SEGMENT: FARMING METHODS, LAND, & REFLECTIONS

Ruth Pauling>NIU Collection>NIU Collection, Segment 17

SEGMENT: FARMING METHODS, LAND, & REFLECTIONS,

duration 08:58
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FARMING METHODS
They plant hybrids. Recalls parents picking corn by hand and drying it for seed. Moved to narrow row planting to get more corn per acre.
FARMING DURING VIETNAM WAR
Son in Navy during Vietnam, but does not believe the war effected farming.
CHANGES IN FARM EQUIPMENT
Allows less people to work a farm then in past. (Difficult to hear. Tape skips.)
REFLECTIONS
Glad to be retired because farming has been going downhill in past 6 years. Happy that children are not in farming. Did not invest in new equipment so they could enjoy their money by traveling.
CHANGES IN FARMING METHODS
Discussion of farmers going to big combines & big corn dryers. Prestige thing for kids was who had largest leg for grain dryer. Notes that most farmers were into row crops, not small grain. In the past there were no fence lines, planted and farmed every inch.
CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENT
Lost wildlife in those days because of no cover. Wildlife is beginning to come back.
FARM BUSINESS
Never went into debt. Inherited money from sale of both parents farms. From 1975 to 1980 farming was more stable. Notes their farms sold for development. Discusses prices not keeping pace with expenses to run a farm.
REFLECTIONS
Ruth gives poignant comments on farms, the rural life, & threat of urbanization. Hates seeing rural areas turned urban. Feels we need to be more prudent. Describes feelings about urbanization. Prefers to see black soil and green grass. "I'm a country kid & I like it that way."