Old McDonalad Had a Pen

Folklore in literature pertains to many different topics, if not all of them. Folklore focuses on one's culture, stories told and passed down, lessons taught, legends, etc. In agricultural literature, The Homestead Act of 1862 illustrates what the culture of the United States was and what made it the way it is today, based off of people’s decisions and government influence. During the time of the Civil War, land, food and work were scarce. Though at this time the focus was not neccessarily in this social issue as it was to slavery. President Abraham Lincoln noticed how the success of the country and its future heavily depended on the action that was taking place in that particular moment. In 1860, 58% of the country were involved and employed in agricultural occupations. The nation accumulated over 2,000,000 farms and the average size of each one was nearly 200 acres. (Kinkead,77)  Lincoln emphasized and brought attention to government officials that, “The most valuable of all a...

Between arable, pastoral, mixed, commercial, sedentary, or intensive farming they all have one thing in common and that is manpower. Manpower is a common phrase known as persons available to help the success of a certain business or service. If you were to break down this word into more casual terms it could be referred to as hard work, even the strength of men. Men genetically have more muscle and strength than women. In society men are known as a protector as well as more capable to complete or perform difficult tasks; especially ones that are physically challenging. The hands and feet who are involved with producing the products we have in our homes and on our table are not ones that mindlessly worked. No, in fact these are people who were bread to learn and understand the meaning and significance of discipline, sacrifice and hard work in real life situations. It is not a job for the weak, it clearly makes sense why farmers and employees who are involved in this occupation have su...

Discipline and accountability learned at a young age is developed not just through words but mostly through actions. On a farm life skills are learned and applied through daily and confident actions. Farmers learn that through those daily actions and how efficiently they perform them determines their outcome. They learn to work hard, to wake up early, and learn personal responsibility. If they decide not to wake up or be on top of their chores for the day, then there are severe consequences. Animals may die, there may be no food in the winter, they may not have the financial stability they need to provide for a family if they slack and miss even just one day. They learn that simple actions lead to greater outcomes. For example, waking up at 5 a.m. in the morning to milk the cows and provide food for them at certain hours of the day, makes it so those cows are healthy and able to either reproduce or be sold for profit. One day off may be the difference maker in a cows health ...

The media presents photos of young kids working on a farm in various activities. The ones I chose in particular and designed to remind adults what made them the people they are today. For example, “The hard work we hated as kids, made us who we are today.” The key phrase in this example is, ‘the work we hated’ indicating that the work was not enjoyable by any means but it was necessary to become strong mentally and develop characteristic attributes that are vital to becoming successful in life. The words that are bolded are, ‘HATED’ and ‘TODAY’ those also are in all capital letters, apart from the rest of the words being all undercase. In other words, no pain no gain. Or the phrase, ‘You reap what you sow.’ What you put in is what you get out, the harder one works, the greater the harvest will be. The children in these pictures look pleasant and like they are enjoying working hard.  One photo displays a boy with his hand tasseled with ropes and wearing a big cowboy hat wi...