs and shirts all stained and spotted red.

=Olive orchards.=—­Almost every Canaanite farm had a few olive trees or a small olive orchard.  The olives were prized for the oil which was squeezed from them.  This oil was used as we use butter, with bread and in cooking.  It was also burned in lamps.  In fact, it was their chief fuel for lighting purposes.

The olive press was a large stone with a hollow in the top.  From the bottom of the hollow, a hole was drilled through to the outside of the stone.  Across the hollow swung a wooden beam, one end riveted to a tree or another stone, and the other end carrying weights.  The ripe olives were shaken from the trees, and basket full after basket full poured into the hollow stone.  Then the weighted beam would be laid across the top, with flat stones under it, fitting down into the hollow over the olives.  The oil, trickling out below, was strained and stored in jars.

HARD WORK AND BRIGHT HOPES