Rural Wit and Wisdom: Farming

Enlarge Image Image Gallery “Rural Wit and Wisdom” by Jerry Apps is a compilation of sayings and advice from farmers in the heartland. This collection of Old-Timer wisdom tells the story of heartland people who work their farms, give back to their communities and appreciate the little things in the same way they have for generations. Courtesy Fulcrum Publishing

Family farms once dominated the heartland. Now those homesteads have given way to smaller farming operations, mostly organic, but the time-honored values remain the same. Rural Wit and Wisdom (Fulcrum Publishing, 2012) by Jerry Apps is the compilation of all the advice, sayings and poetry of heartland people from the family farm days to today. These timeless sayings capture the common sense and poetry of the hard-working farmer. This excerpt is taken from Chapter 1, “Farming.” 

Farmers are the heart and soul of this country. In the settlement years of the heartland, more people worked as farmers than any other occupation. As the years passed, farmers began leaving the land; now, less than 2 percent of the American workforce farms.

The values and beliefs held by farmers who settled the region, and the children and grandchildren who followed them on the land, forged the basic foundation for today’s heartland people. Some modern-day folks claim farmers and farm life are historic relics, replaced by high-tech, modern-day agriculturists who farm thousands of acres, milk thousands of cows, fatten thousands of beef cattle in feedlots, and raise thousands of hogs and poultry in confined operations. Those who say this are likely not aware of the much smaller farming operations, many of them organic, that are rapidly growing in number in this country and in many ways resembling the family farmers who worked the soil during pioneer days. Family farmers are a special people. Famed Tuskegee educator Booker T. Washington wrote in 1895, “No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” That advice still holds.

Here is a sprinkling of farm wisdom:

• A farmer recently won the lottery. When asked what he was going to do with the money, he replied, “I’ll keep farming until the money runs out.”

• Anyone can farm, but not everyone is a farmer.

• In the business of farming, it’s not so important who gets there first as who gets there at all.

• An old horse, an old dog, and an old farmer have much in common: they are slow but wise.

• If you must sing, do it when you’re after the cows. Cows don’t care if you can’t carry a tune.

• Look down when walking in a cow pasture.

• Attention to detail makes all the difference, whether it’s plowing a field, building a fence, or teaching a calf to drink out of a pail.