In preparing for FFA week this week, I wanted to capture how farming has changed through the years. There are only a few farmers left around this area that can remember how it was to plow a field with a mule. On Monday, I sat down with my Papa Ercelle’s brother, Ronald Watson, to talk about how he had seen farming change over the years.
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| Uncle Ronald Watson, photo credit: Cindy Jo Ayers |
I was born May 15, 1928. My Daddy got his first tractor in 1937. Before that, we plowed with mules. Before I ever went to school, my daddy asked me “Ronald, you think you could plant if I turned you around on the end?” See, he was afraid I would spill the seed. So, he’d lay off the row and then turn me around and head back. I planted for daddy before the older boys would get home from school. Back then, you could plant about 20-something rows in a half-day with a mule; and each row was about a quarter-mile long.
People always bragged on my rows. They didn’t know how I always had such straight rows. Someone even once said that if they shot a rifle down my row, it would never get off of it. A lot of people look down as they’re going. But I always kept my sight straight ahead.
I was brought up to work. Growing up, we did a little bit of everything. We tore up new ground. We helped plant. We picked and loaded watermelons. We even went over to Joe Giglia’s to help. He only had a red-belly Ford. Daddy would say “Boys, let’s go over and help Joe.” See, Joe helped us at watermelon time. I mule-plowed for Stacey Quincey. I shook peanuts for Stacey Quincey and for Milton McLeroy.
My Daddy planted peanuts, corn, and watermelons. We always had a good garden, too, though. Something that has changed is that back then, people didn’t buy fertilizer, except for with watermelons. For watermelons, we bought commercial fertilizer. We’d have to go down and haul it out of box cars at Hardeetown. We’d have to just pen up the cows to fertilize the corn.
My daddy never grew more than 40 acres of watermelons. My daddy, Sam Swilley, and LV Corbin, along with me and my brothers, we did all the picking and loading. Daddy had a 2-ton truck, Sam had a ton Dodge truck, and LV had a half-ton truck. We’d load them up and haul them to town. After I got to growing watermelons, most boys would throw 20 watermelons and yell ‘NEXT!’ But I could throw a whole truckload. I was determined. It was all in determination. In my farming, I got up to 100 acres of watermelons.
(In regards to the changes in corn) When I was little, we picked corn by hand. Then, we went to corn pickers. It was after daddy got the tractor and all, that he got the picker. Then, we went to combines. I bought my first combine in 1960. In almost 40 years of farming, I went through three combines. When I first started doing corn, right after I started farming for myself, we grew that Dixie Lily corn for the Dixie Lily Plant in Trenton.
With peanuts, Butler Swilley had a little one-row tractor he would plow them up with. We would shake them out and stack them around the stack. You took them up there and the thresher took them off the bushes. Then, you bagged them up and they hauled them out in the big trucks.
I got a spreader truck to help Daddy out. Then everyone around started getting me to spread their fertilizer. I spread fertilizer from Hampton to Lecanto to Ocala. I stayed busy. Johnny Webster helped me some that year. Then, with my combine, I combined a lot over in Williston. I finally had to put the fertilize deal down because it was working me to death. They’d send me out into some of the roughest fields you’ve ever been in. It was worse than riding the combine or tractor, either one.
I stayed busy. And it was hard work. But, I enjoyed farming as good as anybody.
It has changed quite a bit over the years. In my lifetime, I have went from mules to air-conditioned cab tractors.
People always bragged on my rows. They didn’t know how I always had such straight rows. Someone even once said that if they shot a rifle down my row, it would never get off of it. A lot of people look down as they’re going. But I always kept my sight straight ahead.
I was brought up to work. Growing up, we did a little bit of everything. We tore up new ground. We helped plant. We picked and loaded watermelons. We even went over to Joe Giglia’s to help. He only had a red-belly Ford. Daddy would say “Boys, let’s go over and help Joe.” See, Joe helped us at watermelon time. I mule-plowed for Stacey Quincey. I shook peanuts for Stacey Quincey and for Milton McLeroy.
My Daddy planted peanuts, corn, and watermelons. We always had a good garden, too, though. Something that has changed is that back then, people didn’t buy fertilizer, except for with watermelons. For watermelons, we bought commercial fertilizer. We’d have to go down and haul it out of box cars at Hardeetown. We’d have to just pen up the cows to fertilize the corn.
My daddy never grew more than 40 acres of watermelons. My daddy, Sam Swilley, and LV Corbin, along with me and my brothers, we did all the picking and loading. Daddy had a 2-ton truck, Sam had a ton Dodge truck, and LV had a half-ton truck. We’d load them up and haul them to town. After I got to growing watermelons, most boys would throw 20 watermelons and yell ‘NEXT!’ But I could throw a whole truckload. I was determined. It was all in determination. In my farming, I got up to 100 acres of watermelons.
(In regards to the changes in corn) When I was little, we picked corn by hand. Then, we went to corn pickers. It was after daddy got the tractor and all, that he got the picker. Then, we went to combines. I bought my first combine in 1960. In almost 40 years of farming, I went through three combines. When I first started doing corn, right after I started farming for myself, we grew that Dixie Lily corn for the Dixie Lily Plant in Trenton.
With peanuts, Butler Swilley had a little one-row tractor he would plow them up with. We would shake them out and stack them around the stack. You took them up there and the thresher took them off the bushes. Then, you bagged them up and they hauled them out in the big trucks.
I got a spreader truck to help Daddy out. Then everyone around started getting me to spread their fertilizer. I spread fertilizer from Hampton to Lecanto to Ocala. I stayed busy. Johnny Webster helped me some that year. Then, with my combine, I combined a lot over in Williston. I finally had to put the fertilize deal down because it was working me to death. They’d send me out into some of the roughest fields you’ve ever been in. It was worse than riding the combine or tractor, either one.
I stayed busy. And it was hard work. But, I enjoyed farming as good as anybody.
It has changed quite a bit over the years. In my lifetime, I have went from mules to air-conditioned cab tractors.
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| My Uncle Gregg and my cousin, Dale, in the early 1980s. |
Many people take for granted the fact that they can go to their local grocery store and purchase what they need without much thought beyond that. Farmers work very hard to grow the crops that we depend on. It's so important to thank them for their hard work and dedication at local farmers markets.
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