Thinking of how things have changed, we had our first farm in Joliet in 1926 with 8 cows. That was enough to bring in a little money, make butter to sell and still manageable with 40 acres. We didn't get a tractor until 1966 using horses for the first 40 years. Every crop that was planted went to feeding the cows, a handful of pigs, a team of draft horses and 40 or so chickens every year. It was basically subsistence living. The house didn't have power or running water. We had a gravity fed spring house to keep things cool and a true root cellar about 6 feet down with tornado doors. We moved to our new farm in 1971, and there were 66 dairies within a 5 mile circumference of our place. In 2014, the last dairy closed and all the old barns, homes and equipment were left to either rot, sold in auctions or bulldozed to make way for row crop production. It is sad to drive by locations where you can see barn foundations still present and driveway entrances overgrown with weeds. I think of all the families that lived in these places over so many years. People who had tough living, worked harder than most can fathom and endured a time in history that was much more uncertain than the present. I think of all the farms that were close together compared to today. Having real neighbors, helping out when a hay crop had to come in and everyone pulling together when things got tough. My grandfather will be 100 this year. He remembers the Depression, the War, the mechanical revolution and everything since. I remember the early 80's going with him to town to watch people drive white crosses into the ground in front of the banks. I remember the drought of '88 and how it finished off so many people who barely survived the earlier part of the decade. I remember '97 being a bumper crop year with so much grain production that they were using gravel rail cars for storage. The ebb and flow of farming is unlike anything else. I consider farmers to be the ultimate optimists. We have to be in order to every attempt this way of life.
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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