Bought my FIRst Rural Heritage Magazine yesterday

[FarmboyBill]

And, while, I really like it, and will subscribe to it, I found some articles that were plain out wrong, or lots of meat was ommitted that I think people would like to find out about, And, to an extent, it made me wonder about articles that I dont know so much about, as to either their being right, or that all one needs or wants to know about the topic is in it. SO, with that in mind, and No vindictiveness intended, I am going through some of the articles and bring up stuff that I see. The hope is that either we can come to ideas about those things, , and maybe talk about own ways of handling some of the things mentioned.

Corn planters. It says Geo W. Brown is generally excepted to be the inventor of corn planters in the late 1850s, and that Keystone had to pay a $200.000 infringement suit in 1874. Since I dont know about this suit, I have to assume that it happened, BUT, when you assume that each planter was selling for around $50.00 in the 1860s, Which was a TON of money then, I got to wonder about the total Sum. Also, If Brown is the supposed inventor in the late 50s, What about people like Buckminster. and Cole, and Olds. The first 2, walking planters in the 1840s, the last a 2 row walking in the mid 50s.

On the article, Getting more from less. It says they bought there farm in 97 for 120 for 80. And in a couple years they will have it paid for that is 15yrs on a 20yr contract. It dosent say what they had in their pockets or an inventory of machinery when they signed the papers, But, I guarantee you they had almost all of their machinery, includeing horses & harness, AND cows, and a sizeable chuck of money for the down, when they signed the papers. It says they (planned to milk around 25 cows, and raise hogs, chickens and sheep and mkt garden.) My aunt and uncle milked that many gurnseys back in the 50s and 60s, with bucket milkers and a cooler, and it took them hours. He says they milk by hand. Thats around at least 4 cows ea assumeing theyre not milking but 12 mostly a year. I didnt know anybody who would accept milk at a creamery anymore if milked by hand. Thats what got dad outta the milk business is they wouldnt accept hand milked milk anymore. The article dosent say how much land is farmed, thereby we dont know how much corn or hay or oats they raise. It dosent say how many horses he uses, and that he has a tractor for the thresher, corn chopper and silo filler. Well, If he dosent like useing a tractor, how come he dosent use a corn binder and ensilage chopper, And, if theyre deep into saveing money why dosent he have a buzz saw, or/and a husker shredder I only see 2 horses, and with a tractor IF he uses it for heavy jobs that could be enough, But I bet he uses the tractor also to plow and disc with. That saves the horses the toughest jobs on the farm at a time when there the weakest. AS to milking, what is a collector? Is that what there pouring the buckets of milk into the (hopefully strains) it and pumps it into the collecton tank?

This part should really be put on the singles forum HOW DID HE GET HIS DAUGHTERS MARRIED OFF TO FARM BOYS, as few as there are nowadays.
He says he raises hogs, but with op corn they cant be more than say 2doz sows, as he has to feed the chickens also, BUT, he should have a high volumn of ensilage for the cows.

My aunt and uncle had a nice 80, round 70 of it farmable. They also milked till the company quit buying hand milked milk. They raised alot of hogs, and his main crop was corn, say around 50/60 acres of it. He, when he was young took occasional jobs during fruit harvest in town at the apple association, and aunt Bert worked for a cafe in town for 20yrs. What im saying is there had to be an outside source of money or they wouldnt have made it. They only had 1 tractor the time I knew of them, a 41 H Farmall, and 2 horses that got sold or died, or one died and they sold the other around 60.
My folks had 120, of which around 80 was farmable. Dad milked by hand till round 60. Then he usually raised and sold most of his corn or milo. He and mom worked from the mid 50s on till retirement.
My point is, that IF the people in the article DID build/buy there farm and NOT work, Theres a secret that needs to by analized so that others like us might see it and try for it.
On P 34. U see the aurthor of the article Make mine a Mule? He lives in Okla, and his name is Terry Nichols. Spelled the same way as the Murrah Bldg Bomber.
Feed and Water your Horse, was a good written article I learned some from.

