[AT] History Exam, now kid memories

[charlie hill]

Farmer I worded that poorly.  I agree with you sentiments.  What I was 
trying to say is that no matter how much we might want it to be different, 
the day of the  small tobacco farmer with the a Farmall A, an Allis B or G 
or any modern incarnation of the same is long gone.
I wish it could make a come back but it ain't gonna happen.  At least not in 
numbers great enough to be noticeable.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francis Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] History Exam, now kid memories


> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "charlie hill" <chill8 at suddenlink.net>
>
>
>> Farmer you are a little off base on little tractors to farm tobacco.  I
>> know
>> that is still the case in the Burley belt, etc.  Down here in Flue Curred
>> country the small tractors went by the wayside a LONG time ago.  If a
>> tobacco farmer in eastern NC has a tractor smaller than 75 HP now a days
>> he
>> uses it to mow his yard.
>>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>    I'm not off base Charlie...  :-)   I just have a different set of goals
> for our future society than most folks. Quite frankly I don't really give 
> a
> rats... err... uhh... whiskers, yeah, thats it, whiskers...   :-)   about
> the big guys. They can make needed crop changes and in many cases nurse at
> the government teat to get along. They may not not like the loss of income
> level (who does) but they have a chance to survive. Nobody in any 
> occupation
> is guaranteed a constantly increasing income level. All kinds of 
> businesses
> go belly-up every day and big farmers like to brag about being a business
> instead of a lifestyle.  I tend to reserve my wishful thinking for the 
> small
> "core" family (parents and their children at home) who are in many cases
> devastated by some of these changes and have no base of larger acreage or
> other wealth to help them through. To those little guys farming is a way 
> of
> life instead of "just" a business. The guy with a thousand acres can grow
> soybeans or hay or other crops even if it makes less or he don't like it 
> but
> the guy on 3 or 4 acres can not make enough on a lower value crop to
> subsist. About all he can fall back on is a truck patch and if he is not
> near a large population center he has little chance of that. I know many
> others don't care any more about that little guy than I do the big guys 
> but
> in my mind he is not only as valued as part of society as the big guys but
> is maybe even more valuable.
>
>    I found it very interesting when the reporters with the troops were
> filming the efforts in the early stages of the Iraq war to get food out to
> the people. When they stopped to deliver food to a lot of what we would 
> call
> the poor subsistence farmers they were told by those little farmers to 
> take
> the food on to someone else because they did not need any food. They were
> eating as well as ever.
>    It is pretty scary how concentrated in the hands of a few our current
> food supply is. I sure would like to see a zillion little producers 
> growing
> our food instead of these big companies.
>    If you have a wire wheel you can knock out quite a few spokes and keep
> going. If you build a wheel with 3 big spokes you only have to lose one to
> bring collapse.   :-)
>
>
>
> --
> "farmer"
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net
>
>
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