Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

 

Date:  March 29, 2007 - # 913a – Memories of Farming (804)

 

Many memories flooded my mind last week while reading the Tribune’s articles regarding the poultry industry and its impact on the Cherokee County economy, and of the influence for good the Cherokee County Farm Bureau has on keeping non-agricultural citizens informed about the important role agriculture plays in their lives.

            My entire long life has been associated with farming and/or agriculture. I was born and raised on a farm, farmed for a living, studied agriculture in college and then earned my livelihood for the past 50 years serving the agricultural industry.

            As a youth growing up during the depression, on my grandfather’s farm, my chores included feeding 300 laying hens and keeping their coop clean. The chickens belonged to my grandmother and the eggs were her sole source of spending money. It was a daily chore to gather the eggs, take them to her basement, and help her clean them and pack them into cases of 30 dozen each. Then once each week a buyer would stop by grandma’s basement and pick up five to seven cases of eggs that he then took to Detroit and sold to store owners at the Detroit Farmer’s market. Far different than today’s egg industry.

I also took an active part in the yet to be developed broiler industry. Each March mother would buy 300 day old chicks from the local hatchery and put them under an electric hover over the garage. This was mother’s source of spending money. Every morning, in addition to milking several cows by hand, it was part of my routine to feed the baby chicks. It took about three months to raise these chicks to broiler size in those days. Today’s poultry industry would go broke using our depression methods.

Mother’s broiler market was the “rich folks” who owned summer cottages along the shoreline of Saginaw Bay. Each week during the summer mother would catch the number of broilers she would sell with a hook. She would hang them on the cloths line, kill them, dip them in boiling water and then ‘pluck and gut’ them. After washing them mother would drive to the shore and deliver the broilers to her customers, many buying two broilers a week – at a dollar each. The entire family took part in this preparation work. Hard dirty work was an accepted part of earning a family living when I grew up.

            With this poultry background the picture of Thomas Dilbeck walking through his chicken coop reminded me of my army days stationed on Japan’s Mt Fuji. There, in 1953 and 54, I spent hours drawing up plans for a large egg producing poultry farm I dreamt of creating after my discharge. My market would also be Detroit, the same as for that buyer who came once a week to pick up grandma’s eggs 20 years earlier. Even though my dream never came to pass it helped me through nearly three years of army service, a dream never forgotten.      

            The story and pictures of the Cherokee County Farm Bureau celebrating National Agricultural Day also brought back many memories. Mother and Dad, along with grandpa and grandma, were early members of the Huron County (Michigan) Farm Bureau. Both served the Farm Bureau, mother as its secretary for a number of years, dad in other areas of service, often-writing support articles.

One of the major agriculture issues of their day was the coloring of oleomargarine yellow to imitate butter, a dairy product, and a major industry in Huron County and throughout Michigan. The Farm Bureau took a strong stand against the coloring of oleomargarine, and both mother and dad became involved in the support of butter.

Mother also served the State Farm Bureau organization in many capacities. Because of her involvement in the State Farm Bureau I was able to secure the last seat available on a two-week bus tour to study southern agriculture in 1946. This tour, sponsored by the Michigan Junior Farm Bureau, provided me my first opportunity to visit Georgia, and then to make a radio broadcast from Washington D.C. to Michigan. This trip opened up a whole new world for me and played a major role in my choice of a career in 1956 that lead me to Florida in 1958 and subsequently to Atlanta in 1962 where I settled, raised my family, and have lived for 45 years.

I commend the Cherokee Farm Bureau for their efforts in keeping non-agriculture citizens better informed on the major role agriculture plays in their daily lives.

Agriculture and the Farm Bureau provided me a solid foundation on which to build a good life. As I read the articles last week, and my memories of an earlier day returned, I was almost tempted to join the local Farm Bureau and follow again in the footsteps of my parents.