On P 41, They have what looks like a push plow with a 5 point weeder that they say has an optional horse hitch. Id like to see that. Might be something Id like to get for my grandsons.
On P 41 I see Alina Rice, usta be Arnold writting a good article. She used to write for SFJ when she was a small teenage girl. Anybody know why she quit?
I really like the color pictures, and I didnt know you could run a plow without keeping a hand on the handles, as in P 65
I dont know who Chris Arnold is other than relation to Alina Rice Arnold. But they have a good article on Mkt gardening. I am going to have to check into Gardens Alive, for sprays next year IF I raise my mkt garden. BUT, It says they planted 6 125ft rows of sweet corn. Dosent say if they staggered them , which we do here to have a continous supply until heat stops it, or it was planted in one batch. I sure noticed where they said that op varieties were bothered less than hybred varities by insects. What is a spinner in washing and spinning lettuce?
In the goat raising article, Where she says they only milk once a day. Whats your thoughts about that. Although id like it, as I would only be out there once a day, and am getting a decent amount of milk for the time spent. Im just too afraid of the big M to do it. Had it once, that was enough.
Also she says they remove the bucks when 2 mos old to prevent unwanted mateings. Is that with their sisters, or with mama. I have a small buck, that is around 5 mos old . I also have 2 does, full growed, all Nuibans. I have seen him try to mount one of the does once, maybe 2 mos ago. TOO young and short lol.
On the human powered saws article. Seems like a couple of them would be good exercise for one needing it, but I bet your legs and back would be talking to you by days end,

Well, thats enough for now. Like I said, I did enjoy the magazine, and just hope that this post might stimulate conversation in a genial way about the ways we think and do things on our farms.

[Bret4207]

There is plenty of hand milked milk gathered and sold around here. It's mostly Amish and goes for cheese, not fluid milk.

I think you're making a lot of assumptions in your review of the articles. The Amish in my area commonly buy farms at market price and get it paid off in 15-20 years. How? They do this thing called WORK, lots of it, and with low overhead.

If you want to take issue with anything in Rural Heritage go to their website and you can talk with the editor and probably the authors.

[upnorthlady]

FarmBoyBill - We also just bought a subscription to Rural Heritage too, this year. My husband and I also agree that some of the info in the articles is just plain wrong. My husband has written to them regarding one article that showed photos of how to hitch up horses to train them to plow, and he felt it was wrong. They wrote back to him and said there are "many ways to do things". However my husband has been working with draft horses for almost 40 years and he knows they were wrong. Still - we enjoy most of the magazine and the photos. Just have to take things with a grain of salt, I guess. We did enjoy the article earlier this year on using Belgians for hauling maple sap. We have a very large sugarbush and tap about 200 trees. We were thinking of using the horses next spring to help haul the sap. (Couldn't do it this year, as we needed to repair the wagon)

[FarmboyBill]

Bret. I posted in here my thoughts as I wanted to stir up the ideas and experiences of the people in here Whether im right or wrong, whether they articles are right or wrong, it dont make any difference, BUT people replying to the posts on here with there thoughts and ideas MIGHT make a difference to others in here.

UNL I have to agree with RH that theres more than one way to do things, SFJ editor Lynn Miller says the same thing. We have to assume that theres more than one way to do a thing RIGHT, cause we are pretty assured that there is way more than one way to do things wrong. Id say, what works for you, is right for you, and if you read a different idea, and it dont send a spart that causes you to change your way of doing it, then likely, the way your doing it works well for you, and u should stick with it.
Like I say, I saw some things, that I didnt know, and I sure appriciated seeing them

I think that SFJ has more in depth articles just cause they have to write so much to fill the magazine. Its at least twice the size of RH adding thickness and overall deminsions, so, theres gotta be way more print in there. BUT As I said, I did like the color pictures, and it gave me something to read when and after I had read SFJ.

