AgricultureofOP_v3_FLIP

A DAY ON THE FARM

During the 1910s and 1920s, the average day for an Orland farmer began at 5 a.m. The family woke up at the crack of dawn to milk cows and feed the horses working in the fields that day and other livestock. This was all done before breakfast. A typical Orland farmer usually grew barley, wheat, hay, oats and corn, and raised hogs, dairy cattle and chickens. Horse-drawn thresher machines harvested hay, wheat, oats and barley, but farmers picked and husked corn by hand. Early combine harvesters (a machine that cuts and delivers the crop to the thresher) did not appear in Orland until the mid-1930s and were not widely used until the late 1940s and early 1950s. After toiling in the fields for hours, a farmer’s day ended after dark. Then, he woke up the next morning at 5 a.m. to repeat the cycle. There were no days off or sleeping late because the animals needed to be fed at the same time every day.

ARTIFACTS IN THIS CABINET TOP SHELF (LEFT TO RIGHT): • .Photo of Koehler and Grosskopf families, 1910 • Sickle, Date Unknown • Milk Jug, Date Unknown • Photo of James and Owen Creer, 1931 BOTTOM SHELF (LEFT TO RIGHT): • Photo of Cooper Family Farm, 1900 •.Advertisements for Schuttler and Hotz Wagons, 1893 •.Advertisement for Deering Light Reapers, 1893 • .Photo of Herman and Sarah Kruspe, c. 1920-1939