SEGMENT: DAIRY, FOOD STORAGE, & FARMING METHODS
Ray (Bud) Nuckols>UIS Collection N-R>UIS Collection N-R, Segment 3
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- DAIRY
- His herd was too small to warrant a milking machine. Took him about an hour to milk ten cows. Got about 15 gallons or two cans, & then put the cans in cool water from the well until morning and take them to the railroad for Interurban to pick up or until truck picked them up. His mother made butter, but his generation did not.
- FOOD STORAGE
- Auburn and Virden had commercial ice houses. Ice was truck-delivered weekly to farms. Ice houses were wood, raised several feet off ground, lined with sawdust. Kept ice a long time. Ice boxes had a tray below that caught melting ice. Could cut pond or river ice with ice saw locally.
- LIVESTOCK CARE
- Had livestock chores every day winter and summer. Built a windbreak in the field for cattle. Straw used for bedding also.
- FARMING METHODS
- No straw stacks now because threshers replaced by combines. Combines scatter straw as they go. Different balers make different shape hay bales. The rolled ones are wrapped and water-tight. Can send cattle out to them anytime.
- LOSS OF FARM
- Neighbor kept livestock, then stopped. Now has bees and alfalfa fields. Ships his straw bales to Missouri. Bud stopped having livestock because he no longer had room after sold some land for golf course in 1963.
