What farm task do kids today know nothing about.

   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #112  

I can relate. I got my first bike for Christmas, 1949. I was in bed with scarlet fever, and I couldn't ride it for about a month. It cost in the neighborhood of $50 dollars. My brother got one also. I don't know how my folks could afford to pay for them, but they did. You can buy a new bicycle today for not much more than that. I also recall getting into a stack of old magazines at my Grand parents house that were dated 1901...and remarkably enough, a good bicycle then cost almost as much as they did 100 years later.
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #113  
Me too.

I bought my first bike, a used 20" model, when I was about 10. I earned the money picking cotton for my Dad. He was paying me 20 cents/pound, while he was paying other folks 3 cents/pound IIRC. It looks like cotton was going for less than 40 cents/pound in the late 50's, so I suspect he lost money on the amount I picked.:)

Stev
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #114  
scald a hog
shoe a horse
pull a calf

chopping cotton.
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #115  
scald a hog
shoe a horse
pull a calf

chopping cotton.

I go back a ways, and never experienced any of the above. My Mom and Mother in law chopped and picked a lot of cotton, but thank goodness I never had to.
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #116  
Depends, are they farm kids or kids who have never been on a farm? Most kids who have never been on a farm couldn't pick the pitchfork out of a lineup of tools.

Most kids don't even know what a farm is ... they think all food is created at McDonalds and Krogers.
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about.
  • Thread Starter
#117  
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #118  
My Dad was born in 1910 and grew up farming with horses. They also milked by hand, and separated the cream from the milk with a hand-cranked separator. They churned their own butter by hand, slaughtered their own calves and hogs, made their own lard and sausage; smoked their own ham and bacon, raised their own chickens for eggs and meat, and of course raised their own garden. Grandma washed clothes with a gasoline powered Maytag washing machine; heated her own water in a huge cast iron pot, with a wood fire.

My Dad road a horse to school, as did most of the other kids. He even told me that a bunch of drunken Indians, riding horses, shot the chimney off of their school house when he was in grade school (I expect that there was some slight exaggeration there, but it made a good story).

I made the comment one day, that it must of been fun growing up with horses. He said "He77 no; horses are stupid and you have to have your wits about you all of the time or they will get you killed. The tractor is the best thing that ever happened to farming". He also told me this little anecdote: When he was about 7 or 8 years old, some gentlemen from the U.S. Army came out to the farm. At that time, he said that Grandpa had a matched set of Clydesdale mules. He said they were big, strong and beautiful. The army appropriated these mules for the war effort, and wrote Grandpa a check for $800. I suspect that was a lot of money at the time.

In my youth I experienced all of the above except for mules. It was Percheron or Belgian draft horses that were used as prime movers. Add in the cast iron pot for making soap.

Horses always commanded a lot of respect. The slightest thing could set them off. I definetly did not like hooking up the trace chains. On the other hand a nudge from the horses nose to keep up the curry combing was always appreciated.

The most disliked job was cleaning the chicken house or butchering chickens.
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #119  
after plucking chickens did you save the feathers for your pillow?

I remember when dad installed the stoker. instead of throwing in lump coal we now had a machine that fed the coal into the furnace.
guess who had to shovel the coal into the stoker bin every night?
 
   / What farm task do kids today know nothing about. #120  
In my youth I experienced all of the above except for mules. It was Percheron or Belgian draft horses that were used as prime movers. Add in the cast iron pot for making soap.

Horses always commanded a lot of respect. The slightest thing could set them off. I definetly did not like hooking up the trace chains. On the other hand a nudge from the horses nose to keep up the curry combing was always appreciated.

The most disliked job was cleaning the chicken house or butchering chickens.

We used to raise chicken and sell them so the things you disliked the most I had to do them in bunches.
 

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