What Killed The Farmer in The Dell?
The traditional family farm in America is all but a thing of the past.
image via wikipedia
The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be. That was the opening line of a popular song of the 1940s and pretty much epitomizes the plight of today’s family farm. What remains as a so-called family farm now is land generally inherited and co-owned by father/son or brother/brother or uncle/nephew or some combination of all. Hardly any one individual is financially capable of scratching a living out of a 120-acre piece of land these days. Let’s step back and see if we can determine the underlying factors that caused the demise of such a wonderful institution.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenzemlicka/3062903747/…
In the early days when field corn ripened farmers used a machete-like blade called a corn knife to cut the stalks by hand, tied them into bundles and put them in shocks where they remained until needed. Later the mechanized corn picker came into play. Some corn went to the barn where the ears were shelled for livestock feed and a sufficient supply was put back as seed for planting next year’s crop. Fodder was used as bedding and some was chopped up and elevated into the silo for winter roughage for cattle. Leftover corn went to the local mill where the ears were either exchanged for cash or ground into meal for a fee.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49598046@N001368039011/
Wheat was also planted by row crop farmers and was their basic cash crop since the demand for soybeans had not yet arrived. The only grain retained was enough for next year’s seed and sufficient to grind into flour for the year. It was a winter crop planted in the late fall and snow was hoped for to insulate the new green shoots against freezing temperatures. The grain was harvested early on with a scythe-like tool but by the time I came along the McCormick Binder was available–the forerunner to today’s combine. It dispensed bundles which were picked up by hand and loaded onto wagons and shocked–52 bundles to the shock, the last two on top to protect the rest from the rain.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klinecreekfarm/3805686526/
It was hot, hard work but it was fun for a lad. Threshing day! Because no individual farmer could afford a threshing maching (that separated grain from the chaff) or the steam engine that operated it, he had to contract a city fellow who did own one by appointment. When the day arrived all the neighboring farmers in the township came to help. Their wives came too and the kitchen was hopping. Threshing didn’t stop until the job was finished and by then the crew was famished and those farm wives knew how to cook. The menu was always the same: fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, an assortment of vegetables, multiple pies and iced tea. Most kitchens still sported wood cook stoves. I never did understand how women could estimate oven temperatures in one of those.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vidular/2504751722/
Farming with horses did not come to a complete halt with the advent of the tractor. Even when farmers brought tractors into the mix at least one team was retained to plant corn. Planter tongues were not compatible with tractor hitches. When one of the animals finally died, often in the harness, it then became less expensive to purchase a planter that attached to the tractor than to buy a new team that would be used for only one purpose.
photo by the author
The tractor was the beast that modernized the family farm. Most row crop farmers chose one of the top three brands–Allis Chalmers, John Deere or Farmall (International Harvester back then). One neighbor spent a little extra and bought a 1951 Minneapolis-Moline similar to the one pictured above. It sported the only ag engine with pistons that operated horizontally instead of up and down and a kid could overhaul it with a set of box wrenches and a screw driver.
What killed the farmer in the dell? People. The U.N. reports that as of November 1, 2009 there were 6.794 billion humans on the face of the earth and that there will be 9 to 11 billion by 2040. This compares to only 2.519 billion in 1950 and 6.07 billion in the year 2000. The fatal philosophy for the small agrarian is called the Green Revolution which began in 1945 to allow food production to keep pace with worldwide population growth.
The transition from traditional farming to green revolution agriculture required the establishment of rural credit institutions. Wealthier farmers could handle this but the dirt farmer, unaccustomed to debt, who had to obtain credit to keep up risked one bad weather year and the bank owned the farm. It happened all too often. Now, corporations with a strong line of credit are the better loan prospects for bankers. If the family farmer cannot borrow money he can’t even plant corn anymore. His own seed will produce about 80 bushels to the acre–not nearly enough. GMO seed produces 200 bushels an acre but it costs $90.00 a bushel to buy.
The introduction of nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides and modern irrigation systems increased grain production between 1950 and 1984 by 250 percent thus dramatically lowering market prices that doomed the family farmer resulting in farm wives, for the first time, taking jobs outside the home and resulting in a major rural-to-urban migration. One by one the family farm turned into housing developments and shopping centers.
The old gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be, many long years ago.
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User Comments
Teves
On November 2, 2009 at 12:24 am
Well done…
Jamie Myles
On November 2, 2009 at 12:44 am
Excellent article. It is so sad that what was part of what made this country strong has died in the name of progress.My Grandfather was a farmer and I have many fond memories of summers spent on his farm.
James DeVere
On November 2, 2009 at 12:58 am
Nice write. Recently the father of the Green Revolution passed away. I can’t recall off hand his name but his pioneering work meant crop yields kept pace with that population growth you talk of.
I own a farm. Currently, the informal, or hobby farm, is doing quite well. I think the small, farmer’s market will grow – as you mentioned – brother/brother, or small plots . j
Hettie
On November 2, 2009 at 1:46 am
Really interesting article having been a dairy farmers daughter in 1940-1960s I can remember my fathers first tractor and bailer interesting machines , Still I prefer the horse you cant make a friend of a tractor as far as i am aware. Thanks for the great read.
Phill Senters
On November 2, 2009 at 1:50 am
I love reading this kind of story. Great job Ken.
johnnydod
On November 2, 2009 at 1:57 am
Interesting article Ken
Christine Ramsay
On November 2, 2009 at 2:12 am
Times have certainly changed in the farming community. I love this look back at the old farming days. I remember making my summer earnings from vegetable and fruit picking in the fields. That has all gone as farmers have coverted their farms to suit the government and to eke out a living. A great piece.
