[AT] Department of Labor and Teens on Farms/Ranches

[charlie hill]

At age 9 I was running a tractor all day long on Saturday and a lot of 
afternoons after school.  For those not old enough to understand that, who 
might think I had abusive parents, I was lucky.  Many of
my friends had to stay out of school during spring plowing.  A friend of 
mine had 2 brothers and they ran a tractor in 8 hour shifts around the clock 
until all the ground was plowed and ready to be seeded.  The 3 boys and the 
old man tended 100 acres or more including about 15 acres of tobacco with 
two Farmalls.  A Super A and a worn out A each pulling one 14" plow.  There 
was no such thing as no-til or con-til farming back then.  Every square foot 
of ground was disced twice with a  small  disc harrow (ours was 16 blade) 
and plowed with bottom plows.  We did have the luxury of being able to pull 
two 14" plows with our D-10 Allis.  Then the rows had to be bedded 1 row at 
a time.  A few folks did have 2 row tractors like a Massey 30 or 35 but they 
were considered BIG farmers.   If a guy a MF 35 and a Farmall Super A he had 
it made!   If I had back then the 2 AC D-14's and the D-10 I have now I 
could have tended half the neighborhood.

A lot of our summer tobacco help was kids my sister and I went to school 
with.

Sorry for rambling.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Ben Wagner
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 4:10 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Department of Labor and Teens on Farms/Ranches

You're right, Mike, I don't think it does apply to family-farms.  I
understand the reasoning for protecting children, and I can name a few
folks who need a good lecture on safe farming practices.  I just really
don't see why a 15 year old today can't run run a tractor with all the
modern safety devices raking hay when many of the folks on this list grew
up younger than that helping around a steel wheeled tractor belted to a
thresher.

Ben Wagner


On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 3:23 PM, Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net> wrote:

> Read the actual document before you get too excited about this - it
> isn't quite what some of those complaining about it make it out to be.
> For one thing, much of it doesn't apply to family members of
> family-owned farms.
>
> <http://www.dol.gov/whd/childlabor.htm>
>
> Mike
>
> On 1/11/2012 2:08 PM, Ben Wagner wrote:
> > Could you send us all the link to the Solis letter that for some reason
> > disappeared from the Alert?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ben Wagner
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 1:33 PM, Dave Rotigel<rotigel at me.com>  wrote:
> >
> >> AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
> >>
> >> January 10, 2012
> >>
> _______________________________________________
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