SEPTEMBER-1825, 1839, 1842-Farmer's Calendar Excerpts

#45

This very old photograph shows a man digging potatoes with a hook fork (click picture to see a larger view)

-1825-

This is the happy season in which Divine Goodness lavishes all sorts of fruit upon us in great abundance. The charms of summer give place to more solid enjoyments. The boughs of the apple tree bend under the weight of that golden fruit, the beauty of which is still heightened by its purple streaks. The melting pear, the plum, sweet as honey, display their charms, and seem to invite the hand of their master. Should we not be unpardonable, if the sight of these blessings which we owe, as we do all others, to the munificence of God, did not create in us grateful reflections, and by such means sanctify the pleasures of autumn? 

Finish cutting, curing and securing corn-stalks. Muster all hands, and attend vigorously to your potato fallows: let digging, housing, and marketing be the order of the day. One man, with a hook-fork, can throw out of the hills as many as five or six hands can pick up and cart in; the children can all be useful here, at least, if no bigger than Tommy Thumb, or the men of Lilliput; let them be busy here, and in the gathering of apples. Get the cider mills in order, and begin making early cider, before the apples which fall off, are rotted and wasted. 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1839-

This is one of the most glorious months for the farmer; the good things of the earth come tumbling in upon him, “heaps upon heaps!” 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1842-

“A merciful man is merciful to his beast.” When a farmer has, for a series of years, had the faithful services of his horse, which at length becomes uniform, through old age and hard labor, he will show his humanity and suitable regard for him, by treating him kindly. 

Instead of this, some there are who, when Dobbin has become stiff, wind-galled, ring-boned, and spavined, by means of hard usage, will turn him over to the tormenters, to be bandied about from jockey to jockey. Shame on such cruelty! 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

Here's a better view of a potato hook, or hook fork

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I have always dug my potatoes with a straight garden fork, not a potato hook. Has anyone out there used a potato hook to dig potatoes? Do you recommend it? If one man with a hook fork like shown above can dig potatoes enough to keep five or six pickers busy, I think I better give it a try. I sure can't do that with a straight fork.

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On another subject, please note that I have added a couple new quotes to the right sidebar. One by John Stewart Collis and the other by E.P. Roe. Click on their names and, you can read what I've written about each of these notable agrarian writers at my Deliberate Agrarian blog.

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