Breaking prairie was done with a wooden moldboard bar-shear, which had to be built heavy and strong to withstand the great strain put upon it. It took four or five yoke of oxen to pull the wooden plow through the tough roots of the prairie grass. It was a good day’s work to plow just two acres. A far cry from today’s mechanized farming where 30 to 80 acres can be plowed in a day.

            Crops were hand cut with a sickle and later with a cradle. Early development of farming implements around the1830s saw the steel plows; cultivators, planters, reapers and threshers all reach this area by the late 1850s.  Some of the early machinery did not work to the satisfaction of area farmers, so, with the help of a blacksmith, they added to, took off or remade parts. Such was the case of the inventors of the corn conveyor. Conveyors are still in use today along with the few corn shellers to be found. 

 A large portion of the prairies was untillable for want of drainage in the early years. Sloughs and ponds were everywhere. They were home for wild ducks, geese, muskrats, and frogs and also for propagation of fever and ague. Attempts were made to drain land with open ditches and the mole ditch. In 1876 the first tile was laid. By 1890 drainage laws had been passed and tiling was a general thing. Laying new tile and repairing the old has been a continuing process ever since. Tiling caused a remarkable change in the land, turning the ponds and swamps into rich and productive fields.    

            Horses gradually took the place of oxen. By Civil War days horses were being imported for breeding purposes and horse raising became an important business. Advancement in machinery continued through the years. More land was cleared and farms began to be increased in size. Hired men were needed to help work the larger farms. Around the turn of the century it became the “thing to do” for the landowner to move to town. Many of the tenant farmers did not have the financial means to raise livestock so they turned to grain farming, using all the tillable ground available on the farm.

            By the 1920s farmers were beginning to use “soil sugar” as some called limestone. They also were beginning to plant more soybeans. The depression years of the 1930s brought not only low prices but also a drought and a plague of chinch bugs and grasshoppers to harass the farmers. The discouraged farmers looked to the federal government for help. Congress passed a series of laws and set up machinery to prevent over production, maintain prices, provide crop insurance and promote proper use of the land and conservation of the soil. The Agricultural Act of 1938 authorized a broad program to make farming pay, to conserve the soil and to remedy maladjustments within the farm population.

            WW II brought a demand for increased food production and a big demand for oil. Soybean was a good source of oil therefore soybean acreage increased greatly to meet this need. This was possible because crops of oats and hay no longer were needed for the disappearing horse population.

            Farms of today consist of 500 to 1500 acres. A few farmers in this vicinity are in the hog business and some have feeder cattle. Most of the farming is in grain. All fences, barns and other farm buildings not needed have been torn down and the ground planted to corn or soybean. Newer farming methods, including the use of fertilizers, weed-killers, insecticides, hybrid seeds, airplane crop dusting and chisel plowing, have been developed to increase yields and save work. Electronics have reached the farm and help in the planting. Electric feeders keep track of the amount each animal consumes. There is computer bookkeeping and closed circuit TV in the livestock buildings. In the past 50 years there has been an agricultural revolution. Farming is now a complicated business requiring a large investment and involving risks over which the farmer has no control.

Gone with the winds of time are the days of corn-husking contests where the farmers used to be very proud of their horses and their corn-husking skills. Gone are the days of the working the land by hand. Gone are the days of barn raising and other farm related social activities. Here are the days of crops that seem to magically appear as if over night and fields that are harvested in the blink of an eye.

Well it seems that way to the non-farming workers who spend their working days in buildings where the plows and harvesters are not seen! Is it magic? No it is still a lot of hard work with risks and profits shared by all in the community.