What farm task do kids today know nothing about.

[TnAndy]

Washing out burlap fertilizer bags so that they can be used to hold small grains as they are being combined.

I'm 68 and never even seen a burlap bag used for fertilizer. I'd think it would suck up moisture so bad it wouldn't even work for fertilizer.

 

[smstonypoint]

I'm 68 and never even seen a burlap bag used for fertilizer. I'd think it would suck up moisture so bad it wouldn't even work for fertilizer.

I'm 70, and they may have been an option when buying bagged fertilizer back in the day, at least in the NC Piedmont. If it was an option, my Dad always chose it.

Steve

Edit

Apparently burlap is still used for fertilizer bags, but I haven't seen it used for that purpose since I graduated from HS in 1965 and left the farm -- Fertilizer Bags Manufacturer and Wholesale Fertilizer Bag Distributor.

 

[aczlan]

Have the manufacturers changed the torque spec on new vehicles or is it just brain dead workers hammering them on?

Most likely its people using the impact instead of their brains.

Aaron Z

 

[Ken]

No overweight kids. What about ones with peanut allergies?

Allergies cannot remember the word used.
do know that I was called a "sickly kid" since would be ill after eating a meal thought everybody had this condition. at age 35 found out was allergic to onions. Just the smell of highway mowing the ditches and instant head ache and then closing of throat .learned to hold breath until past the mowers.
Some kids had hay fever. running nose watering eyes.
Kind of like a neighbors comment "If had known the word would of been one."
Peanuts boiled roasted and salted in shell. cannot remember it as butter.
ken
ken
.

 

[smstonypoint]

That's the only reason I know of... to breed specific strain of corn with another specific strain of corn.

Hence the term "hybrid corn."

Steve

 

[MossRoad]

Hence the term "hybrid corn."

Steve

Pretty much everything is a hybrid nowadays. If you think about it, weather through man's direct hand, such as seed corn, or nature's hand through wind, birds, bugs, mammals, etc.... there's been a lot of cross-breeding over the centuries.

I'd never paid much attention too the actual production of seed corn, other than a few of my friends telling me how much money they made detassling, and what a sucky, yet social job it was. One met his future wife in a corn field. Over the last 5-10 years, seed corn fields have been popping up around here more and more. A couple years ago I watched the harvest. They have large pickers that take the corn off whole cob (ears) VS a combine that takes the grain off the cob. They'd typically have half a dozen of these pickers going in a field at the same time, and half a dozen semis waiting. In typical corn harvest around here, you rarely see two combines in a field and maybe two semis and maybe a couple grain wagons with a utility tractor shuttling them. It was pretty interesting to watch. They cleaned out the western edge of our county in about a week or two, tops, while the regular corn can take months before the last fields are harvested.

Here's a pretty informative video. Shows the pickers and the dump wagons, semi's, etc....

 

[MossRoad]

And some kids that actually enjoy the work! SHOCKING!!!:laughing:

 

[turnkey4099]

Around the age of 8 we were putting up hay with flat bed wagons and in bed was a rope mat used to hold the hay until lifted into 2nd floor of barn then when in proper position a short rope at bottom was yanked releasing the load to be returned to wagon and it went back to field to be loaded again .
Our neighbor was using the same method and his teen agers were in the hay mow restacking the hay when a load was brought in. After dark with poor lighting in barn one of the teen agers had grabbed the loading rope to position the load to be released . the released load snapped the rope and grabbed his fingers in the sheave block. taking 2 off his hand. we heard the commotion and Dad drove to the barn to check if he could help. the father and Mother of course beside themselves rode with dad to get medical treatment and we was asked to continue helping stack the hay for them. we stacked the hay until finished and went home . next morning found out the extent of the injury.

Using this method during the WW11 rope would wear out with no replacement to be had. we had a rope making machine . 6 large spools of binder twine and some one cranking the frame twisting the rope so would bind and be useable. 60 in length. also learned how to splice the rope. so would be very little larger than average size.
of course no tires available and if a large hole was punched in side or tread . bale wire was used as thread to sew up hole .then a large boot glued inside to keep tube from being exposed. glue made from horse hide heated stank but sure stuck to the boot.
Was driving tractors mowing or raking the hay before in first grade at school.
Once teacher stopped and asked Dad to not let my oldest brother bring his wagon to school since he would ride the wagon down hill and pass the teacher going home. she had a "A" model coupe and slow on a rough dirt road.
Life was good didn't know poverty since every one else had same problems. cannot recall a over weight kid in school.
ken

We had an old mare that was trained for the hoisting of those slings into the barn. Long cable ran from horse barn door, up into loft, along the track and down to ground level. Once we knew where the hay was to be dumped we would lead the mare out as far as was needed and lay a single-tree there. Mare would answer to 'get up" and "back" didn't need any attendance. She would start at 'get up[' and walk out to the single-tree and stop until 'Back'. Repeat for hours on end with no mistackes.

War II was a "Use it up, Make it do or do without". We needed a new drive belt for the stationary thresher. All we could get was a synthetci as the natural material was all going to the military. That thing would stretch 6" to a foot during the day and dad would trim it off and put a new end on it every night.

 

[DrRod]

[I did Cub and boy scouts when I was a kid, and we thought about getting our boys into Cub Scouts. But with as much time as we spend Outdoors already, and since we already go camping, there's nothing the kids would get from Cub Scouts that we don't already teach them.]


Just my humble opinion -- I would still recommend the Scouts if you have a "good" troop nearby. There's lots more to it than camping. They earn a lot through the advancement and merit badge programs and they also learn something about teamwork and belonging to a group, getting along with a variety of people, etc.

 

[Thomas]

Help w/birthing.
Keeping predators away.
Making maple syrup.
Not to get trample by mean bull.