• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    And then everyone clapped…

    I don’t even know if seed would have been available back then year round, and for something like that “lifetime supply” would be what you used and handed out during planting season.

    But seed isn’t cheap, I don’t think someone would have made up that story if they knew how unbelievable it was. There’s no way he could just grab a 20 pound bag of seed every month. That’s close to $100 today for just grass, not even crops.

    And even if it was pre-tractor and done with a horse/donkey…

    Most farmers would be getting them so close to perfectly straight this would have been impossible to judge.

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      “Seed” in 1910 was not even close to what it is today. This was also likely cereal grains and maybe some pulses. What you could buy was basically grain from the previous year.

      Also the local Coop’s/grain sellers would absolutely give free seed to new immigrants anyways. It was just smart business for them. The new farmers had no place else to sell the harvest but to them. More production = more money for them. A few pennies invested that yielded dollars for years.

      • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        I’m imagining those sachets that you get seeds in these days… 20 of them with 3g of grass seed in each.

        • WraithGear@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I mean, it was a reward for plowing a straight row at a fair. That seems like a fitting and generous reward imo. And still makes the dude a good neighbor.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      You sorely overestimate how easy it is to get a trained animal to walk in a perfectly straight line. They do not get magical perfect-line-walking powers just because they are animals.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Dude is in half of Lemmy threads removed about something. I’m just surprised they didn’t somehow tie this into Biden being bad.

        • AmosBurton_ThatGuy@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          Tbh this is what I hate most about Lemmy. Easy to recognise certain usernames cause they’re either dumb af or constantly an asshole. Hell I’ve been pretty negative with my posting the last few weeks and I’m sure there are some that might recognise my name for being an asshole one too many times, which is fair.

          Sure I could block them but that would just make the echo chamber even worse, and this place is already worse than reddit for that IMO.

          • MeDuViNoX@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            I don’t recognize your username, but Amos Burton is a badass!

            I wish they’d start making The Expanse TV series again.

            No spoilers, please, I’m still trying to catch up in the books to find out what happened after the show ended.

    • nBodyProblem@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Seed back then would have just been unprocessed grain. I don’t know about prices in the early 1900s, but the current price of unprocessed wheat is around $230 per metric ton. That’s around $0.10/lb and would put 20 lbs at around $2 given wholesale bulk pricing.

      Not even in the ballpark of the $5/lb you cite for grass seed.

    • yeather@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      Also straight row might have been the final challenge and done without a horse, so hand done much harder.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        How do you plow without a horse?

        Like, there’s the old joke about hooking your wife up to the plow, but someone/something needs to pull the plow.

        If not than you just use a hoe

        • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I think it’s also possible to push the old style plows. It just really, really sucks

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Not really.

            They need to be pulled and pushed down to stay at the right depth.

            If you’re just pushing it’s going to nosedive.

            But like, there’s no really a reason to ever try, you’d just use a hoe. That’s literally the entire reason we have hoes. It’s just a pulled plow is way faster.