AS to hauling sap buckets, I thought that people mostly used sleds for that work?
I sure understand haveing to repair things, Seems like, the more things you got, the more you got that needs fixing.
Is it possible that if you dont have all you need to farm, that you cant farm, tho you dont have to fix much, and you got waaaaaaaaay much time on your hands, as opposed to, if you have everything you need to farm, then your either useing up your time to do your farming, or your fixing up the things you need to use to do that farming? Think I like the last senario better.

[Bret4207]

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

I think that SFJ has more in depth articles just cause they have to write so much to fill the magazine. Its at least twice the size of RH adding thickness and overall deminsions, so, theres gotta be way more print in there. BUT As I said, I did like the color pictures, and it gave me something to read when and after I had read SFJ.

SFJ fills much of their space with reprinted articles from old books and magazines. Their choice, but having every issue but one or two I can see the change through the years. Personally I subscribe for the Nordells articles as much as anything else. RH doens't do the in depth articles like SFJ and neither of them is as useful as sites like this one.

One thing I do thank both outfits for is the book service they provide. Books like "Ten Acres Enough" from SFJ or "The Root Cellar" book from RH are worth their weight in gold.

[FarmboyBill]

If you can get and understand what the Nordells try to say, I envy you. I bought their first vidio. It was kinda dark, and I didnt get much through it. AND their articles are the same way. BUT, its not necessarily them. I find if I cant SEE a thing being done I wont understand it in writting. I mkt garden at times, and hopefully will next year, as ive spent all spring and summer discing after plowing my mkt garden area to free it of Johnson Grass. I could spray it, but I want to be able to maintain a pesticide and herbicide free garden. I know I could use their methods, and it irks me so that I dong (get it) when they print articles.

I think I could get a handle if they first published their articles in RH which would cut it down tyo the bare bones that I might get a handle on, AND THEN, read the full article in SFJ. I think there hitting me with just TOO MUCH PRINT

[FarmboyBill]

ANOTHER THING I noticed in the magazine, an advertisement on p81 showing a side rake with just one tail wheel. If Ive ever saw such, I dont remember it. I have seen the rubber tired side rakes as shown, maybe as many as you could count on 2 hands, and as many steel wheeled rakes as you could count on both hands and toes.
I have seen a rake that rakes to the right, instead of to the left. I saw it hundreds of times while going to school. I often thought that , if someone had made a cross bar mounted to a tractor drawbar, and left the long horse tongue on one rake and hitched the other up with a tractor length drawbar, so that they were staggered, and hiched a chain say to keep the tail ends of the rakes around 3 or 4ft apart, and put the holes in the drawbar attached to the tractor drawbar to keep the fronts of the rakes the same difference, youd have rakes that could take 2 windrows at a time and turn them into one big one, as they do nowadays.

[Bret4207]

The Nordells stuff can be a little confusing because of the flow of pics. Same with some other articles in other mags. OTH, some people go to great lengths to repeat the basics, in fact too much. I made the mistake f buying Doc Hammills draft horse videos. 4 dvds, I think I blew like $165.00 on them. Everything could have been put on one $24.99 dvd and he would have gotten it all across. A fine example of a DVD is Farmer Browns Horse Plowing video. Absolutely fantastic! I'd recommend it to anyone, any day, any time, any where that has the slightest interest in horse plowing, or plowing in general.

It all evens out in the end, eh?

[FarmboyBill]

Yeah, but it still leaves me wanting to know about their ways of mkt gardening. Id sure like to see the HPV too. Love working horses.

[Navotifarm]

Farmboybill, the Nordells do not use computers or internet but they are VERY nice. If you write them a letter with questions, I am certain they will send an excellent reply plus you will be doing them a service because if there is something you don't understand, there must be others with the same difficulty.

[FarmboyBill]

My problem is kinda like plowing in hardpan. I cant find a point to sink the plow into. I just dont understand what I read. I dont understand a bit of why they are doing most of what they do, and I dont want to make them think that im a complete idiot. I know I wouldnt want a city slicker who didnt know ANYTHING about real farming bothering me with why I do this or that, why I dont do this or that, Why couldnt it work IF I DID do this or that.