Once upon a Farm

Bob Artley came from a town not more than 50 miles from my home
town and his age is not that far from the mother's age, and since
my mother also grew up on a farm, going through the book was like
going back into her own very real time. Unlike Mr. Artley and
probably nearly all girls who live on farms today, my mother did
not do chores connected with the farm. That was a guy-thing.
Girls worked in the house. Period. But she certainly had
brothers a-plenty who did those very same things in very similar
ways as did Mr. Artley. The illustrations are wonderful,
so realistic you can almost smell the hay, and other things
not quite so fragrant connected with farms.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever lived on a farm, lived near a farm, driven by a farm. It is a document of
a way of life that is swiftly leaving the scene, more's the
pity. It should also be in school libraries.
Even very young children can get a real sense of what it was like
to live on a farm through the marvelous illustrations


A book with heart   February 21, 2002
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a beautiful book written by a writer and illustrator who grew up on an Iowa farm in the 1930's as the "age of the horse" was giving way to the "age of the tractor." The author, Bob Artley, illustrates with detailed sketches and color drawings of such things as walking through the spring mud from barn to barn carrying a bucket of feed, a birds eye view of the farmstead, one of father and son cleaning oat seed with a hand powered fanning mill, planting corn behind a team of horses, milking a cow the old fashioned way, the details of a cream separator, threshers at harvest time and much more. Mr. Artley writes a description of the work they did, what was hard, what was fun and a few of his personal memories of the feelings that he as a child had living this life. It is a touching book written with love and realism describing a lifestyle that has passed by. I especially loved his description of the barn chores where each cow had her chosen place where they were fed silage topped with ground oats and linseed oil, and where they would bed down in the straw with their heads in the stanchions feeding on clover hay. Mr. Artley is not overly sentimental in his memories. He also explains the distastefulness of cleaning out the gutters, working in the cold and the heat etc. He gives us a balanced look at farm life prior to telephones, electricity and indoor plumbing. This is a wonderful book for both those who also experienced farm life in the 1930's as well as younger people like myself who are simply interested in the lives of an older generation.