I grew up on a small dairy farm here in northern Wisconsin. We called it a “60 50” farm because although we did have some modern things, we still did some things the old way, and hay was one of them. We put up our hay loose. For years, we used a horse mower pulled behind the tractor to ...

Do you remember the famous television commercial where an elderly woman confronted a fast food outlet with the strident question, “Where’s the beef?” That commercial was so popular that her question became part of the American lexicon. The great thing about it is the last word in the ...

I have a cone-shaped alfalfa cutter supposedly manufactured in Texas in the early 1950s. I’d like to identify the manufacturer. The cone-shaped part of the tree is the cutter. Thanks for any information. Christine Akey, Burleson, Texas; phone, (816) 920-1288; email: akeychris@yahoo.com.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, (November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He wrote a semi-autographical book of his boyhood years, titled, “The Story of a Bad Boy,” and gave the following account of a typical Independence Day celebration of the ...

In retirement, longtime professor Ian Spellerberg has returned to his childhood. Growing up in the 1950s, Ian visited his aunt and uncle’s farm in the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand every year. There, he developed an affinity for milk cans. For the past 15 years, he has devoted himself ...

The purpose of the Homestead Act of 1862 was to make it possible for settlers with few resources but a strong work ethic to claim land in the West. Almost every adult today knows about the Homestead Act but most have no understanding of its basic components. The law granted 160 acres of land ...

The barn was a large cattle barn, 74- by 60-feet, with the mow going to the ground in the center and the livestock on the sides and in a shed across the rear. There was a concrete feeding floor to one side where the fattening steers were fed. The barn was set rather at the center of a flat ...

This photo is not so old (it’s dated 1972), but it brings back some dusty old times for us, my brother and me. Our dad got us involved in farming while we were young, in Perryville, Missouri. In examining the photos, we determined we were either combining soybeans or foxtail. On second ...

In 1901, George Ade,  (1866 – 1944) was an American writer, who around the turn of the twentieth century wrote a column in the Chicago Record that featured his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech. He was often called, "Aesop of Indiana." The ...

This photo shows Terry and Anna Hoban with their granddaughters, Zoie and Rowan. This photo was taken on the acreage I grew up on southwest of Maxwell, Nebraska. Pictured behind them is a 1942 John Deere Model A and a wooden manure spreader. These two pieces of equipment are just a few items in ...