Before World War 2, farmers had few of the conveniences that were common in cities. Many farmers continued to milk cows by hand, pump water with windmills or petrol engines, light their way with kerosene lamps and lanterns, heat with woodstoves, and plant and harvest with horses. And many had no indoor plumbing. After the war's ended in 1945, change on the farm came rapidly. Electricity replaced lamps, lanterns, and gasoline engines. New tractors replaced horses. Hay balers made loose hay a memory. Grain combines replaced threshing machines. Not only was farm work transformed from 1945 to 1955, but so was life on farms and in rural communities. Threshing, silo filling, and corn shredding bees, where farmers gathered to help each other, became memories. Card games and neighbourly visits were replaced by television. Young people left the land because mechanisation required less labour. Large farms crowded out family farms. This is a first-person account of a small Wisconsin farm, during and after World War 2. This 'living history' is a collection of true tales inspired by entries in Jerry Apps's mother's farm account books.
The values recorded in the account books, prompt recollections of his childhood and the traditional family farm values and ethics instilled in him by his mother and father.
- ISBN10 0896585107
- ISBN13 9780896585102
- Publish Date 21 April 2005
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 1 July 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Voyageur Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 224
- Language English