Left, three generations of Hammers-Willis, Bill andyoung Jim. The two men have in common a deep love of the land, a love that the boy will most probably inherit. Sprinting across field, below, Bill herds sheep to pasture. In the background, tractor driven by Hammer, Sr., raises a trail of dust. At right, a riding horse is led out of the paddock to carry Bill to where a cow has calved.
Living on the land, a farm boy grows to love it. Billy Hammer, a lean package of muscle and wiry energy, replaced the hired man on his father's 333acre farm near Scales Mound, Illinois. His job was to milk the cows, feed the pigs, chase the sheep out of the orchard, pick corn and bind hay. He had been learning his tasks since at the age of three he rode a gentle horse into the fields to watch his dad, Willis Hammer, Sr. While more and more farmers drift away to cities, this father and twenty-six-year-old son rent and work tracts that the neighbours have left. Bill's great-great-grandfather settled the rolling hills that will some day be his. On the whole, it has been lucky land but the vagaries of weather and disease and the caprices of the market can dishearten a man. To live off the soil you must love the life. Bill Hammer does. "I always wanted to be a farmer. I don't like to be cooped up." ABOUT
AFARMBOY GROWSUP
TWELVE YEARS AGO
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