Revised 1997 May 27
I am seeking the aid of former teachers and students to make this report historically accurate. Some details are likely to change.

Claude Eddleman Farm (1939-1958)

Cattle

We began with a cow while we still lived in Milltown as that page states.

My mother' dad gave us two low grade cows, typical of southern Indiana in those days, soon after we bought the additional 20 acres across the road and a huge 70 year-old barn was on that property. Over the years we bred those cows to whatever fair quality bull was available in the community. We did not get many female calves and heard increase was slow.

There was not a lot of reason to put money and effort into the milk cows. We had all the milk we needed for the table and there was no market for milk. Farmers used water separators to separate the cream from the milk and they took the cream to Marengo twice per week (Wednesday and Saturday) for sale. The water diluted skim milk was fed to the pigs twice per day. This separator was a 20 gallon tank mounted on 3 legs. The bottom was funnel shaped and had a valve and a glass view slot near the bottom. The fresh warm milk from the cows was poured into the tank and and an equal volume of water was added. The cream slowly floated to the top and after 12 hours the skim milk was drained off at the bottom into buckets. Then the cream was drained into a cream bucket which had a tight fitting lid. Cream buckets and water separators were common items available in the town hardware store. On the way home from the cream station, the cream and egg money was spend for esential groceries such as hard wheat flour, salt, baking powder, and perhaps margarine since it was cheaper than than cream.

This was the typical dairy herd management of those days. fresh drinking milk for the small towns was usually supplied by one farm having 50 cows and a small bottling plant and a truck which some member of the family drove around town to deliver the milk to each home. Late during WWII, Kraft set up a cheese factory, 30 miles away and sent a truck around every other day. I recall the magazine they gave us showing how our cheese was going to the war effort. It was the age old story of selling cheese because fresh milk could not be delivered to the customer (the soldier in the field).

Kraft then made good dairy cows from Wisconsin available to their producers. Later calves from Wisconsin became available, they usually died from scours (intestinal problems). That was our first introduction to quality breeding stock. That was the beginning of a revolution toward better quality agriculture in the Crawford Upland.

to be continued.

Suggestions, corrections, and comments are appreciated: Contact Harold Eddleman indbio@disknet.com