OLD THRESHERMAN REMINISCES

I was born on a farm around the turn of the century, give or
take a few years. At that time farms were smaller than they are
today, but the farmer was mostly self-sufficient.

Every farmer had a herd of cattle, some hogs, a few sheep and a
lot of chickens. He raised his own meat, which he butchered and
cured in an old smoke house or canned. He churned his own butter
and had laying hens for eggs.

On the weekend the family would go into town ‘to trade’
taking along their extra butter and eggs to swap for other needed
items.

The farm had a big garden with potatoes and other root crops,
which were stored in a root cellar, where they kept well through
the winter months. The farmer also usually had an orchard for
fruit. It seems like there were fewer insects in those days to
spoil the fruit. The fruit was often peeled, cored and cut in half
and laid out on tables in the sun to dry for storage. To keep what
insects there were away, a mosquito bar was hung. A mosquito bar is
a coarsly woven fabric tacked on windows in the summer to keep out
mosquitos and flies.

Some farmers also had a few geese, ducks or turkeys, which they
prepared for special events.

We always tried to have the corn all in the crib by Thanksgiving
Day. This called for a celebration.

I remember one farmer who had a few Guinea hens, which always
roosted on top of the chicken house. They were good watch dogs,
according to the farmer, setting up a terrific racket if anything
moved in the barnyard after dark. Their call sounded as if they
were saying ‘buckwheat, buckwheat!’

In the fall of the year, after Thanksgiving, we would get out
the Sears-Roebuck grocery catalogue and order staples we did not
grow, like flour, sugar, crackers, etc. These staples were shipped
from Chicago in wooden boxes or large cloth sacks, sometimes
weighing 100 pounds. We would drive the team and wagon into town to
pick up the order.

Nearly every farm was surrounded by a hedge fence which was
quite a chore to keep trimmed. It finally gave way to barbed wire
on posts, which was quite a labor saver.

The farmers son could find extra work in the summertime, when he
was not helping with the farming, by herding the neighbors’
cows along the road side to graze when the pastures were short. He
sometimes earned as much as ten cents a day and with that kind of
money he could buy a lot of things when he got to town, which
wasn’t too often.

We would walk a mile and a half to school and thought nothing of
it. We may have had patches on our overalls, but mom always kept
them clean. I remember she always boiled them before washing them
on a washboard in a tub.

One of our neighbors brought a new-fangled washer that he ran
with a gasoline engine. We all had to go over and see the great
marvel.

And what farm boy has not sat by an old barrel churn for an hour
or so churning butter. The sweet buttermilk was worth it, if you
could get a drink before Dad fed it to the hogs.

Those were the days we dream about, but would not go back to
them for anything. Gone now are the fences, for three reasons:
There are no more chickens, cows and other stock on the farms
anymore; It was hard to keep the fence rows mowed; and the modern
farmer can get an extra row of corn or beans planted where the
fence row was.

We have lived from the era of the Edison Cylinder phonograph to
the ‘life-like’ sound of a stereo component outfit; from
Kitty-Hawk and the Wright brothers to a man walking on the moon;
from a single row cultivator with a team of horses to a massive
machine that will cultivate an acre of corn once across the field;
from corn that produced 60 bushels an acre to corn that produces
200; from an old Sears catalogue in the outhouse to White Cloud
bathroom tissue; from a single cylinder automobile to cars that go
faster than safety allows; from a homemade cats whisker radio built
around an oatmeal box to the modern color television set; from the
old coal or wood burning stoves where we dressed on cold mornings
to electric (soon solar) central heating for the whole house; from
hanging perishables like butter in the well to the modern electric,
ice dispensing refrigerator; from the smokehouse to the deep
freeze; from the wash board, boiler and clothes line to the
automatic washer and dryer; from binders to the combine; from the
steam engine to diesel tractors nearly as big; from a school slate
to the pocket computer; from mud roads to super highways; from the
cook stove to the modern range; from corn husking to the combine;
from corn cribs to steel bins with driers.

Farms are getting larger and so are the machines to work them.
There are fewer farm houses and most of the individual farmers no
longer keep all those cows, pigs and chickens. Even the Guinea hens
are gone.

There are a lot less birds it seems and a lot more insects for
which the farmer must spray to save his crops. Weeds, which we
plowed the fields to eliminate, are now destroyed by chemicals.

It costs a heck of a lot more to farm today then it did in the
good old days, but prices are higher and work is easier. The cost
of a new, modern tractor is as much as a whole farm cost in the
good old days.

Yes, we like to talk about the good old days, but we would not
like to return to them. But why are folks so crazy about antique
shops and flea markets: I just don’t quite understand it all,
but I still think, while doing my tour of duty here on earth, I
have seen more progress than a man living in any other equal length
of time on earth. What lies ahead for my descendants is hard to
guess, but I think it will be good and may put us to shame for
progress. We hope.