Sleeping Farmer

Sleeping Farmer
by John Atherton
August 23, 1947

This landscape from 1947 was about as sentimental as artist John Atherton got. Most of his 47 Saturday Evening Post covers were still life studies, or a factory, a grain elevator, etc. He detested human-interest or sentimental covers.

Once he asked his friend Norman Rockwell what he was working on. “Oh, you don’t want to know, Jack,” Rockwell replied. Atherton insisted until a very reluctant Rockwell spilled the sappy details of a painting for a Boy Scout calendar where the boys are looking reverently at a cloudy image of George Washington praying. “Jack grunted horribly and grabbed at his back, twisting about in his chair as if he’d been stabbed,” Rockwell recalled. “But Jack was deeply loyal. If anyone else disparaged my work, he’d light into them.” Atherton knew what he was good at and that nobody was better than Rockwell at what he did.

Surveying the Cow Pasture

Surveying the Cow Pasture
by Amos Sewell
July 28, 1956

It is intimidating to have several large beasts staring at you while you work. Fortunately, despite their full-sized figures, they tend to be gentle animals. The surveyor’s biggest fear should be stepping in a cow pie.

Artist Amos Sewell illustrated 45 Saturday Evening Post covers, and well over a hundred fictional stories within the magazine.

Yakima River Cattle Roundup

Yakima River Cattle Roundup
by John Clymer
May 10, 1958

“When I got into my early teens, like all boys, I got to wondering what in the world could I do to make a living and live in the mountains? One day I got to thinking about it and thought, That’s it! I’ll paint pictures and then I can live wherever I want to live,” said John Clymer. Where he lived as a boy was not far from this view of the Yakima River in Washington.

For 20 years, from 1942 to 1962, Clymer illustrated nearly 90 Post covers, most of them scenic and many, like this one from 1958, pretty enough to momentarily take your breath away. He and his father did not round up cattle as we see here, but editors inform us that they did fish the Yakima “for trout and, furthermore, caught some.”

Slow Mooving Traffic

Slow Mooving Traffic
by Ben Kimberly Prins
April 11, 1953

Well, this is disruptive. One might say—all together now—udder chaos. Artist Ben Prins got the idea for this illustration, which was his first Post cover, because he had been in a similar situation where he “performed heroically as one of the toreadors,” claimed Post editors.

Little Cowboy Takes a Licking

Little Cowboy Takes a Licking
by J.C. Leyendecker
August 20, 1938

The little cowpoke is certainly dressed for the part, but we wonder if he will ever be a hardcore ranch hand. This 1938 cover was by our most prolific artist, J.C. Leyendecker. He illustrated Post covers over a remarkable time span, from 1899 to 1943, often sumptuous and elaborate art of elegant ladies or gentlemen. So it comes as a delightful surprise when we find the artist’s humorous side.

Shoo the Moos

Shoo the Moos
by Stevan Dohanos
July 1, 1950

Before dragging grandma and baby through the barbed-wire fence, dad might want to wait and see if the cows will cooperate and vacate this ideal picnic spot (click on the artwork for a larger image).

Post editors noted that the bovines were not all that obliging when artist Stevan Dohanos was painting this 1950 cover. A cow aimed north by the local dairyman would stubbornly decide to go east or west. And as we can see, the white cow seems disinclined to move at all. This cover was painted in Westport, Connecticut, at the “Blue Ribbon Dairy Farm and Cow-Posing Academy.”

Do you have a cover theme you would like to see or a favorite Post artist you want to learn more about? Just let us know.

Reprints of Saturday Evening Post covers are available at Art.com.

Art: Till the Cows Come Home The Saturday Evening Post

We weren’t surprised at all when our Web producer snuck out of the office early last Wednesday afternoon to chase down a story. We were, however, shocked when he admitted that he left to go pick up chicks.

As in baby chickens. Yet, downtown Indianapolis is hardly the place to raise farm animals. So why are chickens crossing country roads to settle in the city? Because it’s not as hard as you might think to wake up to fresh eggs from your feathered friends.