Christine
Goodselfme
On November 2, 2009 at 2:15 am
You sure hit the spots here. Well done too.TX
Papa Sparks
On November 2, 2009 at 2:28 am
A very interesting read Ken.
Mr Ghaz
On November 2, 2009 at 3:11 am
Great post!..this was really interesting article..traditional family farm in America..vivid memories indeed..loved the pictures..Thanks for sharing
Annashank
On November 2, 2009 at 3:20 am
Really nice article!!! Please do read some of my stuff,,, Have added you as a friend!!!
K.Reshma
On November 2, 2009 at 4:21 am
Excellent article
Lord Banks
On November 2, 2009 at 4:48 am
Brilliant article thought stimulating.
nadinesimone
On November 2, 2009 at 5:48 am
Very interesting and informative write.
Thank you for sharing.
Daisy Peasblossom
On November 2, 2009 at 6:12 am
Yes, that about says it all. I wonder though…we may be looking at a new time of change. Last year’s contaminated spinach sent a lot of people out to grow their own salads. Home gardening, at least, may not be quite dead.
Jane Benitez
On November 2, 2009 at 6:16 am
Farming is such a beautiful and peaceful way of life. We still have a ranch in Texas and it is still my favorite place to be – loved your article and the pictures..
chitragopi
On November 2, 2009 at 7:39 am
It is sad to note the plight of the small farmers. This is the case the world around. Your description of the oldtime farming took us to totally different,happy world. Liked it.
Vikram Chhabra
On November 2, 2009 at 9:27 am
I think thats what capitalism is all about….The big and rich will always rule and the small guys have to adjust with the times…
Marie Antoinette
On November 2, 2009 at 10:17 am
Excellent, Bravo! Love this article and I am printing and pasting it in my daily journal. You also gave me the menu for today\’s meal and that is what I am making: fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, an assortment of vegetables, multiple pies and iced tea (except for the pie, crumb cake will have to do). My husband and I have decided to leave the city and return to a simpler, basic life, where we can grow some of our food and be more self sustaining. We are in the process of selling our home and closing on an old farmhouse.
Lady Sunshine
On November 2, 2009 at 11:00 am
Great article, Ken. Such a shame, family farming is becoming a thing of the past, as with a lot of traditions. And wow, I loved Marie Antoinette response!
Sourav
On November 2, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Another very informative and well written article.
Mystify
On November 2, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Super write Ken,highy enjoyable! It is such a shame that because of the mass population/growth that the adverage farmer could no longer keep up.This was a very nostalgic write and I was very easily able to envision the farmers out on the fields and the wives cooking in the woodstoves.I believe they did have a tempreature gauge on them ,on the oven that is,perhaps not the really old ones but into the 20th century.Not sure how they could have ever have cooked on those old pot stoves though!
Lostash
On November 2, 2009 at 6:50 pm
…..and this is progress too Ken! There’s a lot to be said for a slower, simpler style of life. You just have to be rich to do it now.
Ruby Hawk
On November 2, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Great information Ken, when I was growing up in rural Georgia there were many small farmers who grew cotton and corn as a sideline. I have one brother in law now, who raises cattle as a side line and grows hay to feed them. I see a field of corn ocassionally and no cotton in years. As you point out nobody can afford to farm.
Misty I remember the wood stoves and they didn’t have a gage. Not the ones I knew. You managed the heat with the kind of wood and the size of the fire in the fire box. You used dry wood for a hot fire and slowed it down by putting in a stick of green wood. Women learned to time it perfectly.
PR Mace
On November 3, 2009 at 12:31 am
Outstanding information. My parents had a farm for awhile and we raised pigs. I loved living on that farm. My grandparents had a cattle ranch and kept a horse for me. While my grandparents were the only owner of their ranch you are correct most farms now are a large family business. I guess our children will have to play at farming on Farmville.
deep blue
On November 3, 2009 at 5:09 am
Nice work, Ken. Automization and computerization replaced manpower of course. Imagine, a single horse could be replaced by a thousand horses nowadays and you couldn’t bother about grass to feed them but high octane fuel. Someday synthetic farming will be provided to prolong our species. Consider a tablet a day to nourish every human being. Boy that’s a big relief in getting back and forth out of the toilet.
lillyrose
On November 3, 2009 at 11:33 am
Such a great write! I would really hate all the farms to go and be replaced with houses!! A lot of the farmers round here do other things now at the farms, farm shops, adventure centres, pets corners and many more!
Paul2KAD
On November 3, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Nicely written. Thanks.
Chris Stonecipher
On November 3, 2009 at 10:46 pm
When I was a little boy in growing up in Michigan in the late 70’s and early 80’s, our neighbors where plowing fields with a horse team and plow. Your article brings back memories and you described it well.
Blessings to you,
Chris
sunshine926
On November 3, 2009 at 11:12 pm
wow! 11 billion people by 2040. incredible. Great article and images.
Themax
On November 4, 2009 at 5:17 am
Good to read it,Very interesting, thank you
Jane Jane
On November 5, 2009 at 8:43 am
well done ken. Always have something interesting to offer.
wonder
On November 12, 2009 at 3:49 am
Farmers are commiting suicide out here.An article so analytical and full of practical wisdom and empathy.The world should come to an end for us to start all over again properly.
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