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North central PA at that. I had a little alternative farm there (organic eggs, goat milk, specialty vegetables, herbs, honey) and lived among large dairy farms for eight years.
I have never met such inflexible people in my life. Their farming practices were pure ecological nightmare. They did things the way Pap and Grandpap had done them, to the point where they were growing corn that barely grew to three feet in height, because the fertility had been entirely leached from the land. Their idea of fertilizing a field or amending the soil was to spray the liquid feces from their barns directly on top of the unplowed land in the spring - most of that area had hardpan soil, so it had a rather impermeable crust until you plowed it. Of course, the spring rains would immediately wash all that away into the drainage ditches and it would pollute the wells.
If a cow had problems calving, they hitched a chain to whatever part of the calf they could reach, attach the other end to a tractor and tear the calf out of the cow. It usually killed the cow, but they had saved the money on calling a vet. They could never be made to see that actually saving the cow might have been more economical in the long run, as she might continue to produce milk and calves for years. These were the sort of people who bragged about how they would rip their own teeth out of their mouths with pliers when they got rotten enough.
Some of their dairy barns were the most filthy places I've ever seen. I never saw one of them clean a cow's udder before attaching the milking machine. Thankfully, milk is pasteurized. If most people ever saw one of the farms I saw on a daily basis, they would never drink milk or consume dairy products again.
No matter how much the county agents would show them that new farming methods would increase their yields, they still did things Grandpap's way. They railed and ranted against anyone who was on welfare, but loved getting government subsidies for growing crops that cost more to produce than they could be sold for, including milk. The county agent told me once that not one of the farms in the area would survive on its own, that none of them turned the least bit of profit, and if they didn't have the government subsidies, they would have all gone under decades before.
They were inherently suspicious of anyone who did anything differently, or who didn't look like, worship like or vote like them. Some of them were very abusive and obnoxious to me and my family during those years, and one of them tried continually to buy the farm out from under us (we rented), and was suspected by the local fire department of having torched our barn, though they could never make it stick. My kid was put through so much hell in the public schools that we finally had no choice but to homeschool - just what I needed to have to do as I was already working hard physically for at least fourteen hours a day. Much as I loved my little farm, I couldn't care much for such people.
This is not a blanket condemnation of farmers by any means, but this was my direct experience with them. These people truly believed that they were true blue Americans, very righteous and worthy and that anyone unlike them was trash and probably on welfare.
Each and every one of them was a Republican. In our local township, the electoral rolls were published in the throwaway local rag. There were only two people in the area not registered as Republicans - one Democrat, one Socialist Democrat. My husband and myself. And though the identities of the voters was supposed to be private, small town you know. Eventually life became unbearable there and we gave up and moved away.
They'd vote Republican no matter what harm it did them. Because Pap and Grandpap did, you know.
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