Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> Remember this is the soul of the Green Revolution.  Farmers were 
> encouraged to increase yields by buying new hybrid seeds.  To achieve 
> those yields the farmer also had to buy fertilizers and insecticides.  New 
> irrigation systems had to be built to provided the water needed by super 
> seeds.  State controlled prices of the farm output competed against free 
> market prices for those inputs and the difference was made up by borrowing.

Well put, Don. You left out the giant tractors and equipment, the combining 
of many "small" farms to make mega-fields appropriate to the giant 
equipment. Lots of people made big money. A few big farmers have gone on to 
become big businessmen and a lot of small farmers have gone on to become 
skilled laborers.

I relate to your recent plumbing find. Yesterday I installed an irrigation 
system in the front yard. The old anti-siphon device looked nasty so I 
decided to replace it. Wondered why it was coming off so hard. Found that 
the previous owner had put the pipe-thread anti-siphon onto the hose-thread 
bib. Cross-threading to the point of thread annhilation. To install a new 
hose bib would have meant buying a torch to sweat the old one off and put a 
new one on. I deliberated about twenty seconds and reinstalled the old 
anti-siphon, grinding all the way. No leak. Brass is amazing stuff.