The Horse Drawn Corn Planter

At the top of Rawl's farm property, two driveways descended sharply to the west into the barn yard.  The milk room and milking barn were towards the top of the property, just below Rawl's small orchard.  The baby calf barn and hay barn were next, followed by the cow yard, silo, and feed bunker.  Towards the bottom of the barn yard, and off to the north a bit was Rawl's "older calf" pen and shelter, which housed the calves which were roughly three to nine months of age.  In one corner of the older calf shelter was an old green and yellow horse drawn corn planter.  I don't know if it was a John Deere or an Oliver corn planter, but I suspect it was a John Deere.  This corn planter and the OPEC oil embargo of '72-73 created a problem in my mind that I was determined to solve.

Having witnessed the impact of the OPEC oil embargo, first hand, as a ten year old, I was deeply concerned about how countries thousands of miles away could impact my life and the life of my family and fellow Americans so directly.  It was as if they could control much of our fate on a whim.  If they didn't like us, they could refuse to trade or sell oil to us.  That would drive up fuel prices, fertilizer prices, and other prices of items that depended on fuel for delivery.  I wondered what would happen if the oil stopped flowing.  What if there were no more oil for farming?  What if there were no more oil for automobiles?  What if there were no more oil for delivery trucks or the milk truck which came every other morning to pick up fresh milk from Rawl's farm?

As I observed the old, unused, horse-drawn corn planter, I came to the conclusion that at least Rawl had a corn planter if we had to go back to using horses for motive power if there were no diesel or gasoline for the tractors.

I didn't think through all of the energy requirements of the farm operation.  But I started to think through the issues.  The farm was old enough that is was quite clear that petroleum and electricity came well after the farm was established and made operational.  I assumed that there must be a way back to farming without dependence on middle-eastern oil producing countries.  I assumed we would be able to bring back horses and use them effectively to farm Rawl's modest farm of roughly 80 acres.

I had little experience with horses at that time.  I had ridden horses a few times, but had never really seen a draft horse or draft mule.  I don't think it was until years later when Budweiser started using Clydesdales in their advertising that I started to grasp the size of the draft horse breeds.  Rawl had never really farmed with horses, but I did not know that at the time.  I know he witnessed the tail end of the horse farming era.  I think he was glad to move on to tractors.  

But the cool thing about the idea of farming with horses is that horses could participate in raising their own energy sources.  They could eat pasture, hay, and maybe grain if they were working hard.  With pasture, they could even eliminate most human intervention.  The horses would not depend on OPEC.  The horses would depend on themselves and on the farmer(s).  That would be both Rawl and I, in my own mind at the time.

I started to wonder if we had gone too far with depending on other people or other countries for providing us with basic needs.  What if we had to take care of ourselves?  I had heard much about the Great Depression from my Grandparents.  What if fuel were rationed?  What if food were rationed?  What if other basic necessities were rationed?  The OPEC oil embargo and the horse-drawn corn planter set my mind in motion on the merits of being self-sufficient.  

Could one take care of himself and his family?  Could someone provide for himself and his family?  Could a community provide for their own needs?  Could a country provide for their own needs?  In short, I started asking the question, "How can someone provide for all of his or her own needs in the space in which they live?"