Marshall McClung
In earlier times, farming got underway in earnest with the arrival of April.
Acres of land would be plowed for the planting of such crops as corn, burley tobacco and of course, the family garden and potato patch. There wasn’t just the need to grow crops for the family – which could number as many as a dozen children or more – but there was also the need to grow them for horses or mules to work the farm, cows to provide milk and butter, and chickens for eggs (or that southern dish known as “fried chicken”) and hogs for the meat they provided.
When I was growing up on Atoah Creek, everyone I knew farmed and most had a full-time job off the farm also. There was no such thing as not having anything to do. No kid dared to say they were bored.
When I got home from school in the afternoon, the school clothes came off and the farming ones went on. There was wood to get in all year round, as we cooked our meals on a wood-burning stove.
At milking time, my job was to put food for the cow in a feed box while my mother milked it and I also scattered shelled corn for the chickens.
We had an orchard with several varieties of apple trees. In the summertime, my job was to get up before breakfast and gather the apples that had fallen overnight before the chickens got them. For you folks without a farming background, let it be known that chickens get up early.
Sometimes you would hear the remark that farming was a job 13 months of the year – meaning you had to start planning ahead for it. You never knew what a year would bring weather-wise, whether drought or so much wet weather you couldn’t plow or hoe it to keep the weeds out. One thing you could sure plan for was to expect lots of hard work.
Today, farming has decreased greatly from times past. What was once cropland or hayfields has been taken back over by the woods in many communities across Graham County.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.