MEMOIRS PART 8 - THE CATTLE DOG

In the early 1930s, we got a dog named Tippy. Dad bought her from Dicky Rydalch's youngest son (whose name was Davey) because he thought she was smart, tough, and would make a good cattle dog. He was right. She was quick to learn his shouted and whistled commands and arm signals, and she became a real help to him. She even learned by observation and experience to be a reasonably good bird dog. When I was about 15, Dad bought me a shotgun and I used it mainly to hunt pheasants. Tippy soon learned what we were looking for, that her role was to roust them out of the bushes, and if they fell to the ground, to make sure they were dead.
An amusing (at least to me) anecdote in this regard happened when I came home after the War. At that time, Dad had a border collie or an Australian sheep dog, and he was bemoaning the fact that she was totally useless because she was so timid that she was afraid of her own shadow. I can almost remember his exact words: "I used to have a dog named Tippy who was the smartest, toughest dog I ever saw. She could handle horses, cattle, or sheep as if she knew exactly what they were thinking." Looking off into space, he went on: "Why, she was even a good bird dog, my son-", then he stopped, looked at me and suddenly remembered who he was talking to. After a short pause he said, "She did go hunting with you, didn't she?" Of course I agreed.

*********

I can clearly remember when Dad first planted corn to be used as silage for the cows. It was in the early 1930s. He first planted about 6 acres in the field due west of the farmyard., and he irrigated it with his newly refurbished pond, fed by his newly dug artesian wells. While the corn was growing, he dug a trench about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 6 feet deep in the area just north of the Bull Pen. When harvest time came (the corn was still green), he bought, rented, or borrowed a machine pulled by horses which cut the corn close to the ground, and piled it into swathes so that it could be loaded into wagons and hauled to the chopper.
The chopper was located beside the trench and was driven by a gasoline engine. It chopped the corn, cobs, leaves, stalks, and everything else into inch-sized chunks, which it deposited in the bottom of the trench. My job was to spread the chopped corn into even layers. When the trench was full or all the corn had been harvested, it was covered with a plastic sheet. The dirt that had come out of the trench was then used to cover the sheet.
The green corn then fermented and became silage. The cows loved it, and crowded into the milking shed to eat it. I think they all became alcoholics.