The Schuler's
Generations of successful farming in Richmond Township

Just before Christmas of 2008, I was privileged to spend several hours with Society members Harold W. and June Schuler to talk about farming in Richmond Township. The following is what I learned:

Many Schuler's settled in Lehigh County after arriving in this country. In 1875, Isaac Schuler, Great Grandfather of Harold, purchased the farm of George Merkel located on Oak Haven Road (the road close to T.C.'s restaurant.) This first Schuler farm consisted of 107 acres and it was there that Harold's grandfather George M. Schuler grew up.

In the late 1800's George M. Schuler bought a nearby farm from the estate of James Merkel consisting of 117 acres. This farm, which might be called the Schuler Homestead, is located on Schuler Road (named for the family.) George M. and his wife Cora are the parents of Harold W. and George J. Schuler who grew up at this homestead.

In 1946 the farm where Cora Schuler grew up was purchased. This farm of 122 acres (where Harold and June now reside) is located west of Rt 662 just north of Fleetwood. It was leased to Luther Davis from 1947 to 1981.

A third farm was purchased in 1960. This former Phillip Schaeffer farm is located across from Harold's farm along Rt 662. Harold and June's son Daniel and his wife Kristine now own this farm. In addition to crop farming, they raise a breed of horses called Hanoverians. If you drive to Fleetwood from Moselem Springs you may see these horses on the left just before entering Fleetwood. Daniel also does the crop farming on Harold's farm.

In 1962 another farm was acquired by the Schuler's not far from the Schuler Homestead. This farm of 137 acres is referred to as the "Y Road" farm because of its location at a Y intersection of School and Schuler roads. At this point, George W. Schuler and his two sons, Harold and George farmed approximately 300 acres in Richmond Township. It is interesting to note that the original Isaac Schuler farm has been with the Schuler family from 1875 to the present. In 1985 a partnership between Harold W. and George J. Schuler, formed in 1963, was dissolved. Both men and their sons became separate fanning units. Harold's nephews now own the Schuler Homestead and the other adjacent farms.

As Harold recalls, farming in his early life was done with draft horses. They used a one-furrow walking plow hitched to two horses for "easy plowing' and to three horses if plowing in sod. The first tractor was acquired in 1927 and had steel wheels. In 1942 a rubber-tire tractor was being used. Harold remembers that it was not unusual, for a time, to have his dad plowing with a team of horses in the same field where he was plowing with a tractor.

Wheat, when cut, was bound into sheaves. About 10 sheaves were stacked into a shock in the field. About two days later some sheaves were brought into the barn area where it was threshed with a threshing machine which separated the grain from the straw. Very early threshing machines were powered by horses but Harold's recollection includes a machine powered by a gasoline engine and later by a tractor. Once tractors were available, threshing machines included blowers to blow the straw into the mow of the barn to be used as bedding and mechanical straw carriers became obsolete.

Wheat that was not immediately needed was often stacked in the field or in wheat stacks in a grain shed. The shocks of wheat were carefully stacked on wooden rails to keep them off the ground. Harold recalls that wooden grain sheds were built in the 1920's using poles of American chestnut wood harvested near the Moselem church.

Early wheat yields average around 30 bushels per acre. A yield of 40 bushels was considered excellent. Due to improvements in fertilizers and seeds, yields of 60 bushels per acre are now common and can sometimes reach 80 bushels or more.

Corn harvesting in early farming was very labor intensive. Corn stalks were cut off and put into shocks about 4 feet in diameter. After about 2 weeks the shocks would be laid over and the ears husked onto a pile to be picked up later with a wagon. Stalks would be tied into sheaves which would be stacked into large shocks. Later the sheaves would be brought into the barn area to be chopped as animal feed. Whatever the animals would not eat became bedding in the stalls.

By the mid 1930's corn was left standing and was husked by 2 or 3 people who would throw the ears into a wagon drawn by a team of horses. The corn was then shoveled into a corn crib where it would dry until its sale or use for feed. Perhaps some readers can remember when corn husking competitions were a part of area fairs and festivals.

In 1947, Harold recalls, his father bought a one-row corn husking machine at a cost of $820 and hand husking was discontinued. Today's corn harvesting machines cut multiple rows at a time (usually 6) and shell the corn as well, but at a very high price. A new modern combine harvester can cost as much as $200,000. Almost 80% of combines in our area are purchased used, with a 10 year old machine costing about $50,000. This cost excludes the "heads" which can cost $10,000 for a grain head and $20,000 for a corn head.

Grain prices fluctuated according to supply and demand. In the 1930's one dollar a bushel was a good price for wheat. In the 1960's the price was around two dollars but in 2007, world wide demand for wheat had pushed the price above seven dollars per bushel. It has now dropped to about four dollars. Unfortunately for the farmer, fertilizer and seed prices always seem to rise with grain prices. Harold recalls the price of a ton of fertilizer rising from $450 in 2007 to over $1,000 in 2008. This price is now dropping as grain prices moderate.

The Schuler's were dairy farmers, milking a herd of Holsteins twice a day (5AM and 4:30 PM) every day until his 80th birthday, when, as Harold puts it, "The cows left." (Most of us would agree Harold had earned the break.)

Field crops on the Schuler farms included hay crops of alfalfa and timothy, as well as corn, wheat, oats and barley. Crops were rotated to preserve the topsoil according to a system referred to as "COWS." Fields were planted each year in a rotation of corn, then oats, wheat and finally sod.

During the early 1900's Harold's grandfather would sell potatoes, pork and butter out of a market wagon on the streets of the Reading area. Leaving at 3 AM, he would have breakfast at The Six Mile House on the current Rt. 222. By the time he reached Temple, it was time to begin sales to homeowners along his route.

Another interesting aspect of early farming described by Harold Schuler was the use of limestone kilns or furnaces on many local area farms in the early 1900's. Limestone rocks were quarried on the farm using sledgehammer-powered drills and dynamite. The rocks were then burned in a kiln or furnace to produce limestone powder used to sweeten the top soil. (An original quarry drill has been donated to our museum by Harold Schuler.)

Limestone kilns were vertical chambers into which was loaded a layer of corn cobs. On top of that was a layer of coal, then a layer of limestone rocks. Following on top were more layers of coal and rocks until the kiln was full. Once the corn cobs were ignited the furnace would burn for up to two weeks leaving only the useable limestone at the end of the process. It was said that the extra help needed to fill the kiln got a wage of 75 cents a day plus two meals.

Some senior citizens of our area may recall the day the barn burned on the Schuler homestead July 31, 1940, of undetermined cause. It was completely rebuilt in the fall of that year.

The Schuler's can be numbered among the most successful of our community's farmers, weathering the many climate, pest and market variables of farming over many generations. We can be very proud of our Schuler neighbors and pleased to see this important farming industry continued on our fertile East Penn Valley soil.

Robert Knoll
Fleetwood Historical Society