distance between neighbors

88-1175 · Jan 20, 2014

looking at the first pic in the dust bowl thread,ive always wondered how do people farm those huge areas of vacant land,and how was it done years ago.it looks like a tracor from the 40s-50s would be out of gas before a guy got to the other end of the field.were I live /grew up theres a building or house it seems like every holf mile,theres noplace you can go that you cant see someones house.how often did the mail come and did most people use catalog ordering as a way of shopping

Janicholson · Jan 20, 2014

Drive Highway US 20 across NE. You can"t see houses in many places. Fields in MT are 1500 acres.
Farms average in the neighborhood of 12000 acres. It is just different, but way nice. Jim

farmerwithmutt · Jan 20, 2014

in my area a town was seven miles apart the distance it would take a farmer to hitch a team and get back for chores.my uncles farmed a lot of ground 4 tractors about 40 hp they got started early and went to chore time only stoped for sunday 12 hr days normal. now same ground 1 farmer and one large tractor . i cut 120 acres 1 day 40 hp tractor 7 ft cut chores done and 1 tired puppy it can be done

for

Ted in NE-OH · Jan 20, 2014

I wish my neighbors were further away.

Lazy WP · Jan 20, 2014

If you drive Highway 83 from Thedford to Valentine, I think there are 5 palces you can see from the highway. 65 miles. There are lots of areas around here that are that way. I have a neighbor with in 3/4 of a mile going north. To the south, you have to go 12 miles, as the crow flys.
When I was farming in Colorado, we had a couple of fields that were over 3000 acres.

Nebraska Cowman · Jan 20, 2014

When my dad first visited me in Nebraska he commented about all the "vacant" land. I said, "Dad, it's NOT vacant land. Somebody is farming or running cattle on it" Now you go back east where it is wall to wall people and every little farm has grown up to brush and trees. THAT is vacant land.

Jim in Ma. · Jan 20, 2014

Growing up, Nearest neighbor was about a mile away. Today they are wall to wall.
In the 40s and 50s Dad ordered some things from Sears but mostly from Monkey Wards (Mom liked Alden's.

JMS/.MN · Jan 20, 2014

Heard a story about why the Sears catalog was thicker than Wards, but a smaller rectangle. It naturally stacked at the top of the pile on the shelf, so the shopper would reach for it first!

Anonymous-0 · Jan 20, 2014

Back before I came into this family, Ma and Pa lived in eastern Colorado.
Pa said sum of da fields it took an hour to make a round,he didn't have a clock vith him, so he counted the rounds to know vhen it wuz dinner time.

Goose · Jan 20, 2014

I was through there last May.

I once had a fellow work for me who had a daughter and son-in-law who ranched by Valentine. From their house on the ranch, the closest place they could buy a hamburger was 42 miles.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 20, 2014

The State would help a bunch??? Tom

Anonymous-0 · Jan 20, 2014

The down side of that for Sears was it was more efficient in the out house.
Later Bob

Two Dogs · Jan 20, 2014

The colored pages were not very efficient though were they? TDF

Allan in NE · Jan 20, 2014

Naw, he was just a funnin' ya.

Any farmer can look at the sun and tell you what time it is.

Allan

notjustair · Jan 20, 2014

I can see a neighbor to the west and a neighbor to the east durin the winter. There is one other house in my section. It isn't a farm - just some city folks looking to get out. I do a lot of traveling one farm over as all of my bin storage is there. It is a little over a mile and that is plenty close for me. If I want a "sit down" meal I have to drive 30 miles. There is a McDonald's and a Wendy's closer but I don't call those "sit down" meals. I did forget to mention that from the machine shed I can see at least 20 oil wells. They don't make bad neighbors though, as they are pretty quiet most of the time and keep to themselves.

None of my machinery is really big, but I still can't imagine heading out into the field by the house with a two or three bottom plow. That quarter of ground would be mind numbing!

Dr. Ed · Jan 20, 2014

I lived and farmed for many years in eastern Montana. Closest neighbor was 1 mile, then 1 at 2 miles, 2 at 3 miles and next one 5 miles. Kind of lonesome in the winter! Hospital was 75 miles, 30 of which was gravel road. 100 mile round trip to go to church or out to dinner.

Started with my dad with small tractors and always unhooked and drove tractor home for dinner at noon. Gassed up and drove back to field -- 100 yard to 1 mile -- and ran until dark. Now with 20,000 more acres to farm my brothers never take the tractors home, just haul fuel to field in old gas delivery truck up to 50 miles from home. A move from field to field may be 80 miles, just fold up and down the road. If its under 20 feet wide it is good to go.

