SEGMENT: FARMING METHODS, FARM EQUIPMENT, & LIVESTOCK
Charles Shuman>UIS Collection S>UIS Collection S, Segment 13
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- FARM EQUIPMENT
- Old farm tools were not kept. Remembers horse-drawn one- and two-row cultivators. He bought one of first Farm-All tractors in area. It had cultivating equipment on it. Had eight horses in 1929, used for plowing, harrowing, and cultivation of corn. Hated husking by hand, so bought a two-row IH Farm-All mounted corn picker. High rate of breakage.
- LIVESTOCK
- Used the cows to clean up the stalks in the field for 2-3 months. Used hogs, too - "Hogging down" the fields. 150-hog herd 1929-1945.
- FARMING METHODS
- In 1853 grandfather's farm was self-sufficient. Once he hired his twin sons to work the fields and paid them with a wagonload each of corn; they took it to Fort Wayne cash grain market. His own farm was self-sufficient for a long time with a dairy cow, pigs, chickens, hogs, and cattle, producing feed for them. One-third power was horse-power. Today little is produced on farm; must buy. Sons hire labor, use commercial fertilizer, weed control. Farming is specialized now. It is not economical to take time to have a garden or chickens [to be diversified or raise your own food].
