David Rankin: Farmer

By David Rankin

David Rankin, Farmer: Modern Agricultural Methods Contrasted With Primitive Agricultural Methods By The Life History Of A Plain Farmer is a book written by David Rankin and published in 1909. The book provides a comprehensive account of the life and work of a plain farmer, and the various challenges he faces in his profession. The book is divided into several chapters, each of which explores a different aspect of modern agricultural methods and contrasts it with primitive agricultural methods. The author draws on his own experiences as a farmer to provide practical insights into the benefits and drawbacks of different techniques. The book covers a wide range of topics, including soil preparation, crop rotation, animal husbandry, and pest control. It also discusses the impact of technology on agriculture, including the use of machinery and irrigation systems. Throughout the book, the author emphasizes the importance of sustainability and the need to balance productivity with environmental stewardship. He also highlights the challenges faced by farmers in a rapidly changing world, including the need to adapt to new technologies and market conditions. Overall, David Rankin, Farmer: Modern Agricultural Methods Contrasted With Primitive Agricultural Methods By The Life History Of A Plain Farmer is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history and evolution of agriculture, as well as those seeking practical advice on modern farming techniques.-Print ed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Porirua Publishing
• Release date: Feb 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9781991141149

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© Porirua Publishing 2024, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

FOREWORD 5

Made Millions Farming 6

Impressions From Visitors 62

DAVID RANKIN, FARMER

BY

DAVID RANKIN

The RANKIN—Two-Row Cultivator

The Most Modern of all Agricultural Machinery, and the Greatest Aid Ever Given the American Farmer for Increasing Profits of the Corn Field.

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MR. RANKIN SAYS: This Cultivator, The Rankin, is the latest of his ideas in two-row cultivators, embracing the good features found in other makes, and added to this some very important improvements, discovered and thought out by actual practice in his large cornfields, where ability to do good work and plenty of it is carefully figured.

THE TWO-ROW CULTIVATOR DOES JUST AS GOOD WORK AS THE ONE-ROW AND TWICE AS MUCH OF IT.

THE TWO-ROW CULTIVATOR OPERATES AS EASY OR EASIER THAN THE ONE-ROW.

THE TWO-ROW CULTIVATOR SAVES ONE HIRED HAND AND ONE HORSE AND BOARD FOR BOTH.

THE TWO-ROW CULTIVATOR ENABLES A FARMER TO PUSH HIS WORK INSTEAD OF HIS WORK PUSHING HIM.

THE TWO-ROW CULTIVATOR ENABLES THE FARMER TO GIVE FASTER CULTIVATION OR MORE QUICKLY AFTER SHOWERS.

While this cultivator was planned to meet the pressing needs of his great cornfields, in which he uses more than a hundred two-row cultivators, it is equally adapted to the requirements of the smaller cornfields, and will prove proportionately profitable.

No farmer with fifty acres of corn can afford to be without this cultivator, and it will pay for itself the first season.

David Rankin, Farmer

Modern Agricultural Methods Contrasted with Primitive Agricultural Methods by the Life History of a Plain Farmer

More Corn Grown on His Farm Last Year Than in the Nine States—Utah, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Idaho Montana, Rhode Island, Wyoming and Nevada combined

FOREWORD

Agriculture is basic. Upon it rests cities and commerce and civilization. There are great men who lead armies in war or regiments in peace, who succeed in business or statecraft, who write songs or make laws, who add to human knowledge or subtract from human misery—and the stories of their lives are interesting and inspiring. How much more inspiring and interesting is the story of the life of the farmer upon whose success depends all the other industries and activities of man. To tell the story of the life of a plain farmer, David Rankin humbly born, but of heroic type—to set down in his own simple straightforward speech, the secret of his great career as inspiration to farmers everywhere this book is written.

Made Millions Farming

I was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, May 28, 1825. My father was of Scotch-Irish descent, who came to this country early in the 17th century; my mother a Quaker, both of very limited means.

In 1831, when I was six years old, my father left Sullivan county, Indiana, and moved to Park county, Indiana, Father was a very straight-walking man and he said that Sullivan county was too wicked a place in which to raise a family. Park county was situated in a fine timber country. Here he moved within the limits of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, Father belonged to the old Scotch Division, known as the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church. My mother’s father came out ahead of us and he entered a great deal of land in Sullivan and Vermillion counties. He was a gun maker by trade and made guns for the soldiers for the War of 1812.

Father went back again to the old home place in Indiana, near Fairbanks, a year or two afterwards, and traded for 200 acres that my grandfather had entered. There was a little 16 feet square log cabin on it and we went to live in this cabin. These cabins or log houses were quite comfortable. They were rough logs inside and outside. They were notched at the ends and laid one on top of each other, which made a lock-joint. They were almost storm proof, an ordinary cyclone would have a good job in moving one of them. The cracks between the logs were carefully chinked up with mortar, and the chimney which rose above a great fireplace in one end, was made of wood strips and clay. Most of the cooking was done in a large pot or kettle on the fireplace. The kettle had to be watched that it did not upset as it rested on top of the logs. The meals were simple in those days, consisting mostly of tame and wild meats, fresh in the winter time, and of smoked meats and pickled side meat, or salt pork as we called it in the summer time. Our meat was smoked with genuine