Farm Animals

Living on a farm required a lot of animals to meet the needs of a large family. All of the animals were important. Since my dad carried the mail a horse was very important to him as he rode the fifteen miles or more each way to town to pick up the mail from the train.

We also had a pair of mules which pulled the wagon on days he took the wagon to deliver packages on the rural route. The mules also pulled the plow for breaking up the ground for planting crops. They pulled the bush hog for mowing hay or weeds. They hauled the wagon loaded with hay, tobacco, corn, or other farm produce.

The cows were very important as we relied on them for fresh milk and butter. We usually kept five or six cows. While some were busy calving the others were being milked. After breakfast each morning, mom and the boys would go to the barn to feed and milk the cows. In the summertime the cows were milked outside near the spring. The milk was brought to the house and strained into clean buckets or milk jugs and then placed in the spring to keep cool in the summer or stored in the cool of the house in the winter. The same process was done in the evening so the cows were milked twice daily. The cream would rise to the top of the milk and mom would scoop the cream off to make butter. She would leave some cream to make the milk rich and tasty. Some milk went through a separator, which was cranked by hand and somehow separated the cream from the milk. Sometimes mom sold the cream to the produce store in Mt. Vernon. The churn was a white stoneware jug with a round board top and a spindle that went inside to go up and down until the cream was turned to butter. Sometimes the butter took twenty minutes or more to make. My job was churning when I was old enough. We usually churned every five days. The butter was lifted off the milk and the milk was then buttermilk, which was used in making bread or for baking or drinking.

We raised pigs for pork. The pigs had to be fed twice a day. Often we had a sow who gave birth to ten piglets. We would sell some pigs and keep two for slaughtering in November. The meat from the pigs was cut into bacon, hams, loins, and ribs. Some of the meat was salted and hung in the smokehouse for curing. My mom cooked some immediately and then canned some. The fat was cooked and lard was rendered from it. We used the lard for cooking and baking. What was left from rendering the lard was called cracklings which were stored to snack on.

Chickens were a necessary animal. Mom loved her chickens. She always bought baby chicks in the spring and raised them for fryers. We had lots of fried chicken. We also raised some for laying eggs. We ate eggs every morning, so you can see their importance. Mom would let some hens "set" in the summer. She would put twelve eggs under the hen in a nest and wait for them to hatch. This way there was always fresh chicken. The chickens were important for feathers for filling pillows and feather beds. The feathers were saved and kept clean until there was enough to make the necessary bedding.

Sometimes mom raised geese but she thought they were too messy to keep all the time. We also had sheep at different times. The wool was very helpful for making warm clothes and bedding. We always had dogs and cats. There was always a beagle or hound dog in addition to Fritz and Rover, my oldest brother's dog.