Farming and making a living

We, like most other people around us, farmed for a living. We had a 1-row Allis Chalmers tractor, and it had a one-disc breaking plow that would turn about 12 inches of dirt. It would take you forever to get the land broke up to even start anything else. I would ride that thing all day long - every day, and had the habit of looking back to watch it plow. This caused my neck to stay sore all the time, but finally after about a month I would get all the ground broke that we were going to work. Then came the harrowing to break up all the clods. We had a disc harrow, and it was probably ten foot long - so it didn't take a long time to cut the clods up. Once that was completed, it was time for planting crops. Mules were used for this task, and the fertilizer was applied to the soil first. Then, another person would come along and plant what we were going to grow with a planter.

After all of the hard work was completed, it was up to the good Lord to give you rain and plenty of sunshine to make it grow. Once everything came up and grew to about 3 inches high, we had to go through with a hoe and cut out over half of what had came up. You see, we didn't know back then that stuff would grow thick like they plant it now, and probably wouldn't have because the fertilizer was much different. We also had to keep the grass hoed out of it, because it would use up the fertilizer that was intended for the crop being grown. After hoeing it twice - then plowing it 3 times, the first of July arrived and we would lay it by and just wait for it to make corn or cotton - or whatever you planted.

I don't remember this, but my brother was telling me about it.... It was getting terribly dry, for there hadn't been any rain in quite some time, and the crops had began to suffer greatly. The plants began to wilt, and the people were getting extremely worried about it. You see, if you didn't grow anything, then you didn't eat. So, a few of the men went over to preacher Billy Harrison's house for a visit. He preached and farmed too, and was the most humble, best man I have ever known. Anyway, they went over there and asked preacher Bill to pray for rain. He did, and it wasn't very long until it came a good rain, then everything was alright.