A stroll back through the fields of past

Farming always has been an integral part of life in the tri- states. While doing some research, we came up with four interesting stories from the past. They offer a glimpse at how farming has evolved from our early days.

Small Farms to Disappear

Published Nov. 23, 1941: The farm loan division of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company predicted that small economic farm units in Nebraska and Iowa, particularly farms of 40 acres and less, will probably disappear while those of "family size will predominate."

Large farms, the report added, will probably decrease because many will be divided into two or more units.

"We believe the family-sized farm, those from 120 to 200 acres, will continue to predominate in Iowa with farms of a slightly larger acreage in Nebraska, the statement said.

Severe social and economic dislocation after the national emergency was predicted by Homer H. Hush, state relocation supervisor for the Iowa Defense Relocation Corporation, unless steps are taken to alleviate defense migration's effects.

Hush said defense migration is intensifying problems of agricultural mechanization by "increasing the number of families who have farm training but are not able to find farms to rent" and by "stimulating the use of agricultural machinery because of labor difficulties."

The problem is serious, he contended, because "national defense and the preservation of a successful democracy depend absolutely on a healthy rural life with opportunity and justice for all."

Threshing rigs busy

Published Aug. 1, 1937: Threshing is the main occupation on the Dubuqueland area farms at present with the farmers working well before sun up to way after dark. In some localities, due to various conditions, threshing operations are going on several hours past sunset.

Oats are yielding from 35 to 80 bushels to the acre with the average being in the neighborhood of 50 bushels. The crop as a whole is of excellent quality. The straw is exceptionally heavy in all sections.

Other grains being harvested are also returning good to better than normal yields. Rye is running from 20 to 30 bushels for a better than average yield and barley is around 40, considered only normal.

Corn is in need of rain and several sections report the crop is losing ground daily because of the dry April. Most fields are in tassel and many are shooting ears.

(Note: The author, John J. Fuhrman, went to the Frank H. Baum threshing party, where 18 threshers took part. He reported the following:)

For the dinner, Mrs. Baum had two pecks of potatoes, 20 pounds of beef roast;, three quarts of peas, two quarts of pickles, a gallon of cabbage slaw, a gallon of baked beans, three gallons of coffee, eight dozen biscuits, four pounds of butter, two large cakes, a quart of jelly, a quart of cream and two large pans of jello.

Cotton grown in Bellevue

Published Sept. 28, 1930: Mrs. W.H. York, a native of Oklahoma, is proving that cotton can be grown in the great corn belt as well as in the south.

Mrs. York was, she says, "raised right in a cotton patch" and grew homesick for the sight of waving cotton fields.

She wrote her mother, telling her how she longed to see the cotton, and her mother sent her a match box full of seed. Mrs. York planted the seed in the latter part of May in several rows across her yard on Sixth Street.

She is now justly proud of her experiment, for some of the plants are three feet high and all are loaded with blossoms.

Mrs. York says she never saw as fine cotton growing in Oklahoma as is growing in Iowa soil.

Iowa farmers more prosperous

Published Nov. 24, 1901: Iowa, fairest Iowa, just at present is at the zenith of its prosperity. Never before in its history have the farmers (and the farmers of Iowa

Several years of good crops and good prices have lifted mortgages and put more money in their pockets than ever before. The prosperous condition is shown by the large number of new houses and barns one sees from the (train) car windows in trips about the state.

Waterloo, at present the home of more train crews than any town on the Central, if current rumors will materialize, will lose about 14 crews, which will make their layover at Dubuque after the 1st of January. This would bring from 50 to 60 families to Dubuque and would be quite an acquisition to the city.