Early agriculture

Can you just imagine how labor intensive early agricultural work and tasks were?? Even with all the machinery and gizmos for taking care of small pieces of land, it is still exhausting today!

AG work has always been WORK...
seems that with some of the things we have done to reduce the "work", just allows more work to be added...
Family farms are doing more... still lots of work...
But looking at some of the early tools, Ouch that really took a LOT of dedication. :smile:KennyV

Rocky said:

Can you just imagine how labor intensive early agricultural work and tasks were?? Even with all the machinery and gizmos for taking care of small pieces of land, it is still exhausting today!

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Many times in the growing season I need to put a lot of work into keeping our yard and garden up, and I frequently reflect on what it must have been like before they had power equipment. Not just for lawn care, etc. but can you imagine how much work it would be doing cleanup work without a shop vacuum or a power washer? I have a big GMC 3/4 ton Yukon XL, when it gets dirty I depend on the vacuum to clean the interior, the power washer for the exterior, and the electric blower to dry the water off. Those three gadgets probably reduce the time required to clean my truck to a third of what it would be otherwise.

My dad was born in the middle 1920's, he and his father farmed with horses for a long time...just imagine !! On the other hand, families back then had a lot of kids, and they all helped care for the home and yard, unlike the majority of today's children, who prefer to play computer games and send text messages....

JDgreen said:

... families back then had a lot of kids, and they all helped care for the home and yard, unlike the majority of today's children, who prefer to play computer games and send text messages....

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My folks also, BUT there was a period of time when the family farms were started and young couples had no children. Lots of work then with very distant neighbors helping... I've heard the stories as I am sure you have... Very tough times then. Don't know if I could have survived some of those early Kansas farm condition's.

As to kids playing computer games... Thats just progress, Indirectly because of those kids playing computer games, I can set here and easily correspond with interesting folks, like you and others all around the earth, heck I can even do it with my 'phone':thumbsup:...
I am glad they are spending a lot of time gaming on computers... I am getting to do some truely amazing things as a result of it...
And there is only a few people around today that will benefit with the knowledge of the proper way to hitch a double or triple tree...:biggrin:
Someone should have looked into computers LONG ago... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

My folks also, BUT there was a period of time when the family farms were started and young couples had no children. Lots of work then with very distant neighbors helping... I've heard the stories as I am sure you have... Very tough times then. Don't know if I could have survived some of those early Kansas farm condition's.

As to kids playing computer games... Thats just progress, Indirectly because of those kids playing computer games, I can set here and easily correspond with interesting folks, like you and others all around the earth, heck I can even do it with my 'phone':thumbsup:...
I am glad they are spending a lot of time gaming on computers... I am getting to do some truely amazing things as a result of it...
And there is only a few people around today that will benefit with the knowledge of the proper way to hitch a double or triple tree...:biggrin:
Someone should have looked into computers LONG ago... :smile:KennyV

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Kenny, the 11 acre property I reside on now was the only working dairy farm in the small community we live in, from about 1925 thru about 1960...the owner of the farm and his wife cared for all the cows, did the farm work, all the maintenance, bottled their own milk, the only time they hired help was during the harvesting season. They worked seven days a week year around and still only made an average living at best. But at one period they owned over 200 acres of property because they worked hard and sank whatever profit they made in the business back into it.

I would just love to be able to travel back in time and see what our homestead was like back about 1935 or so. This may amaze you, but the glass milk bottles used by the dairy that used to be here are worth BIG BUCKS to collectors. $150-200 for a good quart milk bottle... Heck, I wonder what the man who owned this place back then would have to say about that? He was such a miser he never even gave any bottles away, his customers had to return the empty ones to get more milk....:laughing::laughing:

JDgreen said:

.. He was such a miser he never even gave any bottles away, his customers had to return the empty ones to get more milk....:laughing::laughing:

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All milk bottles were returned ... Remember the milk man that made the rounds every morning in towns, he only left refills for what was there empty.

We had a few dairy cows... milking, not as much fun as you might think, but the barn cats looked forward to it every AM and PM....
If I want to reflect on miserable times I just have to remember VERY COLD mornings, milking cows by hand, gave that up in '64 when I went into the service. Don't miss it at all. :smile:KennyV

Rocky said:

Can you just imagine how labor intensive early agricultural work and tasks were?? Even with all the machinery and gizmos for taking care of small pieces of land, it is still exhausting today!

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I believe that is the reason why that generation could eat and drink what doctors would freak out over today. They worked hard long days on the farm. Both my grandparents milked cows, threshed grain and put up hay. I remember my grandma telling me that when she was a girl going to country school, her Mom would scrape the bacon lard out of the frying pan and put it on home made bread. This was her lunch. My other grandparents were raised similarly and they all lived to around 90 yo.

I like the conveniences of the modern technology we have today but sometimes I wish I could go back in time and live like that for awhile.

I could never have survived in pioneer days. I think about this sometimes when I watch something as simple as Little House on the Prairie. I need technology.

KennyV said:

All milk bottles were returned ... Remember the milk man that made the rounds every morning in towns, he only left refills for what was there empty.

We had a few dairy cows... milking, not as much fun as you might think, but the barn cats looked forward to it every AM and PM....
If I want to reflect on miserable times I just have to remember VERY COLD mornings, milking cows by hand, gave that up in '64 when I went into the service. Don't miss it at all. :smile:KennyV

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Kenny, the guy who lived here was such a cheapskate, I heard this from a car saleman who worked for this miser as a teenager...when he had young men helping him harvest, he and his wide served them lunch, and the cheapskate docked their paltry wages the cost of the lunch...now THAT is being CHEAP.

JDgreen said:

...
docked their paltry wages the cost of the lunch...now THAT is being CHEAP.

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Ha HA... yes lunch was normally included on any harvest ..

BUT I can remember working for someone like that when I was 14 ... 50 cents an hour packing a loft with alfalfa.. all day with no break, 4 crews in the fields, me and my brother in the barn loft... :smile:KennyV