Ray was from a family of good farmers

When the neighbors would plant corn on a terrace

far enough apart to drive a wagon down the middle,

Ray would plant in the water furrow about four feet apart.

Each time he plowed the crop, he pulled a little dirt to the plant.

He would always plow after a rain.

The broken ground will form a buffer

to stop evaporation.

He had a black smith shop set up to sharpen his plows.

By heating and hammering a sharp edge, it does not consume any metal.

He would dip the cutting edge in water to quench it.

When metal cools fast, it makes it hard and brittle,

if it cools slow it will be strong and malleable.

So the cutting edge was hard, but the rear part was strong.

Ray knew to sharpen a hoe to make it easier to use.

How many people do not know to sharpen a hoe?

Ray developed his own strain of corn.

Every year he would pick out the biggest ears for seed corn.

Probably his dad and maybe granddad did the same thing.

It was not until I quit farming and lost seed,

that I realized what we had.

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