Wheat used to be hauled 12 miles to the elevator with 180 bu per load. Now it is a 50 mile haul minimum, up to 200 if the price is right, with 1200 to 1300 bu per load.

I remember going out to work and never seeing another person all day long and no cell phone, radio or any means of communication. Lots of deer, antelope, hawks, bald and golden eagles now and then, and many other small animals such as rabbits, badgers, skunks, fox etc.

It was a good life, the air was clean, the sky open and free. Now I live on 2.5 acres and the neighbors are just too close. I could not live in a close subdivision, I think I would go nuts.

Dr Ed

Howard H. · Jan 20, 2014

Now, Dad's closest neighbor is a son - 1 1/2 miles away and next closest is a neighbor about 4 1/2.

But folks are still moving away from the countryside out here - slowly but surely.

There used to a LOT more farmsteads around - maybe one every section or so... On Dad's farm, there are probably 10-12 old disappeared homesteads where you can find buttons, bits of glass, old cisterns, etc, if you know where to look...

Even one old collapsed barn where a guy used to park his MM UDLX back in the day... But I've looked and looked for it and it must have moved with the wind... ha...

Howard

jm. · Jan 20, 2014

Somewhere on my last trip out west . I am thinking in New Mexico coming down 580 from Farmington toward I 40 I stopped in a McDonals and their was a sign on the wall that they had the distinction of being the most remote MD. Something like 70 miles to the next McDonals . I guess that vast open land is what keeps drawing me back out west. Nothing lie that east of the Mississippi river. Do have a farm here remote fro these standards. Over a mile to next neighbor about any way and kinda out on a point surrounded by thousands of acres of federal land.

Wheat Farmer · Jan 20, 2014

You are right Allen. I can still get it within 15 minutes Even with Daylight saving. Dad showed us how to stick a stick in the ground and look at the shadow, Then the sun then our watch.

Hal/ Eastern WA · Jan 20, 2014

Where did you live in Eastern Montana? My mother"s family farmed NE of Glasgow and my cousins still farm that property and some near Nashua. My Dad"s family homesteaded East of Glendive, but he grew up in Billings. My mother in law was from Wibaux originally, but lived all over the state.

I have always enjoyed going to Montana, which I have done many times. Lots of family there and lots to see. We still own some property in Dawson County, but I think it is too far south to be in the oil boom area.

MarkB_MI · Jan 21, 2014

Back in the twenties there were a LOT more people on the High Plains than there are today. It took a lot of manpower to farm a quarter section, which would have been a typical farm size. When I grew up in eastern Colorado, there were still quite a few farms; we had maybe half a dozen neighbors within a two-mile radius. Most of those homes are now gone or abandoned.

I remember my dad talking about farming back in the fifties; he had a pair of Allis WDs that ran almost constantly to keep up with a few hundred acres of summer fallow. In the seventies we had a JD 5010 that handled the same land in a fraction of the time. Of course, today, large four wheel drive tractors are the norm and farms are typically tens of thousands of acres.

Ozlander · Jan 21, 2014

(quoted from post at 03:35:23 01/21/14)
I remember my dad talking about farming back in the fifties; he had a pair of Allis WDs that ran almost constantly to keep up with a few hundred acres of summer fallow. .

Don't need no tractors to farm summer fallow.

bison · Jan 21, 2014

Place i own used to be 8 homesteads in the fourty and fifty's.
I am the only one left, next neighbor is 3 ml down the road.

MarkB_MI · Jan 21, 2014

Oz, I think this is a case where we're separated by a common language.

On the High Plains, "summer fallow" refers to the practice of tilling soil just enough to control weeds. Until about twenty years ago, dryland was usually planted only every other year; this ensured enough rain would fall to get a crop. These days, "chemical fallow" is used, meaning herbicides. Because chemical fallow works the ground less than mechanical tilling, it's now possible to get a crop two out of three years.

johndeerefan · Jan 21, 2014

I helped a farmer one summer. You could only make 4 rounds around the perimeter of the field in a day. 2 rounds then it was dinner time. It seemed like it took forever to plant that field.

bison · Jan 21, 2014

(quoted from post at 13:36:30 01/21/14) I helped a farmer one summer. [b:871da22c8b]You could only make 4 rounds around the perimeter of the field in a day.[/b:871da22c8b] 2 rounds then it was dinner time. It seemed like it took forever to plant that field.

e used to have a tractor like that :lol:

Bob in SD · Jan 21, 2014

Even a city boy can tell you when dinner is. My son is pretty good at figurin" quittin" time, but often he"s early.

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