Golden Age Farming

[Buggnkat]

Cool thread! My grandfather used mules till he sold the farm in the early to mid 70s. He had a B Farmall that my dad bought by sending money home when he was drafted in 61. It is still running and farming for the folks down the road from the old homestead.

While growing up some of the old farmers would give me their old A and B John Deeres on steel. You wouldnt get much on trade in on those old tractors so they would just give them up for scrape to me. I would fix them up and Grandpa and I would use them till they wouldnt run anymore. I wished I had them, but while I was in service and the farm was sold they went to the new owners.

Although not antique by the standards here, my dad and I used two John Deere 60s to farm his 100 acres. We used a 7' sickle mower to cut the hay, and an old John Deere 24T baler to bale our hay to feed the horses. We just started to do the antique pulls with the newer of the two 60s when I moved off.

I do miss the fun we had pulling. There was something about hearing a Two Popper working in the bottoms late in the evening. We used a two bottom 16" plow and when we hit a good patch of soft black dirt and the governers opened she would really talk to you. After working all day the exhaust coming off the exhaust manifold would start to glow red. I am getting a bit homesick now talking about the farm. I live in the city now, but have a John Deere riding mower, but it just doesnt have the sound or smell of the old 60s. Although after spending a couple of hours in the seat, my mind wanders and I am working the lower 10 up for alfalfa hay hoping my moms Arab didnt figure how to open the gate and let the mules and horses out for me to round up!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It's tough selling the farm. We sold ours in September, 2001 and liquidated all the animals, and all the tractors, combines, etc. We still have a 1970 Ford 3400 Front-end loader that my dad refused to give up. When he bought that farm, it was our first tractor, it was worn out, tired, and ugly. He refurbished it and made it into his pride and joy. He did that to all our tractors over the years. I smile every time I see him out on that tractor. It always makes him so happy.

 

[PoohBang]

When I was 18 my dad finally got a tractor. A 1952 Ford 8N. Awesome tractor.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Those are great tractors! My neighbor has one, as did most farmers when I was a kid. My dad was always one to lean toward Ford tractors and Chevy trucks, ironically.

When I was 18 my dad finally got a tractor. A 1952 Ford 8N. Awesome tractor.

 

[Buggnkat]

I know what ya mean, it was International Trucks, Ford Pickups, John Deere Tractors and Chevy Cars. If you deviated from those, you better have a good excuse..... LOL

My dad still uses his 8N daily. They are a solid tractor for sure. I loved the photo of your Ford going to town shoveling snow. In 83 we had a big snow when I was visiting Woodrow (he had the farm that adjoined Grandpas) when we got 3 feet. Now I realize that for you folks up north and northeast, that aint no hill for a highstepper, but down in Missouri that was quite a bit. We worked for two days on a 2510 with a 6 foot blade plowing our way out 5 miles to the paved roads. Boy Howdy I think I was half froze by the time we got to the road.

I know I have a picture of my 60 and I will see if I can post it later today.

 

[sheeplady]

My father's family was a Farmall family, my mother came from an Allis Chalmers family. I was raised IH. My husband's grandfather had a Ford, but I seem to have been able convert my husband to IH/Farmall.

My husband's tractor background was very important to me and was one of my questions when we were dating- what kinds of tractors did your family have? Ok, so what kind of tractor would you like to own? The wrong answer pretty much would have ended things right there.

 

[Buggnkat]

My father's family was a Farmall family, my mother came from an Allis Chalmers family. I was raised IH. My husband's grandfather had a Ford, but I seem to have been able convert my husband to IH/Farmall.

My husband's tractor background was very important to me and was one of my questions when we were dating- what kinds of tractors did your family have? Ok, so what kind of tractor would you like to own? The wrong answer pretty much would have ended things right there.

And many a marriage was averted with that one single question!

I remember one young lady's father asking me at the door, "Son, what color tractor you sit?" I replied, "Ive sat green, red, blue and yellow and the one thing I have come to think on this subject is, they all ride rough, make you sweat, cause you to work on em at least once to finish the day". Nothing else was said but he just nodded and called his daughter down.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Sounds like dating around here. You'd better drive a Chevy truck and have an IH, Allis-Chalmers, or Ford, or you're gonna be goin' nowhere fast.

