Post by Hoosier Hillbilly on Jan 23, 2016 12:26:50 GMT -5
....Farmers are found in the fields plowing, seeding, rotating, planting, fertilizing, spraying, and harvesting crops ,wives help them, little boys follow them, the Agriculture Dept. confuses them, city relatives visit them, salesmen detain them, meals wait for them, weather can delay them, but it takes Heaven to stop them.
....When your car stalls along the road, a farmer is considerate, courteous, inexpensive road service. When a farmer's wife, son or daughter suggests something they want to buy, he can quote from memory every expense involved in operating the farm last year plus the added expenses he is certain will come this year. Or else he assumes the role of the indignant shopper, impressing upon everyone within ear shot the pounds or bushels of something he must produce in order to pay for something at today's prices.
....A farmer is a paradox. He is an overhauled executive with his home, his office; a scientist using fertilizer variations; a purchasing agent in an old straw hat; a personnel director without the white shirt and tie but grease under his fingernails; a production expert faced with a surplus and a manage battling a price-cost squeeze. And he manages more capital than most of the businessmen in town.
....He likes sunshine, good food, county and state fairs, dinner at 12 sharp, auctions, some of his neighbors, Saturday night in town, hiss shirt collar unbuttoned and above all a good soaking rain in August. But the farmer is not much for droughts, expressways, experts, weeds, the 8 hour day, helping with housework or grasshoppers.
....Nobody else is so far from urban civilization and so close to God. Nobody gets so much satisfaction out of modern plumbing, good weather, and home made ice cream.
....In no-one else's pockets can be found at one time a 4 bladed knife, check book, billfold, pair of pliers, and a combination memo pad and farm guide. No-one else can remove these things from their pockets and on wash day have overlooked; 5 steeples, one cotter key, a rusty spike nail, 3 grains of corn, a lead pencil, a washer and nut, and a half-a-bale of hay in each trouser cuff.
....A farmer is a bundle of faith. He must have faith to always do his best although he faces an ever-present possibility that an act of God ( a late spring,an early frost, tornado, flood, hail storm, drought) can bring his very way of life to a standstill. You can reduce his acreage but you can not restrain his ambition.
....Might as well put up with him because he is your friend, competitor, customer and source for food. He is your countryman, literally. When he comes in tired from a hard days work he can be recharged with the magic words; :"The markets are up!"
PS: Written March 3, 1964 - A theme for EKU freshman English
....When your car stalls along the road, a farmer is considerate, courteous, inexpensive road service. When a farmer's wife, son or daughter suggests something they want to buy, he can quote from memory every expense involved in operating the farm last year plus the added expenses he is certain will come this year. Or else he assumes the role of the indignant shopper, impressing upon everyone within ear shot the pounds or bushels of something he must produce in order to pay for something at today's prices.
....A farmer is a paradox. He is an overhauled executive with his home, his office; a scientist using fertilizer variations; a purchasing agent in an old straw hat; a personnel director without the white shirt and tie but grease under his fingernails; a production expert faced with a surplus and a manage battling a price-cost squeeze. And he manages more capital than most of the businessmen in town.
....He likes sunshine, good food, county and state fairs, dinner at 12 sharp, auctions, some of his neighbors, Saturday night in town, hiss shirt collar unbuttoned and above all a good soaking rain in August. But the farmer is not much for droughts, expressways, experts, weeds, the 8 hour day, helping with housework or grasshoppers.
....Nobody else is so far from urban civilization and so close to God. Nobody gets so much satisfaction out of modern plumbing, good weather, and home made ice cream.
....In no-one else's pockets can be found at one time a 4 bladed knife, check book, billfold, pair of pliers, and a combination memo pad and farm guide. No-one else can remove these things from their pockets and on wash day have overlooked; 5 steeples, one cotter key, a rusty spike nail, 3 grains of corn, a lead pencil, a washer and nut, and a half-a-bale of hay in each trouser cuff.
....A farmer is a bundle of faith. He must have faith to always do his best although he faces an ever-present possibility that an act of God ( a late spring,an early frost, tornado, flood, hail storm, drought) can bring his very way of life to a standstill. You can reduce his acreage but you can not restrain his ambition.
....Might as well put up with him because he is your friend, competitor, customer and source for food. He is your countryman, literally. When he comes in tired from a hard days work he can be recharged with the magic words; :"The markets are up!"
PS: Written March 3, 1964 - A theme for EKU freshman English