SEGMENT: FARM BUSINESS, FAMILY FARM, & HIRED HELP
Leland Sweatman>ISM Interviews M-Z>ISM Interviews M-Z, Segment 12
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- FAMILY FARM
- Same livestock as parents had. Hogs & chickens. Butchered roosters to eat & raised pullets for layers. Butchered a couple hogs in winter. Two milk cows. Wife raised kids and took care of house & helped a bit in fields after kids gone.
- HIRED HELP
- FARM BUSINESS
- Always a problem. No cash to start out with in 1949. Borrowed enough from the bank for machinery. Tried to buy a farm or two in the 1950s, but did not have enough collateral. Paid off loans in three years. Father had problems, too, poor prices. Leland first bought 80 acres in 1980 at $400 per acres. Paid it off. Three neighbors quit farming in late 1970s and he bought them. 600 acres total.
