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In the year 1790, 90% of the American population were farmers. By 1850, this percentage had dropped to 64%, and then down to only 21% by the year 1930. Today, only 2% of the American population serve as farmers.
This past year, our nation celebrated
its 241st birthday and though my heart fills with patriotic fervor each
time I catch a glimpse of those red stripes flapping in the wind, I
can’t help but have those feelings checked by the harsh understanding
that America 2018 is a nation in dire trouble.
Far from being the land of the free and
the home of the brave, we are now a nation of spineless weaklings ready
to be offended at the drop of a hat and often it is the very ones who
dropped the hat who are the most offended.
More @ Appalachian Magazine
I agree...People are lazy today.
ReplyDeleteReally. :(
DeleteI grew up on a farm. I graduated HS in '79 and realized there was no room for me to work the land alongside my father. It was feast or famine for him and it would not support me if I moved out to work alongside of him. It definitely would not not support me with a family. I made some extra money working for dad during planting or harvest over the years and thought seriously about taking over the farm when my dad retired.
ReplyDeleteThat was about 25 years ago but we planted everything but the front 50 acre hay field in slash pine - the hay field makes enough in rent to pay the taxes, power to the pump house, and insurance with about a thousand left over. Dad's been gone 10 years. We clearcut 24 year old slash pine trees where 90% of them went to the pole company to be cured into telephone poles as that was the most lucrative option at the time of harvest. The other 10% went to the sawmill. It added a nice little bump to my retirement and has been replanted in longleaf pine that should be ready to harvest about the time my daughter turns 60 giving her a nice retirement bump.
Farming is hard work, long hours, and non-existent vacations if you have animals. I respect farmers just as much as respect our military members and veterans.
Thanks and Daddy had beef cattle farms in Northern Virginia. Back then, The Fauquier Livestock Exchange, ran about 500 head through their auction every Thursday but then the rich moved from DC and bought up land which they didn't farm and now only 50 head run though, sad to say.
DeleteI was raised up farming and doing everything that went along with it. My family raised broiler chickens from 1968-88. We had five houses where I lived and then acquired another four about a half mile down the road. At peak production we were growing off app. 160k every six weeks. We have always raised cattle and still do. During the chicken growing we off and on grew 350 head of hogs, 90 acres of watermelons, 90 acres of sweet potatoes, along with corn and soybeans years ago. Nowadays, it is pretty much cattle and hay. As long as beef prices remain high, fields will remain sewn in grass with cattle grazing on it. I wouldn't take nothing for the knowledge I gained during this process and in my 20's-40's managed to work a job too. I really think "herding" is in my DNA as I enjoy cattle the most. LOL!
ReplyDeleteI really think "herding" is in my DNA as I enjoy cattle the most. LOL!
DeleteWe had wheat and Orchard grass for our "whiteface' as Daddy called them. :) https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2019/06/daddys-prize-belgian-stud-trigger.html
My daddy was a horse fanatic. In the early 2000's he had over 300 head. I didn't consider our horses "farming" as they were partly an obsession and part hobby. Most of the three hundred plus were registered paints and registered quarter horses. We did have some draft animals (Belgians, a couple of Percherons, and some mules) and a few saddle horses. A few are fine, but 300 plus is insane. My daddy is passed on now and we are down to three riders.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks. We just had the Belgian and two mules plus tractors: John Deer and Farmall. Threshers back then. Daddy was a country doctor and I would go with him every afternoon for house calls and checking the farms. (I got a comic book in reward and I actually learned to read from them.One afternoon Daddy and I went to a farm where a young girl had fallen into the thresher. :(
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