Traditional Agriculture in Indiana Carl Doerner Remembers His Grandparents’ Farm

Abstract

Historian R. Douglas Hurt introduces Carl Doerner’s memories of life on his grandparents’ traditional southern Indiana farm in the early to mid-twentieth century (DOI 10.2979/indimagahist.116.4.04). World War II brought capital-intensive specialization to American agriculture; before that period, many farmers like George and Ida Baas practiced traditional, diversified farming on small, family farms. Hurt discusses the economy and life of a small, traditional farm: the variety of crops and their harvesting; the livestock; the gendered distribution of farm labor; the impact of industrialization and rural electrification; and the family and community patterns of rural life.