The Food and Agriculture Organization has declared 2014 the
Year of Family Farming with the aim of highlighting the important role family and small farms
play in feeding the world. To do our part, throughout 2014 we are featuring
some of our favorite images and words from Iowa books on family farms. Here’s
the latest!
“Mother and Father grew up in homes without electricity and
on farms without tractors, and they began farming in the same way. He loved
horses and used them for planting, cultivating, haying, threshing, and picking
corn even after he and his brother jointly purchased their first tractor for
plowing in 1945. He gave his team oats, hay, and plenty of water when working
them hard. He kept them shod and trimmed their hooves periodically because they
walked on a gravel road between fields. As Father acquired more efficient
tractors, his team could no longer justify their keep…. He reluctantly sold
[the team] to a horse trader…. Tears filled his eyes as he loaded his last team
on the stock truck and drove away.”
excerpt from The Farm at Holstein Dip: An Iowa Boyhood, by Carroll Engelhardt
photograph from A Bountiful Harvest: The Midwestern Farm Photographs of Pete Wettach, 1925-1965, by Leslie Loveless
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