Chores and Working Duties

Maggie Shockley describes the chores she was responsible for on her family's farm. This included milking cows, churning butter, working in the corn field and picking apples, canning fruits and vegetables, as well as more household duties like cooking, cleaning, and things as simple as grinding coffee. As was common during this era she mentions having a large family who all had their duties, and thinking back on it she says she enjoyed all the things that they learned how to do. 

This account of farm chores give a chronological description of the day’s work in Mary Grover’s home, a dairy farmer in North Carolina. Farming in this era did not simply consist of agriculture, as shown in this article. The children are woken up by four o’clock in the morning, they milk the cows, bottle it once it has cooled, and load it onto a truck to be sold elsewhere. Similar to the hardships for crop farmers, dairy farmers had their fair share of challenges which Mary elaborates on in this interview. There was an epidemic among cows which caused her to lose 60 cows by the State inspector, putting her in danger of losing her farm. Overcoming these obstacles meant being strategic in the delegation of work and making sure they made the most of what they had left, as was the mindset for all farmers going through hard times.