- Thread starter John B.
- Start date
BTDT, except we had a team of horses. When Dad told them to go, the horses knew just how far to move ahead. Had a bit of a problem trying to keep Prince from grabbing an ear of corn as he moved along to the next stop.
Picking by hand was hard on cotton gloves; we didn't have enough money to buy leather gloves for all of us. My oldest brother had a device to fasten on his hand and wrist to aid in snapping the ears off but I never got to use it.
Picking by hand was hard on cotton gloves; we didn't have enough money to buy leather gloves for all of us. My oldest brother had a device to fasten on his hand and wrist to aid in snapping the ears off but I never got to use it.
Have a chain mail thumb sort of deal hanging in the shop, and have a leather strap with a flat metal pointed hook on it, never used them, but they were for harvesting corn.
It's something to look back, at how much corn grandpa musta harvested off this place in a year, with 1/2 the farm in hay meadow, a lot of small grains, probably not many acres of corn, and before hybrids and fertilizer use.
Then dad getting drainage in, but still doing a good amount of small grains and beans, limiting his corn acres to about what fit in the crib, with hybrids.
And now me, adding more tile, and just a handful of acres of small grains, and finding corn on corn out yields soybeans, I'm up to 2/3 corn on this farm.
Wonder if grandpa got 5-6 small wagon loads in his day, and I get 23,000 or more bushels off more or less the same farm.....
Paul
It's something to look back, at how much corn grandpa musta harvested off this place in a year, with 1/2 the farm in hay meadow, a lot of small grains, probably not many acres of corn, and before hybrids and fertilizer use.
Then dad getting drainage in, but still doing a good amount of small grains and beans, limiting his corn acres to about what fit in the crib, with hybrids.
And now me, adding more tile, and just a handful of acres of small grains, and finding corn on corn out yields soybeans, I'm up to 2/3 corn on this farm.
Wonder if grandpa got 5-6 small wagon loads in his day, and I get 23,000 or more bushels off more or less the same farm.....
Paul
Stan in Oly, WA
Well-known Member
Hi Paul,
I estimated the volume of the box on that wagon to be 144 cu ft (9x4x4) which is probably close enough for a calculation that doesn't make any difference. 23,000 bushels would be 199 wagon loads of that size. Different times.
Stan
I estimated the volume of the box on that wagon to be 144 cu ft (9x4x4) which is probably close enough for a calculation that doesn't make any difference. 23,000 bushels would be 199 wagon loads of that size. Different times.
Stan
Fred from MO
Member
Not a lot of Fat people back then were there?
Stan in Oly, WA
Well-known Member
Not just on the farms, either. Farming has always been hard work, so it's not too surprising to see farmers looking pretty lean. But a few years ago I checked out a DVD from the library, the name of which I can't remember. It was a collection of eight or ten short sequences from the earliest days of moving pictures, say from 1900 to 1912, in Great Britain. The scenes showed huge crowds---people at parades and patriotic rallies, factories letting out their employees at quitting time, sporting events, street scenes, etc.---so that you saw literally thousands or people. I noticed that there was not one fat person. Not one. I was so amazed that I watched it several more times just to check that very thing. (Fortunately, the video was pretty cool anyway, and the music was great, so it wasn't a hardship to watch it again.) Nowadays, I think you'd have to go to Bangladesh or Somalia to see several thousand working class people without a large number of them being some degree of overweight.
Stan
Stan
Ed the wine farmer
Member
Yes, people were not as fat in the "good old days". When I was a very young man, my Grandfather pointed out to me [at a family gathering] "that man is skinny and his wife is fat. He was a horse farmer. His son is fat and so is his wife. He farms with a tractor." Most of my family is a bit on the large size. I farm with tractors but I remember that story and keep my 6" at 185 lb. Ed
Fred from MO
Member
Yeah makes you wonder what we will look like as a society in 50 years. I was a fat kid in grade school and I was the only one- got picked on so much that I thankfully lost it in middle school and kept it off for the rest of my years. Went to 7 year olds play the other day and 1/4 of the little kids were obese already. I hope they shed that as they get older but I wonder??
john in la
Well-known Member
While it really does not matter I think your calculations may be off a little Stan.
You are figuring shelled corn to shelled corn.
Paul is most likely talking shelled corn and that guy in the picture would have hauled ear corn out of the field.
That would make it more like 398 loads because the cob would have doubled the space needed.
You are figuring shelled corn to shelled corn.
Paul is most likely talking shelled corn and that guy in the picture would have hauled ear corn out of the field.
That would make it more like 398 loads because the cob would have doubled the space needed.
Brings back memories, but my experience was pulling a similar rubber tired wagon with a 8N Ford. Still have both, and live on the same farm. One of the fields is approx. 20 acres, and not many younger generation can believe picking that field by hand. To make matters more interesting, we picked the corn by hand, into a wagon, either put in a corn crib, or transferred into a pickup to haul to a local feed mill. Usually one load, by the time we picked, transferred to the pickup, had ground, and unloaded the sacks, fed the cattle, was a full days work, or at least all we wanted for the day. Then we would do it all over the next day. Often if it was a rainy or wet fall we had to wait until the ground was frozen in order to get into the field, and not get the tractor/wagon stuck. Believe it or not, this was around 1970 (I was about 11, and vividly recall the temps in that field in January) when most had long since gone to tractor mounted pickers, but we used what we had.
Goose
Well-known Member
Yeah.
In the fall of 1951, I was a senior in high school. My dad had gotten an off-the-farm job to get ahead financially, and turned the farm over to me for the time being. He'd always picked corn by hand and expected me to do the same.
Remember, I was still in high school, and we had no horses. So to pick corn, I pulled the wagon with a VAC Case. I'd pick a bunch of corn, then get on the tractor and drive it ahead, then pick some more corn.
I lasted two hours. I said this is b--- s---, and went into town and bought a used single row pull behind picker. I thought I was in heaven!
My dad like to filled his britches when he came home from work and saw me happily going across the field with my mechanical picker. I noticed he didn't tell me to take it back, though.
In the fall of 1951, I was a senior in high school. My dad had gotten an off-the-farm job to get ahead financially, and turned the farm over to me for the time being. He'd always picked corn by hand and expected me to do the same.
Remember, I was still in high school, and we had no horses. So to pick corn, I pulled the wagon with a VAC Case. I'd pick a bunch of corn, then get on the tractor and drive it ahead, then pick some more corn.
I lasted two hours. I said this is b--- s---, and went into town and bought a used single row pull behind picker. I thought I was in heaven!
My dad like to filled his britches when he came home from work and saw me happily going across the field with my mechanical picker. I noticed he didn't tell me to take it back, though.
J.Wondergem
Well-known Member
- Location
- Rockford, Mi.
We got a taste of that before. On a wet fall, too wet for the corn binder. That sucked, but had to be done.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Guess i am telling my age, but I can easily remember coming home from one room school and heading to field and sitting in wagon eating an apple while Mom & Dad shucked corn by hand. A great memory that today's kids will never have. Just don't get any better. I know the modern way is a lot easier and more comfortable, but is a great memory of a slower less stressful lifestyle.
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