My husband's tractor background was very important to me and was one of my questions when we were dating- what kinds of tractors did your family have? Ok, so what kind of tractor would you like to own? The wrong answer pretty much would have ended things right there.

 

[Old Rogue]

Ever pick cotton?R

When I was a young child growing up in the 60's my grandfather, who was a life-long tobacco farmer, used to plant about an acre of cotton. My grandmother would pick the cotton by hand and sell it for a little extra spending money for herself. I can remember helping her do that, walking down the row picking the bolls and dropping them in a burlap sack that I dragged along behind me.

Up until around 1970, my grandfather continued to use a mule for plowing and pulling the trailer (which was referred to as a "tobacco truck") through the fields to hold the tobacco leaves that the workers were harvesting by hand. He was transitioning to the modern world, and also had a 1950's vintage International Farmall 140 tractor (which my mother still owns) that did the lion's share of the plowing and towing.

Up through the last summer I spent working on the farms, the tobacco was "cured" in preparation for sale to the tobacco companies in barns that were hold-overs from the golden era, either in their design or that had actually been constructed during the period of the 1920's - 1950s. Several of the barns I remember working in were actual log-cabin type buildings. By the time I began working the farms they had all been fitted out with propane powered burners to accelerate the curing process, but my dad has told stories of his youth on the farms when he and his friends had to take turns staying up all night tending the log fire in the barns.

Today automation and technology has even found it's way into tobacco farming. The process today uses far less human labor and bears very little resemblance to the work I did back in the late 60's through the late 70's.

One final note, I sometimes find myself waxing nostalgic about the good times I had working with my friends on the tobacco farms of my youth. We did have some very good times, but the fact is that it was hot, dirty work. I would do it again if necessary to support my family, but I am very very happy that I have been able to make a career that involved more work with my mind and less with my back!!

 

[Old Rogue]

Adding my two cents to the tractor discussion, I worked with Farmall, Massey-Fergussen and Allis-Chalmers tractors over the course of my brief farming career. The Farmall is the sentimental favorite since it's the one my maternal grandfather owned, but they were all fine machines whose utilitarianism was it's own form of beauty. My father has an old Allis-Chalmers that once belonged to his father. He bought it from the gentleman to whom his father had sold it with the intent of restoring it, but at age 81 I'm afraid that's a dream his heart may still have, but his body can't support. Of course, he's surprised me before so who knows?

 

[Buggnkat]

Rogue, nice story! Spent a day or two in the summer doing the same thing with my grandparents place.

While stationed in Germany we were in the field, being early summer it was raining. We were in a foxhole with water almost to the top of our boots, my buddy who was a son of a dairy farmer looks at me and says "Well Greg it could be worse". I looked at him like he was crazy and asked "Pray tell Jimbo, just how in the Gods Green Earth could it be any worse"? Jim says, "Ya know, we could be home bailing hay"! We both chuckled to ourselves, poured the water out of our mess pans to get to the chili mac and started eating our "hot" meal.......

 

[Renault]

Gawd, wish I had a scanner! Just found a snapshot of Grandpaw and me on the Farmall circa 1959!

Renault

 

[Stanley Doble]

Now they call it Organic farming.

My mother's people were all farm people. Her Uncle Doug farmed with horses his whole life. He never owned a truck or a tractor, although he bought an automobile in 1948. He favored Belgians and had fine teams up until he died in 1972. This was on a farm his father bought in 1911 and that he bought from his father in 1922.

Mother's brother Uncle Harold used horses too but he was a little more modern, he bought a tractor in 1952. But continued to use the old horse drawn implements. Just cut the tongues off and adapted them to the tractor. This was on the farm he bought from his father, the farm where my mother was born in 1920.

 

[Buggnkat]

See ya'll we were cool before we knew we were cool. Just proves, hang in there long enough and it'll come back in style!