long hours of hard work. This was how my father
operated. We used to come home from school in the
wintertime and I ran all the way. I was a pretty
good runner and my dad was all for it because I
could stay at home later in the morning, do more
work, and then run home from school at night to get
the chores done. I've got some medals in a trunk
that I earned in track. That was how I trained.
   "Dad would have seven or eight trees marked
for cutting, too, and as soon as we got home we had
to go to the woods and cut trees, all winter long.
Hard work. Long hours.
   "My parents both came to this country from
Sweden. I doubt that either one of them ever went
as far as the eighth grade, but one thing my parents
wanted above all others was the chance to give their
children an education. Not only that, but the chil-
dren in our family wanted an education. The parents
didn't have to twist our arms and make us go to
school. We considered it a privilege to have an op-
portunity for education. I guess folks now may look
at education not so much as a privilege but as a


right. Maybe this is some of the difference between
the culture of today and back then."
    "Now as you look at things today the farmers
are college graduates. It's no longer a matter of how
hard you're willing to work. Now it is a matter of
how you do it. It means the application of all these
discoveries that have made agriculture scientific.
When I grew up on the farm we planted our corn
when the leaves on the oak trees were the size of a
squirrel's ear, and we planted our potatoes in the
dark of the moon; and my dad planted everything
he grew just like his dad had in Sweden, I think.
Well, that's no longer true. Today just about every-
thing you do on a farm has a scientific base. You
wonder about some of the great, great developments
that have taken place in our agriculture. I think the
most dramatic one of all is hybrid corn.
    "When we were growng up the kind of corn we
grew on our farm was the tallest corn we could get.
We had contests among the neighbors to see who
could bring in the tallest corn stalks. Well, this corn
seed always came from Iowa. It just didn't adapt


The way it is today: one man, many furrows. Yet, the human struggle of the
past is not forgotten.


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