—1877—Rules For Making A Wife Happy

#68

Rules For Making a Wife Happy

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—Treat your wife as politely and kindly as when you were wooing her.
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—Never find fault with her in a cross tone and manner, and especially before other people.
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—If your dinner does not suit you, do not spoil her appetite by scolding about it at the time, but give whatever suggestions are needed after dinner.
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—Do not humiliate her by groaning over every item of household expense as if she was extravagent. Either retrench in superfluities, or pay for them without murmuring.
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—Share your pleasures and your cares with her, and show that you value her society and her advice.
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—Do not speak lightly of her caress and fatigues, but sympathize in her troubles, whether small or great.
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—Try to gratify her fancies, such as a flower garden, or conveniences about her work. She will be reminded of your consideration or neglect many times every day by these little things. 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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I will post "Rules For Making a Husband Happy" from 1877 in an upcoming Agrarian Nation Excerpt.

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—1865—Greens in Winter

#67

Turnip Greens

If any of our lady readers relish a nice dish of greens they can at any time have them, by taking a box (size to be governed by the quantity desired,) and putting into it some rich soil, then set some turnips in and cover lightly with soil, place the box in a warm or even moderately warm room, occasionally watering, and you soon will be gratified with a fine growth. To have them crispy and tender, keep them away from the sunlight as much as possible.
[Leavitt’s Farmer's Almanac]

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There were no supermarkets in the Agrarian Nation, so people who wanted fresh greens through the winter months grew their own by "forcing" roots indoors and harvesting the green sprouts, as explained in the above excerpt. I don't think that the greens from forced turnips will look as full and leafy as the picture above, but I'm sure they will taste very good, no matter what they look like, to a green-starved person in the midst of winter.

In his book, Four Season Harvest, Eliot Coleman tells how to force different roots. Here is an excerpt from the book:

We bring celeriac, beets, and parsley root up from the cellar and plant them in large pots of damp sand in a sunny window. You can also do this with turnips, onions and carrots. There is no need for darkness because you want the new growth to be green. Water the pots every few days to keep the sand damp. A normal room temperature of 60°F is ideal. The vigor of the roots themselves determines the quantity and quality of your production... The celeriac grows small, flavorful celery stalks; the beets grow beet greens; and the parsley roots produce a pretty good parsley. The turnips grow turnip greens, the onion tops can be used like green onions, and the ferny carrot tops make a  nice nibble. Even the smallest shoots of sprouted greens are a flavorful garnish for a midwinter dish.

To add bulk to a salad, you may want to try another winter growing idea from the underground garden. When you harvest cabbages in the fall, remove the loose outer leaves and pull the cabbages—head, stem, and roots—from the soil. Store them upright on the cellar floor, leaning against the wall, with a little sand over their roots. They store very well that way. When you bring a cabbage up to the kitchen, cut the head off for eating, then plant the leftover roots and stem in an upright position in one of the damp sand pots in the window. Add water to keep the sand moist.

Within a few days, sprouts will begin to grow from the leaf nodes all along the stem. You will soon have a bushy mound of fresh green cabbage shoots, which are the foundation for many a fine winter salad, soup, or casserole.

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While researching this subject of forcing roots for winter greens, I happened upon an article about digging dandelion roots in the fall and forcing them indoors for greens in the winter....Forcing Dandelion Roots

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—1853—True Thanksgiving

#66

Freedom From Want, by Norman Rockwell. This famous painting, made by Rockwell for the war effort in 1943, does not depict a 19th century family. But the grandparents featured at the head of the table would certainly have grown up in the late 1800s. And their parents would have remembered the Civil War era of the mid-1800s. And their grandparents would have remembered long before that. We need not go back very far in the generations to find people who were very familiar with the Agrarian Nation. If you are ever around Stockbridge, Massachusetts, make it a point to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum. My family was there a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely.

-1853-

This is the month in which the people of New England, in imitation of the their ancestors, are accustomed to keep a Thanksgiving festival, in grateful remembrance of the blessings of the year. “I will rejoice and be glad in thee, and celebrate the name of the Most High.”  And have we not all reason to rejoice, and give thanks? “The husbandman now counts his sheaves, and reckons up his abundance. Do we not now live upon the gifts of summer and autumn? And with what activity has nature labored, in those delightful seasons, to accomplish the beneficent views of the Creator in favor of man!” We will be thankful, then, for all these signal blessings. Sing, ye farmers and husbandmen! Wake, wake into gratitude, and join in lauding Him who “makes the grass the mountains crown, and corn in valleys grow.”
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

J.C. Leyendecker's portrayal of a Pilgrim Forefather, with a gun in one hand and Bible in the other. That seems appropriate. But, as my wife said to me, "He looks a little too well fed." And though the Pilgrims were a serious people, I don't think it's fair to characterize them with an angry visage, as is on this man—unless, of course, someone was looking to take his gun or Bible.

