Farming Then and Now

Although the farming industry has made many changes over the past 100 years, there are still problems that farmers face in their jobs today. Two of these problems are the ability to harvest more crops for production and consumption faster and easier and the purchase and maintenance of modern equipment. 

            Farming is hard work. People who worked on the farms long ago had to do most of the work by hand. The harvesting work in the fall was assisted through the use of horses and plows. The early machines that were available to farmers, like the combine, were pulled by horses and then by tractors. Today, farmers have more powerful machines to help them grow and harvest the food better and faster. The modern combines are self-propelled and even air-conditioned so that the farmer can complete his work on warm fall days. Some reports state that today’s combines can harvest three times as much grain in a day as the older combines.  

Another change in farming has been the enlargement of field sizes and the ability to better measure such things as seeds, fertilizers and the quantity of crops being harvested. Fields have grown in size to allow for larger, more modern equipment and growth of bigger crops such as wheat, corn, and cotton. Monitors have been added in the cabs of tractors. This allows the farmers to use the monitors to check the amount of seed or fertilizer that is being spread on the fields for planting crops early in the spring and measuring the quantity of crops that have been gathered during the fall harvesting. 

Today, farmers must spend a lot of money on both machinery and workers. This money is spent on repairing or purchasing a new tractor or combine because they depend on this equipment to stay in business. Long ago, farmers relied on family members and neighbors to assist with the production of crops. Today, some farm workers learn a special job and travel from farm to farm. They plant, harvest, or repair equipment, doing whatever work is needed. 

Faced with such dilemmas, farmers are forced to change and modify the way in which they farm. These changes enable them to better produce crops, prepare them for consumption in addition to purchasing and maintaining modern equipment. 

References – Bushy, Streissguth, Roop – Need citations

 

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Evolution of Ohio
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