VOL. 1  NO. 1

THE IOWA FARMSTEAD

1920

CEMENT WORK ON THE FARM

By A.S. Worth

(Before Harrison County Farmers’ Institute)

     The beginning of the twentieth century has witnessed rapid strides in the use of cement and concrete in a thousand and one different lines of construction work.  Nor is it difficult to find the cause.  The scarcity of timber and lumber is the principal cause.  Then if you compare the lasting qualities of the two materials, cement is far the cheaper.  The U.S. is fast losing her forest primeval.  Therefore, we must find a substitute, and cement and concrete is fast taking the place of lumber as a building material.
     Of late it has been most extensively used in the cities.  But we can see no reason why the farmer cannot use it to great advantage to himself for it is much cheaper than either brick or stone and it requires but little skill to use it, the principal tools for making and applying it is a shovel and a trowel.
     There are many ways and places that cement can be used on the farm to great advantage.  It can be utilized in the construction of foundations for building, barn floors, especially in the cow barns, feeding pens for hogs.

Even a hog is inclined to be clean if you give him a chance.  A feeding floor can be swept clean or flushed once a day or better after each meal, and prevent disease in your herd.

CEMENT WALKS ON THE FARM

     We stopped at a farm home late one afternoon not long ago, and found the oldest son, who was home for a few weeks on his vacation, busy making a cement sidewalk from the kitchen door to the pump, located one hundred and fifty feet away.  He began by making a platform of comfortable size next to the kitchen door, and started the walk from this cement platform.  The walk was two and a half feet wide, which is ample for farm purposes.  It is needless to say that this boy’s mother and sisters will appreciate this walk not only because it gives them a comfortable way to the pump, but because it will stop the tracking into the kitchen of a vast amount of mud and dirt.

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Explorations in Iowa History Project
Malcolm Price Laboratory School
University Of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, Iowa
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Documents courtesy of the State Historical Society of Iowa

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