By Rick Houser
It is a common fact that it is probably rare to find a farmer who is short on opinions. I know as a farmer for several years I must admit that I had a strong view as to what was right or wrong.(some even say I still do) These days I will tell you that looking back I might not have always been right on my stances all of the time. As the years have passed, I have come to understand that circumstances that aren’t always seen can change the outcome and what had always been one way might slip out of that conclusion.(it did take me a long time to accept this fact of course. I was a farmer.)
In my early adult years, I was at a friend’s house who also was a farmer and a very good one at that. As we were talking, he was pointing out that our crops were getting to the need for rain. This is when his wife stepped forward and said to me, “Yes, he is of course correct. You know there are four things a farmer will complain about.” I said, “No I had not heard this”. She said, “There is too wet, too dry, too hot, and too cold.” She then said with those four things a farmer never will run out of something to complain about. After hearing, this I thought to myself a moment and then let out an answer that I guess was true. As a matter of fact, the more I thought about that statement the more I understood just how broadly they covered a year on a farm.
As a year moves along I think and hear these four reasons come into the conversations of the men who have to work through the situations to produce crops as best they can. I know that when it is too cold farming becomes almost a business at a standstill. One has to make sure livestock is fed, watered, and given as much shelter as possible. The thing is a farmer will need to wrap up in insulated clothes inside their coveralls along with heavy-duty footwearm thick warm glovesm and maybe even earmuffs. Therefore, even though the workload might be lessened, the extra clothes to insulate with might weigh up to 40 extra pounds and that just is not comfortable but as the farmer said, it is too cold to do otherwise.
On the other hand when the temperature goes above 90 degrees and add in 80 plus degrees of humidity and you are working out in a field loading hay or tobacco, the farmer wears the lightest clothes he can and makes sure to carry full water jugs because when it is that hot, sweat comes way too easy and rehydration becomes an issue. If asked why they aren’t moving faster the farmer will tell you promptly that it is just too hot.
On the day I was told all of this, I was talking to my friend about how rain was needed for the crops. It can get to where the earth gets so low on moisture that all that rises is dust. If the earth were without enough moisture, the grain you sow or back when a tobacco plant was set into this the condition would become a problem. Transplanting needs water to start a new plant and seeds need moisture to germinate. Therefore, at times like this a farmer reports that things are just too dry.
If it is raining, a farmer cannot plow his fields and crops cannot be planted. The attempt to move machinery over a field can end up in ruts and needing another tractor to pull the first one out. Yes, life can get murky and muddy and it can all bog to a halt. During the majority of a year the farmer will tell you it is too wet. However,, it used to be when tobacco was the cash crop that to take the crop from the barn to the stripping room and remove the leaves to sell at the warehouse, it kind of had to be too wet. The tobacco leaf after it has dried out needs to have moisture returned to it so when it was handled it would not crumble. Therefore, farmers had to wait for rain or fog for the tobacco leaves to come into what was referred to as “in case”.
Here is where the opinion of the farmer came into play. Just how much case did that leaf need? This was a problem that was very real indeed. Not enough moisture and the leaf would still crumble. Too much moisture and the plant would be in such a high case the leaf would bruise or even begin to rot and of course, this was the last thing on earth a farmer wanted. By using too much or too little moisture, you lowered what you would be paid on a crop you had sweated over all year. In all of that it was very probable to hear the farmer say that it was too wet.
Now there are the four complaints of the farmer. Each is a solid and true fact of the profession. In addition, it was a guarantee to have at least one real thing to complain about when speaking to other farmers. (At least I heard it a lot standing around the stove at the Farm Bureau.) There is one more thing to the just isn’t fair list a farmer will have and that is when a crop sells, more times than not the farmer thinks that he should have received a higher price.
To those of you who never farmed you might see this as just sour grapes. However, having been in that conversation from a personal angle, I have to say that the farmer is so very correct in that opinion. I know that when I was standing around that stove and expressed my opinion that I wasn’t paid enough it must have been true as not one of the other men disagreed with me. Now tell me can all the farmers be wrong? Since we had all agreed on all of the reasons of the seasons then this had to be correct also. Just my opinion.
Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about his youth and other topics. If you would be interested in reading more of his stories, he has two books on the market for sale. To contact Rick go to houser734@yahoo.com. Or just write Rick at P.O. Box 213 Bethel. Ohio 45106.