Eric Sloane Speaking AboutThe Agrarian Nation

#73

Maple Sugaring, by Eric Sloane

Today I present to you four short excerpts from the book, American Yesterday, by Eric Sloane, first published in 1956.

For those of you who don't already know, Eric Sloane was an artist who authored and illustrated numerous books, most of which were about the American Agrarian Nation. As you might guess, I'm a big fan of this man's work, and have been since my teen years. I suspect that what I learned from Eric Sloane's books helped to shape and sharpen my early agrarian understandings, which have eventually led to the creation of this web site.

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It takes a thousand men to get a load of fuel oil from the raw material to your furnace and probably as many to deliver a load of coal. It takes only one man, however, to make a pile of cordwood. Unlike a mess of oil or a heap of coal, a stack of wood is a living and a gladdening thing to behold. It has long been the symbol of the double benefits of farm life, warming you twice—once when you cut it, another when you burn it. Actually there is a third warming which is hard to define; an old almanac says, ‘City homes are warmed by coal, but country hearths do warm the soul.’

Summer in Vermont, by Eric Sloane

Whether you were a banker or shoemaker in colonial times, you were always at the same time a farmer; whether your home was large or small, it was also a farmstead. Even princes and poets of the eighteenth century were ardent agriculturists or posed as farmers and rural philosophers. Not having a rural background and a farming philosophy in those times was perhaps as bad as not being a church member.

We think of George Washington as being a “gentleman farmer,” which now describes a hobbyist, but Mount Vernon followed the tradition of all homes of that time. The General had the exact knowledge of farming that every American enjoyed as part of his daily life. How strange and foreign to modern living is a notation from the diary of John Adams: “Rose at sunrise, unpitched a load of hay and translated two more ‘Leaves of Justinian.’”

Farming now is an occupational pursuit. Farmers raise stock to sell, but two centuries ago they farmed almost entirely for themselves. Instead of a pursuit, farming was then a way of life. The philosophy of farming, which was once a recognized American principle, was based on three beliefs.

1. That agriculture is the fundamental employment of man upon which all other economic activities are vitally dependent.

2. That the farmer enjoys economic independence.

3. That farm life is the natural life and, being natural, is therefore good (This belief implies that [a] completely [urban or metropolitan] life is necessarily a corrupt one).

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If you would like to read more about Eric Sloane I recommend a 2007 essay I wrote titled, The Christian-Agrarian "Awareness" of Eric Sloane.

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—1875—Connecticut Farming

#72

Large farms are almost unknown in Connecticut, and the average-sized farm, which is not far from a hundred acres, is decreasing with every decade. If the welfare of society is considered, this tendency is not to be regretted.

Very large estates, thoroughly improved and worked mainly for economical results, employ a large force of laborers, content to sell their labor, and never looking forward to the possession of homes of their own. [But] our democratic institutions encourage every man to covet the possession of land for himself. As soon as he becomes intelligent and skillful, and makes himself profitable to his employer, he discovers that he can make his own labor pay better on his own land than on that of his neighbor; hence he improves the first opportunity to buy a few acres, or a run-down farm, and starts in business for himself. 

This thirst for land, which runs in the blood of every Yankee, and which infects almost every European very soon after he lands upon our shores, operates very steadily against farming upon a large scale. The large land-holder finds it very difficult to secure good help at reasonable prices, and still more difficult to keep first-class workmen after he gets them. In a very few years they want to set up for themselves.

This is a very good thing for society, which wants the largest number of intelligent, prosperous freeholders, but not so good for the capitalist, who wants a thousand acres and twenty laborers the year round to furnish the sinews for his brain and purse.

So we find in this commonwealth a great division of the soil among a multitude of cultivators, and almost every variety of farming that is possible upon a small territory.

[The Cultivator & Country Gentleman—April 29, 1875]

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In the Agrarian Nation of 1875 it was understood that a large number of intelligent, prosperous freeholders was "a very good thing for society."  That is to say, that having a majority of citizens living on their own small sections of land, and working to derive the bulk of their subsistence from their land, is a very good thing for society. 

That pretty much defines what an Agrarian Nation is.
Though America has changed with the sweep of industrialism, the wisdom of this old excerpt is as sound as it ever was.

Which reminds me... if you have not yet read my NY Times editorial, titled The Jeffersonian Solution, please do so.
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—1875—Castrating Rams

#70

(photo link)

I noticed an inquiry a few weeks since as to the best time to castrate rams. My experience runs through fifty years. I have seen them castrated at all seasons of the year, with success in proportion to the heat or cold of the weather at the time of the operation. The colder the day the better. I once castrated an old ram when the thermometer was at 40° below zero; and an hour after and until healed, he paid no attention to it. In the operation I press the testes down, and cut the slit near the lower end, so that no blood can find lodgment; and just large enough to get the testis out; I then cut away the ligaments as usually done, and then draw the main cord out carefully, so as to pull it as far out as possible; the longer the cord is drawn out, the less bleeding. As I pull I wind it around my fingers and draw till it breaks. I never cut or tie the cord, and there is seldom more bleeding than just from the cutting of the skin. I never lost one in my life.  —Peter M. Gideon
[The Cultivator & Country Gentleman / Vol. XL—No. 1155]

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Peter M. Gideon's method for castrating a ram lamb will surely work (who can argue with 50 years experience) but it so happens that a lot of sheep ranchers don't try to grasp the slippery testes with their hands—they use their teeth instead. 

The following video illustrates this technique very well.

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Some readers might wonder why ram lambs need to be castrated. It is because the meat and the attitude of an uncastrated ram is not very good. Only a few (or one, depending on the size of the flock) "fully functional" rams are needed for breeding purposes.

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There is another way of "emasculating" a ram lamb. It involves a tight rubber band that is stretched around the animal's scrotum. The band restricts blood flow, and the whole scrotum eventually falls off. Tails are docked in the same manner.

I listened to an online speech by Mike Rowe, star of the above film clip, in which he explained that he went to the ranch in that episode of "Dirty Jobs" with the belief that they were going to castrate using the bands. He was shocked when he got there and the farmer was pulling the testes out with his teeth.

The farmer said he had some bands and they could use them. But it was evident to Rowe that the banded rams were under duress for some time after the banding, while the rams that were cut went off and were happily grazing on pasture. As bloody and unsavory as it was, Mike Rowe came to the conclusion that castrating and docking tails with a knife was more humane treatment of the animals.

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—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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