Blake Dalby

2713 380th St.

Madison, KS 66860

Clay Mclivain
2714a 380th St.
Madison, KS 66860

Brett Stubbs
414 Cherry St.
Madison, KS 66860

Blake: is it ok if I ask you a few questions?

Clay: ok
Blake: what's somethings that have changed over they years
Clay: changed what
Blake: like how sprays and other things have changed
Clay: when my grandfather moved here he had a team of horses and one tractor that I still own
and...the biggest change is probably from a team to a four wheel drive tractor with air
conditioning um it's just amazing if if your asking from when my grandfather moved here
to today it's just amazing how things have changed
Blake: so what are a couple things such as the chorus would have to do when you where a kid
Clay: oh when I was a kid I would help dad milk the cows and collect eggs from the chickens in
the evening in the morning I went to school but in the evening boy you better believe we
had chorus I always went with I'm to milk the cow and we normally had calves on the
bucket it was just a lot of work just in a smaller scale
Blake: right
Clay: today um no chickens and no milk cows calves do the milking
Blake: um so like what are a few or like is this the original home cite

Clay: my grandfather moved here in1946 the house and barn are still standing and... Cents
1946 of course it was homesteaded by other people
Blake: right
Clay: but that's when they took ownership of the house witch was right after world war 2
The depression my dad was born in 1936 and my grandma and grandpa owned a place
near Madison and the depression than they lost it they moved several times to Hamilton
to Lamont and lived in and rented several places till 1946 when they bought this place
Blake: so have you found it harder um now than back in the day than now
Clay: what do you mean by harder
Blake: like to work all the land because of all the manual labor
Clay: the...when grandpa moved here dad was a little boy it was more labor intensive
everything required manual labor they could go out and work ground all Day and get
done what was assumed to be big at that time
Blake: right
Clay: today you can go out and work in the field the same amount of time but you will get more
done so as far as they could do with what they had and today we still do that
Blake: yea
Clay: but you have to have larger equipment do get a lot done
Blake: so do you just farm or do you do cattle also
Clay: cattle and row crop both
Blake: so like how has sprays changed like pesticides
Clay: oh my when I was a boy you would net even know what the word pesticide was or I didn't
as far as farm chemicals there was none you fertilized it and my dad also sold it to the
farmers around here who didn't you would put it would and it was just amazing to see
how it grows

Blake: yea
Clay: my gosh we went from a fifty pound sack to today we are getting in a semi truck full of
liquid fertilizer tomorrow um putting it on in liquid form
Blake: yea
Clay: and it's just uhh that just one large change um the spray is the chemical we use for weeds
or our beans just makes it so you can do more acres so much faster back than you
planted your crop than you ran a cultivator you could plan on cultivating your corn at
least three to four times
And you went out there then it was real small so you could get the weeds and than you
would cultivate to keep the weeds down now we walk in there and plant than drive a
sprayer and spray round up and 24-d
Blake: so when you first started planting how many acres did you plant
Clay: around one hundred acres fifty of wheat and fifty corn the combine we used took five rows
at a time compared to today where we can take sixteen rows at a time.
Blake: thank you for your time and letting me interview you about the history of the farm