The Farm Flat Rock Farm was a hardscrabble anachronism in the 1950s. The dirt roads of Kansas, in those days, were littered with similar testimonies; relics of another time, passed down by the pioneers who carved them from the prairie. That it survived at all was a testament to the resourcefulness and tenacity of those that had scratched a subsistence from it during the dust bowl and great depression. Once the fulfillment of life-long dreams, farms like this one were being rendered obsolete by the emerging consumer society of post-war America. To the uninitiated there was nothing unique or extraordinary about this particular farm, except perhaps for the telltale signs of its certain obsolescence. The harness hanging from the tack room wall, the idle team of aging horses milling in the corral, the bucket at the cistern pump and the absence of electric lines all betrayed the homestead's lack of modernization and its inevitable future. Like thousands of others, it would be bought out and combined with a larger, more modern operation when death or bankruptcy hastened its demise. The passing of such a small and unremarkable homestead on the Kansas prairie would not be noticed nor long remembered -- yet it is. To a small boy growing up in the inner city, there was no place more wondrous or exciting to visit than that small farmstead somewhere northeast of Emporia. It was a vibrant place, alive with the sights and sounds of nature and bustling with important work that mattered. Work whose value and purpose was easily recognized by a child. Work connected to the land and animals in some grand collaboration with the universe. There were people there too who were glad when you came to visit. Patient people who cared, and who took the time to listen as well as teach. People who understood the value of a small child's efforts to help with the important work of the farm and encouraged those efforts. There always seemed to be a humming in the background that permeated everything there. A current, perhaps, that ran through it all and kept the people, land, and animals in sync with some universal pattern. I couldn't actually hear it, but if I sat very still on the rocks by the well pump, on a warm spring afternoon, and closed my eyes, I could feel it. The warmth of the rock beneath me, the sun reaching out to touch my skin, the breeze on my cheek -- all were connected -- as I was, with the sounds of the insects and animals around me.
The address for Moraine Farm is 1233 W. Stroop Rd (Sutherly Newsbank). It was home to the late Col. Edward Andrew Deeds (Sutherly Newsbank). Edward Deeds was part of the aviation program during WW1. Moraine Farm is 100 years old (this year)(Sutherly Newsbank). The property is approximately eight acres large (Sutherly Newsbank). Moraine Farm was part of a great time of engineering and development and continues to be a great place with a great future still ahead.
A number of ideas, suggestions, and points can be extracted from “Illinois Bus Ride,” a passage from Aldo Leopold’s collection of essays entitled A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. However, there must be one main thesis that the author is attempting to get through to his audience. Leopold argues that we Americans have manipulated the landscape and ecosystem of the prairie so that it seems to be nothing more that a tool at our disposal. All aspects of what was once a beautiful, untamed frontier have been driven back further and further, until they were trapped in the ditches.
Part I of A Sand County Almanac is devoted to the details of a single piece of land: Leopold’s 120-acre farmed-out farmstead in central Wisconsin, abandoned as a farm years before because of the poor soil from which the "sand counties" took their nickname. It was at this weekend retreat, Leopold says, "that we try to rebuild, with shovel and axe, what we are losing elsewhere". Month by month, Leopold leads the reader through the progression of the seasons with descriptions of such things as skunk tracks, mouse economics, the songs, habits, and attitudes of dozens of bird species, cycles of high water in the river, the timely appearance and blooming of several plants, and the joys of cutting one’s own firewood.
The Roaring Twenties approached and the citizens in Colorado were facing rough times. In 1920, many people such as farm owners, manufacturers, and even miners were having a hard time making a living due to an economic downfall. The farmers especially, where facing the toughest of times. The price of various farm-grown goods like wheat, sugar beets, and even cattle was dropping because their goods were no longer needed by the public. Wheat had dropped in price from $2.02 in 1918 to $0.76 by the time 1921 came around. Sadly, the land that they were using to grow wheat became dry and many farmers had to learn to grow through “dryland farming” which became very popular in the eastern plains from 1910 to 1930 (Hard Times: 1920 - 1940). Apple trees began to die due to the lack of desire for apples, poor land, and decreased prices. Over the course of World War I, the prices of farm goods began to increase slowly. Farmers were not the only one facing this economic hardship while others in big cities were enjoying the Roaring Twenties.
Joel Salatin’s family moved to Virginia in 1961, to a very poorly maintained farm. This farm was the family’s “clean slate” which they could make into whatever they wanted. His parents were the original unconventional small farmers. They began planting crops and building moveable fences and shelters for their livestock. With the help of Joel’s father William, the work that had progressed after his father’s death, in 1988 Polyface began to skyrocket in its’ growth. The idea of unconventional farming normally has a negative connotation, but Joel Salatin as an “out-of-the-box thinking process” (Polyfaces.com, video).
