Old Farmers Day honors the hard labor of farmers throughout American history. It is a re-enactment of the way our forefathers lived, worked and enjoyed life. Agriculture and farming today is largely mechanized and very scientific, but these developments wouldn’t have been possible without the wisdom and hard work of old farmers.
Early American culture was definitely a farming culture. Early settlers cleared fields and woods to farm the rich land. They brought seeds and farming methods with them from across the sea. They found new seeds, and learned new methods over time. Many new farming methods came from Native Americans, who were already farming the land. Most notably, was the concept of hilling, or mounding soil.
The month of October is a very appropriate month to celebrate and honor farmers. At this time, the harvest is largely complete. It means farmers can take a break from their labors, to enjoy this celebration. Old Farmer’s Day is celebrated as a throwback to sustainable farming and farming practices of the old days.
Farming and agriculture have a long and varied history. Despite differences on what is grown, how farming is done or changed over the years, and what materials are used; one thing remains universal to all ag societies – the farmer. Farmers are the lifeline of agriculture – they tend to the agricultural product from the time of sowing to when it reaches the market. It is because of hardworking farmers around the world, that we have food on our tables every day.
A farmers’ work is long and hard. It certainly doesn’t make a person rich. It has its good years, and its bad ones. There is no guarantee of a good crop. Weather, pests, and disease problems often prove disastrous. But, through it all, farmers persevere. And, their ceaseless hard work has set an example for all.
Perhaps Paul Harvey said it the best: “And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.” So God made a farmer.
“I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon — and mean it.” So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, ‘Maybe next year.’ I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain’n from ‘tractor back,’ put in another seventy-two hours.” So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place. So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church.
“Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life ‘doing what dad does.’” So God made a farmer.
As Americans, we need to tip our hat to all farmers for their contributions to American culture, values, society, and the economy. Happy Old Farmers Day!