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I greatly admire the Mayflower Pilgrims, and not just because  my Grandmother Kimball told me I am a Pilgrim descendant. They were simple people of strong Christian faith who did something very difficult, and left a remarkable legacy.  That said, I recommend an essay I posted to the internet several years ago, titled Pilgrims & The Christian-Agrarian Exodus of 1620

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I was pleased to discover a documentary about the Pilgrims that was on the History Channel. I don't watch television but someone posted it (a much-condensed version) to YouTube in three parts. It is well worth watching, perhaps even watching with your whole family. There is, of course, much more about the Pilgrim story than is in the short YouTube segments, but they do a decent job of providing a lot of perspective, and you can get something of a "feel" for what the Pilgrims went through in their crossing. I also happen to think the Pilgrim actors in the documentary look far more true to life than J.C. Leyendecker's painting (shown above). 

The documentary is titled,Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower. Here are links to the three parts of the documentary on YouTube ...

Mayflower Story: Part 1 of 3

Mayflower Story: Part 2 of 3

Mayflower Story: Part 3 of 3

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The above documentary features comments by historian Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the excellent book, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. 

I reviewed the book in my Deliberate Agrarian Blogazine for January 2010 and ended by saying:

"Mayflower is certainly not a mythologizing eulogy to the Pilgrim era of American history. It is a gritty and human account of gritty and enigmatically human people struggling with circumstances like you and I will never know. It is worth noting that the story in Philbrick's Mayflower is one man's historical interpretation of events that took place some 350 years ago. Some of the story, like all such stories, is undoubtedly inaccurate and incomplete. Nevertheless, it is clear that the book was very well researched and, though Philbrick is a secular author, his account is probably as honest and fair-mined as you'll find. I recommend the book to you."

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Cousin Reginald Catches the Thanksgiving Turkey. The humor here is that Cousin Reginald is a city boy. Turkeys are big, surprisingly strong  birds. They can be intimidating to those who are not familiar with them, especially when it comes time to ax off a head. I speak from experience.

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I wish all of you who read this a happy and blessed Thanksgiving 2011. May we all...

Wake, wake into gratitude, and join in lauding Him who “makes the grass the mountains crown, and corn in valleys grow.”

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—1872—The ParsnipAs A Field Crop

#64

Parsnips (photo link with recipe)

It has always been a matter of surprise, that the parsnip is so little appreciated as a crop for feeding dairy stock. When fed to cows, it improves the quality of the milk, it produces a richer cream and a finer flavored butter than any other root, and all animals are very fond of it. It is also one of the best roots to feed to fattening stock. Moreover, it has the advantage of being perfectly hardy, and can be left in the ground without injury over winter, if anything prevents harvesting in November; or a part of the crop can be harvested in the fall, and the rest left through the winter to be dug in April, just when it is most wanted for cows and for ewes with lambs by their sides.

With these important advantages, it must certainly be regarded as one of the best on the list of root-crops for the dairy farm, and yet it is but little cultivated. This is owning, perhaps, in part o the fact that the seed must be fresh and new, and in part to the difficulty of pulling, the long tap root adhering with great tenacity to the soil. The former difficulty can be readied by raising the seed on the farm itself, the latter by running a subsoil plough under the rows, one at a time, as they are gathered, thus loosening the hold of the roots upon the ground. It is easy to raise them at the rate of from six to eight hundred bushels to the acre, and they are commonly worth about fifty cents per bushel in the market.

The parsnip requires a soil free from rocks,—a free, rich, mellow loam; and on such soil, the cost per acre is but little greater than that for the cultivation of ruta bagas. It is desirable to  plough the ground in ridges in the fall, and to apply old and well-rotted manure, at the rate of thirty or forty horse cart-loads to the acre in spring, to be ploughed under. The seed is to be sown—as early in spring as it is possible to plough and work the land—in drills about two feet apart, to give space to go through with the cultivator or the horse-hoe.

The seed may be sown by a machine at the rate of four or five pounds to the acre. It is a good plan to put in a few radish seeds to mark the drills and to guide the cultivator before the plants are sufficiently grown in early spring. When two inches high, or so, the plants must be carefully thinned and weeded. They may stand about three inches apart in the drills. If the weeds are completely kept down till the plants get a good size, the long leaves will shade the ground, and the work will be less.

In harvesting, select a few of the best roots to set out in April for seed, which will ripen in July. The Long Smooth or Hollow Crown is the best variety. Use labor-saving implements as much as possible,m and the cost per acre need not exceed seventy dollars.
[Thomas’s Old Farmer's Almanac]

Harvesting Parsnips (photo link)

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—1898—A Shaker's Advice on Farming

#63

This barn is in Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was built in 1826 and is a well-preserved agrarian treasure.

