Putting-up-hay patriotism back in 1943

I'm old enough to remember the old-fashioned hay-making routine down on the farm in the 1950s --- now looked upon as hopelessly primitive I suppose.

First, Dad cut the alfalfa and allowed it to cure flat on the ground. After a day or two, he raked it into windrows. Then the tractor was attached to a hayrack and the hayrack attached to the hay loader and this three-vehicle procession headed down the windrows with my mother at the wheel of the tractor and my dad on the rack, pitching hay. I was a little kid at the time and the dog and I followed along behind on foot.

Back at the barn with a full hayrack and with the big door to the hayloft lowered, the hayfork was dropped to spear a big hunk of hay that was then lifted up, moved into the barn on a track and dropped. Inside the loft it was rearranged by someone else with a pitchfork.

My mother was the resident farmhand, but we had a wonderful neighbor who also functioned as a hired hand and/or traded labor when needed. And if more help were needed, high school boys were available.

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I was reminded of the process this week while glancing through issues of Chariton newspapers published during July of 1943, 80 years ago. This was before my time, but the process was the same. And World War II had disrupted it --- just as it had upended nearly everything else as the nation engaged in a global war.

Younger men were in the military and older men as well as women were filling in to keep vital industries rolling --- the meat packing plant at Ottumwa, for example, the ammunition plant at Ankeny. 

So Lucas County farmers were struggling to find the help they needed to get vital jobs done --- getting that hay stacked or in the barn, cultivating the corn.

One of the results was a successful effort to recruit older men and boys who lived and worked in town to work as volunteers on Lucas County farms where additional labor was needed. Here's a report on the process that was published in The Chariton Leader of July 6, 1943. The illustration is from digitalized microfilm so leaves a lot to be desired.

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City men, boys and women are all lending their aid to the farmers in Lucas county this summer as farm work levels off into full swing. Following the rainy season, the farmers found that haymaking, corn planting and corn plowing came in together with a rush. So much so that they were unable to handle the load alone. Anticipating this shortage of labor on the farm, the County Extension Service, in conjunction with other organizations in the county, signed up all the available help that could be found to help out during the rush season.

Last week, the calls began to come in. Businessmen are going out to the farms after working hours, some taking time off from their businesses during the day, others closing up their shops entirely to go out and give the farmers a lift during the day.

Over 100 names were secured from Chariton alone and many others from over the rest of the county who indicated that they were available to go out and give a hand when needed. Among the ones who went out to farms were Noel Cloud, who spent two afternoons pitching hay on the E. O. Millen farm, Bob Webb and E.E. Smith, who went to the Willard Davis farm. Others were Roy German, Bob Jones and son who helped on the Bun Campbell farm, John White who went out to help his father, Thos. White, and Jimmy Tighe who spent some time on both the Lon Brown and Arthur Johnson farms.

SUCH WAS THE CASE on the Lon Brown farm, about nine miles northeast of Chariton. Mr. Brown had nine acres of alfalfa hay that had been ready to cut for some time. Due to the wet weather it had been left in the field a little longer than usual. When he finally could get in he cut it all. To help him he first of all got Mrs. Brown, who in addition to driving the horse on the hay fork, goes right out into the field with the men and does her share of the pitching. From Chariton came Pete Enslow, oil station operator, who went out for the second time this year to help the Brown family and remained until the hay was put up. Rounding out the crew was Jimmy Tighe, 13, who took his place by the side of the men and was doing a man's work.

Mr. Brown in other years has always had help during the haying season but he was always able to exchange work with the neighbors. This year it is different. "The men with whom I have exchanged work  have either gone to Ottumwa to the packing plant or have gone to the Ankeny defense plant. Some of them have been called to the army," Brown explained. "But," he continued, "we are getting along fine with the help that is coming out from town and we farmers surely appreciate the effort these men are making to give us a lift at this rush season."

AT ANOTHER FARM, just a few miles from the Brown home, at the Steve Beaty place, the farm labor situation is being tackled in another manner. Mr. Beaty, who is a member of the Lucas County Machinery Rationing Board, is exchanging help and machinery with neighbors. Beaty has a hired man and was putting up timothy hay with the help of a neighbor, Bob Edwards. As soon as he gets his hay put up they will move on to the Edwards farm with the same loader and put up that crop.

Beaty said, "I cut my hay a little before maturity this year for the reason that we have so much work piled up that if we waited until it was entirely ready the rest of the hay would get too old to make good hay. And with exchanging work this year there will be that much more to put up.

Mr. Beaty has never exchanged work in making hay before, but he feels that this is one way to combat the shortage of help. Another of the secrets on the Beaty farm is that his hired man, Jessup, has been with the Beaty family for three years and is satisfied with his job. Big defense wages don't attract him. When questioned as to why he remained on the job Jessup said, "Out here they treat me like one of the family.  In fact this is a place where I feel at home and I know I wouldn't in a large city or factory town."

These two farmers represent a cross section of what is being done in rural areas in Lucas county this summer. Farmers and city workers alike realize that America's first line of defense is in the food factory and outside being just plain patriotic the people of southern Iowa understand that if they are going to eat this coming winter someone must produce the food. Hence all are putting their shoulders to the wheel and figuratively as well as literally getting in there and pitching.