What would we find if we could travel back in time to a typical Midwestern farmstead of the 1920s? We’d see four to six farms on a 640-acre section. A dirt road lined with telephone poles gave access to the farmstead. A barn, storage buildings and chicken house would be near a two-story farm house with a path leading to an “outhouse” out back. Several fenced lots provided spaces to isolate various animals.
We might find fruit trees – apple, pear, plum and cherry – bordering a 3/4-acre garden laid out to receive maximum sunlight. A windmill with a wooden water tank nearby provided water for milk cows, sows, horses, chickens and young calves and pigs. If natural tree lines bordering creeks or established timbers were not close, the homestead likely had double or triple rows of evergreen trees on the north and west sides of the house and outbuildings to divert winter winds. Fences outlined fields where grain and pasture land provided feed for livestock.
Monotonous manual labor kept the farm and its occupants running. Cows were milked by hand. Pitchforks, iron scoop shovels, hammers and