Richard Van Deusen, of Enfield, Ct., entertained the Institute most of the forenoon by reading a paper in which he made many shrewd and quaint comments. He said that the Shakers require all that join them to be fair and square with God and man as far as possible; so the first step for any farmer who wishes to start right is to find out where he stands. He counseled his brother farmers to look after their wood-piles in the leisure months and see that there was a good supply cut and housed for the rest of the year. The manure heaps should receive attention and not be allowed to waste under the eaves of the barn. As a rule the dealers in commercial fertilizers are growing rich, and the farmers who use them are growing poor. The cows should be kept in thrifty condition. A poor cow gives poor milk. Shaker cows get roots, meal and good hay daily, and they show it in their looks and products. A peck of yellow globe turnips, from their bin of 1,800 bushels, is given each animal daily, with four quarts of a mixture of meal and wheat shorts. He thought sheep raising was one of the best branches of farming for the hill-towns. Sheep give two returns of profit a year. He had known lambs in Lebanon, N.Y., sell for six dollars a head, and the dams shear from three to eight pounds of wool each. It is difficult to raise lambs from feeble sheep. He said the winter is a good time to put farm tools in order. One of the first spring exercises with some farmers is sowing oats, He would get a good kind, sow three bushels to an acre, and cover them two and a half inches deep with a seed drill. He had ploughed them in. They yield better when well covered. Oats that weigh 32 to 35 pounds to the bushel are alone fit to sow or feed, and the yield should not be less than 50 bushels an acre.

Potatoes should be planted early in order to get the benefit of the spring rains and a good market price. Turf land gives the best results, and he would plow the fall before. As soon as the tops show signs of decay, which is often early in July, he digs, barrels and covers them in his barns. The Blush variety had tops as large as a four-quart measure last year when the frost came, and though they were badly cut, he dug about 300 bushels an acre. Of corn, he would not raise less than 50 to 75 bushels an acre. We have not the 300-acre fields of corn found in Ohio, but in our little way we can raise more bushels to an acre and a better quality than they can in the west. All things considered, he thought hay was the most profitable crop, and with machinery he could cut, cure and cart it for $2 a ton. He would plow some grass lands, once in three or four years, put on 15 to 20 cart-loads of manure, or some phosphate, and seed with half a bushel of Timothy to the acre, harrowed and rolled in. In this way he expects three tons of hay from an acre, taking both crops. He once cut 22 tons of hay on six acres and sold it at $40 a ton. He would not pasture his meadows any more than he would run in debt. He thought that tools might be kept to let like horses in a livery-stable. Few farmers can afford to keep all the machinery they need. Labor is an important factor in farming, and hired help should receive fair wages when due; but too many give their help the cream, and consequently the farmer and his family have to put up with the skim-milk. Parents were exhorted to make home pleasant, and speak gently to the members of the family. Find out what the boys are adapted to before you overload them, and when they get into trouble help them out. A scar is not easily healed on man or a tree. He has a favorite horse that he speaks as gently to as to his mother or sister, and the horse knows it.

[Leavitt’s Farmer's Almanac]

A view inside the round barn at Hancock Shaker Village. Click Here to learn a little more about the barn.

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-1849-NovemberFarmer's Calendar Excerpt(A Recipe For Easy Circumstances)

#61

-1849-

Would you like to know how you can always be in easy circumstances? If so, here—take the recipe:

Subdue every unnecessary want or desire, and buy only such things as will add to your real comfort and convenience. 

It is the extreme of folly to think you must buy every thing you see, or have everything that some of your rich neighbors have. If they have attained their wealth by their vices, their exhortations and rogueries, do not try to ape them, but despise alike their means and their ends. If they have acquired their riches by their virtues, their fairdealing and activity and honesty, in business, as only the truly self-made men, the great and excellent of the earth, ever do, they deserve your regard and esteem—they are to be honoured—they are worthy of their success—the community at large will benefit by their prosperity; you will not envy them, nor make vain and fruitless attempts to rival them in their establishments and equipages; but pursue the even  tenor of your way in right-thinking and right-acting, as these noblemen of Nature’s fabric have done before you. 

The frog, in trying to swell to the size of the ox, burst—a certain end to all artificial greatness. Whenever you find you can curtail your expenses, you must summon resolution to do it.
[Maine Farmer's Almanac]

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It is November in the Agrarian Nation. The crops are harvested. The farmer has some profit. And the Maine Farmer's Almanac has some sage advice... live within your means. 

Now there is some wisdom as appropriate to today as it was 162 years ago.

Fathers and mothers, if you want to pass on wisdom to your children, may I suggest that you arm yourself with an arsenal of aphorisms, and use them often through the years, when the occasion warrants. Your children will grow up, and they will remember...

My momma always used to tell me...

"The frog, in trying to swell to the size of the ox, burst."

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I'm wondering, can you think of an aphorism that your father or mother or a grandparent used to say?


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