[AT] A cow and farming ramble

[David Bruce]

Ok, now it's my turn for a tractor ramble (you asked for it)  ...

I grew up next door to my paternal grandparents and since I was the 
oldest grandchild I'm sure I was "cock of the walk".
My mother delights in telling two stories on me-
In the first (I think I was around 4 at the time) I heard my 
grandfather's Allis D-14 working in a field so I went and found him and 
later came riding up to the house on the tractor with him.  The second 
is I asked my mom one day "Why don't you sell me to grandpa".  She asked 
me "Well, how much do you think I should ask him".  I replied "Well, I 
should be worth at least $2".
Of course, Grandpa is gone now (about 20 years ago).  I'm lucky enough 
to live in the house he and my Grandma built and I still have the trusty 
Allis D-14 and all of it's implements.  There's still nothing like the 
sound of the Allis's engine under a load.
In this area, the main cash crop for farmers was tobacco.  We grew the 
burley tobacco and I remember the BIG dinners (noontime meal) that all 
shared in at harvest time.  For labor here, the various families would 
take turns harvesting each others fields - they were usually "primed" 
(the leaves of the tobacco crop were harvested about once a week so 
sharing the labor was a natural idea. The woman of the household would 
usually be responsible for preparing the meal and would do the cooking 
rather than working at the curing barn (there were numerous steps 
required to "put in" a barn of tobacco for curing - maybe the topic of a 
later post)and the meal would usually be ready about noon or maybe a bit 
later.  A big farm at that time would farm about 5 acres of tobacco 
(carefully surveyed by the government for price supports) and usually a 
barn could be filled in about 3/4 of a day (starting at about 4 AM and 
ending in mid afternoon.
Two things that especially stick out in my mind are the wonderful meals 
and the morning snack - usually just a bottle of soda pop (a drink) and 
some "nabs" (Nabisco snack crackers).
Lots of hard work but also lots of good memories.   Of course I was too 
small at that time to share in the hard work - I got the light work jobs 
like keeping the stringing bucks supplied with empty sticks and tobacco 
stringing twine.  Later (during my high school years - mid 70's) I made 
my summer spending money hiring out to various neighbors as the "family 
share the labor" idea had broken down as there weren't many families big 
enough in numbers who still farmed to provide the labor.  After I left 
for college automation, bulk curing barns and migrant labor replaced 
many of the traditional farming jobs in this area.  Now, with the end of 
the tobacco quota system, I'm sure changes will ripple through the local 
farm economy once again.

David

Len Rugen wrote:
> Before I was old enough to drive a tractor, I had a "guard cow".  I wasn't
> old enough to remember it, but I had fell (probably climbing over the gate,
> a big no-no) and was being "guarded" by the milk cow until someone got
> there.
> 
> We always left the calf on the cow, as we wouldn't use all she produced.  We
> would pen the calf in the morning, then milk half of her in the evening,
> then turn her back to her calf.
> 
> Want a week-day only cow?  Keep the calf.  Leave them together on days you
> don't want to milk.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
> 
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>