From some unaccountable or responsible cause, the product is somewhat more regrettable, on the other hand the cost of cotton is somewhat less. The ending up of the second year 's homestead operations discovers Drawbridge, Goff, and Tafton with the accompanying obligations going up against them, separately: $65, $115, $155. The viewpoint is blue for these ranchers, and they feel blue. Accordingly, or almost consequently, this framework works in a great many cases. Every year the dive into obligation is more profound; every year the weight is heavier. The battle is misfortune begone. Considerations are numerous, grins are few, and the solaces of life are scantier. This is the intense product of a technique for doing business which goes to the rancher in the appearance of companionship, yet administers him with dictatorial
When looking at the vast lands of Texas after the Civil War, many different people came to the lands in search for new opportunities and new wealth. Many were lured by the large area that Texas occupied for they wanted to become ranchers and cattle herders, of which there was great need for due to the large population of cows and horses. In this essay there are three different people with three different goals in the adventures on the frontier lands of Texas in its earliest days. Here we have a woman's story as she travels from Austin to Fort Davis as we see the first impressions of West Texas. Secondly, there is a very young African American who is trying his hand at being a horse rancher, which he learned from his father. Lastly we have a Mexican cowboy who tries to fight his way at being a ranch hand of a large ranching outfit.
The American culture was built upon farming and agriculture but since the end of the civil war and the abolition of slaves, things have changed dramatically to the American lifestyle. This time brought on the Industrial Revolution which sparked many factories and new ways of transportation across America. There were many acts passed to encourage the agricultural lifestyle still such as the Homestead Act of 1862, the Timber Culture Act of 1873, the Desert Land Act of 1877, and the Timber and Stone Act passed in 1878. As a result of these acts, farm income dropped and new machines and methods or systems to farm such as sharecropping and tenant farming became available and made it much easier to increase crop yields. The people who had the smaller farms, uncultivated land, or limited resources could not compete against the farms who were bigger, better, and more modernized with the new technology. After many people failed on the farms, they were seen heading to t...
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
As a child I remember hearing stories about a lost family fortune from my father’s side of the family. I never put a lot of stock into those stories, but evidently they were true. My father’s side was comprised of farmers for many generations. The Owens family owned thousands of acres of land in Kentucky, on which they farmed tobacco and raised horses and cattle. My father, Leland, blames his grandfather’s generation for whittling away the family’s money. Even with the loss of prestige of owning such an abundance of land, the family continued to farm. I suppose it is all they knew. They became good, working class farmers and small business owners, working on their modest-sized farms. But they did own the land which separates them from the working poor. The sizes of the farms dwindled over the generations; my father’s father, Harlan, owned about 30 acres in northern Kentucky. Harlan’s brother Ralph has expanded his wealth over time and now owns about 600 acres of land in Kentucky.
Although early nineteenth century Kansas was vast in territory, the land was mostly unpopulated. This cheap abundant land along with the dream of a better life lured farmers from the east to start their lives in Kansas. Many people were driven to pack their belongings and start their westward bound journey. Floyd Benjamin St...
The Mother is among a family of four who lives on a small farm and takes immense pride in what interests her, however her passion does not particularly lie in her two children; James and David; nor in her husband and their interests; but instead lies within her chickens. Though chickens bring the most joy to the Mother, they are not the sole animals that live on the farm. The animal that draws the most interest from the father, James and David is their horse, Scott. At a young age, Scott was used as a working mule for the family and grew up alongside the Father and two Sons. To the father, Scott was like one of his own sons, and to James and David, Scott was like their brother; but according to the Mother, “He’s been worthless these last few years”(Macleod, 267). Ever since Scott was young, he was a burden on the Mother’s lifestyle; she never took a liking to the horse even when he served as a source of profit for the family. The Mother had never appreciated the sentimental value that Scott possessed because he had never been a particular interest to her. Once Scott had aged and was no longer able...
...a rural farming community in the 19th century South where accents are thick and homes are few and far between. The young girl’s family is privileged enough to own a buggy whereas the Slumps own a simple wagon. The Slumps have a dirt floor to which clearly exemplifies the poor living conditions that they survive in. The girl’s father not only owns better equipment but also has a shed to which he can store the items in to keep them from being exposed to the elements. The little girl acknowledges the diversities between their two lives but doesn’t consider the Slumps as inferior people simply because they live an austere lifestyle. Her concern, as far as she’s concerned, is that the Slumps sleep under the stars, pick plums, and make jelly: a task that is unfamiliar and exciting to her to which she can merely examine from afar with a desire to partake in the amusement.
We had chosen the topic of food deserts a bit flippantly. We’d casually chosen Homewood, too, because it was the closest food desert to our school and only had one small grocery store. It was less than three miles from us, but as we approached the struggling town the bustle of the city seemed to die down. It was a blustery morning in January, but it was still oddly deserted as we pulled up to a man hoisting cases of potatoes out of his small sedan. We couldn’t turn back, so we swallowed our pride and got out of the car. We were there to do field
Thompson, Paul B. and Stout, Bill A. Beyond The Large Farm. Westview Press, Inc.: Colorado 1991