The Rural Voice, 1979-06, Page 23Farming then and now
I would like to tell you some interesting facts about farming in
the olden days when my grandfather was still farming. A hard
working farmer, he would get up early in the morning feed all of
his livestock. After breakfast he would hitch up his horses to
cultivate or plough which ever he had to do. When dinner time
rolled around, he would unhitch his horses, then he would feed
them, give them water and brush them and then he could eat his
own dinner. He returned to his job until supper and then he quit.
By this time everything would be hungry again and he would
have to do all of his chores once again and milking the cows. At
around 11:00 p.m. he would enter into his nice cosy warm bed.
In the spring they would sow the grain and everything else just
the way we do now but instead of a tractor pulling the machinery,
the horses did all that work! This helped them save a lot of fuel.
When fall came around they would cut the grain with binders,
which were pulled behind horses, also. That same day the whole
family would help to make stooks with the grain and in one or two
weeks they would gather the stooks and put them in the barn
from one month to six weeks until one of the neighbors came
along to thrash the sheafs of grain.
They use to thrash with a steam engine and it took one man to
tire the wood, water and look after it. Altogether it took ten men
to help to thrash and when they were finished thrashing, they
sure were hungry! Wow! Could they ever eatl The mother of the
family made lots of goodies for the men which consisted of: roast
beef, vegetables, salads and the best of all was the fresh apple
pie with cheese! Just talking about all of that good food makes
my mouth water!
Today's farming have tractors to pull every thing in a lot
easier. Now they have balers to bale the straw and hay, swathers
to cut the grain, hay binds to cut the hay, corn pickers for the
corn and many more different machinery that they never used in
the olden days and alsothey don't need as much help as they us
to because we have machinery that runs on fuel.
Even in the modern days it may seem that all they do is work,
but that's not true. For last summer when my dad was working
on the hay, my uncle came over to help and he brought my cousin
along over. We were supposed to help with the hay, but that's
not what we did. We went fishing at our stream.
Danny Illerbrunn
R.R.2
Mildmay Ont.
Age 11 years.
By Dean Nott, Hullett Central
THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1979 PG. 21