Raising chickens was a common backyard activity in the early 20th century—when families practiced sustainability during tough economic times. But it wasn’t long before corporate poultry producers and mass farming methods grew substantially, making packaged chicken products and eggs by the dozen convenient and affordable. The benefits of owning your own chickens seemed less reasonable and the numbers of backyard chicken-raisers fell dramatically.

It’s no coincidence, then, that as the economy faces another squeeze, these breakfast-providing birds are making a comeback, rural or not.

So where do you buy chickens, and how much do they cost? Are they worth the hassle? We asked these questions and more to our Web producer, Josh Deckard, who recently became the proud parent of his own small flock.

Where do you buy chickens?
Local hatcheries and breeders, classified ads, craigslist.org, backyardchickens.com, or you can also have chicks delivered by mail from out-of-town hatcheries. You can buy fertilized eggs and hatch them yourself; buy unsexed chicks (I bought mine when they were a day old); or you can find whole flocks of grown chickens for sale.

How much do they cost?
It depends on the breed and how old they are. Sometimes people will give them away online. Free to $10 is normal, but it’s important to find out why someone is giving them away.

How do you determine the chicken’s breed and sex?
The breeder should know the breed. The sex can be determined after one day by a trained professional, but it’s very hard for a small-flock owner to determine. If you buy unsexed chicks, wait until they start showing physical characteristics of their respective sexes. According to the Mississippi State Extension Service, the combs and wattles get larger on males and their heads appear more angular than the females’ heads. Color patterns on feathers can also help determine the variety of chicken.

What are some common varieties of backyard chickens?
There are so many breeds—all of which have distinct characteristics and personalities. You can determine the best breed for you with the help of a breeder, based on your overall expectations. I went with an exotic breed.

How many should a beginner buy?
If buying unsexed chicks, consider buying twice as many as you want in your mature flock. For instance, I wanted three to four hens, so I bought six, at $2 each. Most cities do not allow cockerels (roosters), so they need to be given away/sold to someone outside the city.

How much space does each chicken need?
From what I have seen, there are many shapes and sizes of coops out there. Breeders recommend 2 square feet of indoor space per chicken and 10 square feet of outdoor run space per chicken.

Six bantam Ameraucana chicks are introduced to their new home, a cardboard box, on October 1, 2009. Photo by Josh Deckard.

How do you build, or where do you buy a chicken coop?
You can buy them online. I’ve seen them from $100 to $200, which also includes the flock. I ended up building my own.

What do you do when the weather gets cold?
Chicks need to be kept warm, but once grown, they are tolerant to most winter conditions. The breeder I bought mine from, Sally Mayall, advised me to keep them out of the wind.

Do you need to clip their wings?
According to Sally, you can. It depends on the breed and your coop situation.

How often do you feed them?
Food should always be available for young chicks. Unlike most people, they stop eating when they are full.

What predators do you need to protect them from?
Foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and also mites and lice. Again, it depends on where you plan to keep your chickens and the structure of your coop.

How many eggs can you expect from each chicken?
One egg every one to two days.

Do they make a lot of noise?
Roosters crow all day, not just in the morning, so many cities don’t allow you to keep them. Even if they did, your neighbors probably wouldn’t be very happy. Chicks sound like baby birds in a nest and grown hens simply cluck.

Besides eggs, what are the benefits of raising chickens?
Natural fertilizer and the health benefits of eating natural eggs. Some chickens are friendly and have distinct personalities, so they make great pets. “Chicken people,” I’ve found, can be quite fanatical. Sally and her kids are such people. “I just love chickens!” she said to me, “I think everyone should have one.” She also told stories about her kids connection with the birds and how her daughter frequently brings the birds inside to watch TV with them. (I didn’t ask if they were potty trained!)

It’s definitely not about saving money, the economics just don’t add up. Eggs are $2 per dozen, sometime less, at the store. For me, it’s about a closer bond with nature. Being one generation removed from a family farm in southern Indiana, it’s also about reconnecting with this tradition and history.

Read more about Josh’s experience here.

Rural Or Not, Here They Come! The Saturday Evening Post