Happy New Year, version 1946

My eldest daughter bought me a copy of the Farmers Almanac for 1946, the year of my birth. Its 80 pages are crammed with astronomical, historical and nutritional data, as well as postal rates and summaries of the major events of the previous year. Each month has a page which includes advice and things to think about.

Here’s January’s:

No place like a farm for cobwebs and rust and decay, give them half a chance. And too many of us do. For cobwebs have a way to getting into he think machine of farmers, rust gathers on those fine new ideas and enterprise decays.

                For instance, are you a milk farmer, only, with more stock that you can properly take care of, and half of these second rate? Why not less of better quality? May you just about make ends meet, but does it make dollars—or, sense—to sell your milk wholesale and buy your grain retail? Why not raise your own grain? Have you looked into the idea of cooperative marketing and buying? What about raising a cash crop or two with the time saved by less and better stock?

                Do you let your machinery ‘weather’ out? Good sheds are one of the best investments. How many machines have your really worn out?

                Are you content to let your soil wash or blow away year after year because you plow up and down slopes rather than around, fall plough without a cover crop, overpasture, or clean cut your wooded slopes?

                Last—have you kept careful records of your farm business—records that can truly show you where to stop your dollars when tjey have run too fast? Sound farming methods and good records are the key to a HAPPY NEW YEAR.