—1871—Sunflower As A Field Crop

#113

Isaac Leuty of Sanilac Co., Michigan, states in the Western Rural that he has cultivated the “Mammoth Russian Sunflower,” as a field crop, with great success. He plants in drills 4 feet apart, and 18 inches in the drill, requiring two quarts of seed per acre. Many of the stalks grow 16 feet high. They want rich land. From eight to ten tons of leaves have been gathered from an acre, making good feed for cows, horses and pigs. The first leaves are pulled in July, going up 3 or 4 feet high. The next pulling is as high as a man can reach. They make good green food when pastures are dry. The tops with the seed are cut with a sickle, as high as a man can reach, putting a dozen bundles in a shock, as soon as the seed glazes. In winter, the seed is threshed with a flail, the main heads reserved for seed and the small ones threshed separately. The main heads gave 31 bushels per acre, and the small ones 16 bushels—47 per acre. Have any of our readers had similar success?
[The Cultivator & Country Gentleman]

—1748—Molasses From Sweet Apples

#111

Today’s Agrarian Nation excerpt is a real gem. It comes from the February 25, 1875 edition of “The Cultivator & Country Gentleman” a popular weekly agricultural newspaper of the 1800’s. I own several, bound, yearly volumes of the oversize periodical and am slowly making my way through them, looking for tidbits of interesting information, just like this.....

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To The Editors of The Country Gentleman—The following is from an old book published by B. Franklin and D. Hall in 1748, at Philadelphia. At this time, when there is such a superabundance of apples, it may be suggestive, as well as interesting for its antiquity. H.B.O. Whitinsville, Mass.

A new sort of Melasses made of Apples; the Account communicated to the Royal Society, by Paul Dudley, Esq; of New England, and published in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb 374.

The apple that produces the Melasses is a Summer Sweeting of a middling size, pleasant to the Taste and full of Juice, so that 7 Bushels will make a Barrel of Cyder. The manner of making it is thus; you must grind and press the Apples, and then take their Juice and boil it in a Copper till three Quarters of it is wasted, which will be done in about 6 Hours gently boiling, and by that Time it comes to be of the Sweetness and Consistency of Melasses.

Some of our People scum the Cyder as it boils, others do not, and yet there seems to be no great Difference in the Goodness.

This new Melasses answers all the Ends of that made by the sweet Cane imported from beyond [the] Sea. It serves not only for Food and Brewing, but is of great Use also in preserving of Cyder; two Quarts of it put into a Barrel of rack’d Cyder will both preserve, and give it a very agreeable Colour.

The Apple Melasses was discovered a few Years since, by a Gentleman of my Asquaintance, at Woodstock, in this Province, a Town remote from the Sea, and where the West-India Melasses is dear and scarce; he ingeneously confesses the Discovery was pure accidental, but ever since he has supplied his Family with Melasses out of his orchard, and his neighbours also now do the like, to their great Advantage. Our country farmers run much upon planting Orchards with these sort of Sweetings, for fatening their Swine, and assure me it makes the best Sort of Pork. And I know the Cyder made of them to be better than that of other Fruit, for Taste, Coulour and keeping.

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The "Melasses" (Molasses) spoken of in today's excerpt is what became known as boiled cider syrup, and was once a very popular item in the Northeastern U.S. In addition to making hard cider and cider vinegar, making boiled cider syrup was a way of preserving the apple harvest without refrigeration. Another way of preserving the harvest was to make pure cider jelly. Apples are full of pectin and if you boil cider to just the right point, pour it in a jar and cap it, the cider will jell. No sugar is added. It's nothing but apple, and by all accounts it is delectable.

You can learn more about making boiled cider syrup and pure apple jelly at my Whizbang Cider web site. Here is the link: Boiled Apple Cider Syrup & Pure Cider Jelly

—1876 & 1883—Clover For Manure

#110

Clover in Full Blossom

-1876-

Ploughing Under Clover 

For Manure

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The venerable John Johnston, of Geneva, who is now eighty-four years old, and who says he thinks the average of all his wheat crops would be not less than twenty-eight bushels per acre, while he has raised, many times, over thirty-five bushels, and occasionally forty-two bushels, thinks it indispensable to success in wheat-growing to plough under clover.

It may seem at first an absurd project to attempt to improve land by ploughing into it what has just grown out of it. If the clover drew all its nourishment from the land alone, this would be true. The clover, however, has the property f drawing large quantities of nitrogen from the air which are stored for the use of the grain crop following, which can absorb nitrogen only by its roots. Clover, then, is to be regarded as the cheapest known source of nitrogen and organic matter, carbon, &c., but it cannot restore to exhausted land either potash or phosphates; and if our land is deficient in these essentials, we must add them to the clover before we can expect a good yield of grain. In New York this has not yet proved necessary, as the clover alone, with such manure as could be easily obtained, has been able to maintain the fertility of the land, under judicious rotation, for scores of years. Experience may prove that we may need in addition to use some potash and phosphate. Now, the potash can be had cheaply in the German potash slabs, and super phosphate can be prepared of good quality so as to be sold at $25 per ton, if it were not mixed with any nitrogenous manure. It is the nitrogen that cots, and which can be cheaply supplied by the farmer himself by ploughing under clover. The manufacturer of so-called super phosphate generally mixes some nitrogenous compound with the super phosphate at a cost which the farmer can ill afford to pay, even if he gets an honestly-mixed article—the purpose of the manufacturer being to get a manure which will produce a visible and immediate effect upon foilage when applied to farm crops. The farmer can buy his nitrogen, by ploughing in clover, at a price with which no trader can ever possibly compete, with the additional advantage of loosening the soil by the decomposing vegetable matter. The clover should be ploughed under when in full blossom. If the  land will produce two crops, the first may be cut for hay, and the second ploughed under for manure.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

(photo link)

-1883-

Clover as a Green Manure

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Why don’t you sow more clover? Both science and practice dictate the more frequent use of clover as a green crop to be ploughed in for the use of subsequent crops. It is not a very expensive mode of fertilizing land. So let us try it, and do it thoroughly. Use plaster freely to induce a heavy growth, and then resist the temptation to cut and cure the crop for hay, plough it in when in full bloom, and follow it with some grain crop, watching the result.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

—1889—Guernsey and Jersey Cows

#109

This picture comes from the August 19, 1875 Cultivator & Country Gentleman magazine. I own several years of this magazine and would like to someday make a collection of notecards with with the old cow illustrations. 

Fashions change in farming and stock-raising almost as much as they do in millinery, though perhaps,not quite so often. We are always aiming after something that is new, something that everybody else hasn’t got. Every farmer will remember that a few years ago, the Jerseys were regarded as the “fashionable” breed, and their merits were claimed to be greater than could be found in any other class of cattle, especially for the butter dairy. The enthusiasm for them led to frequent and extensive importations, and it must be admitted that they have exercised a great and important influence on the common or native stock of New England, which they have, no doubt, greatly improved.

More recently the Guernseys have rather taken the lead, and many claim for them the very first place at the head of the dairy breeds, upon our farms, as being better adapted for general purposes than even the Jerseys. The Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey are only about twenty miles apart, but the cattle of the two islands have been kept quite distinct for very many years, no animal of the bovine species having been allowed to land alive on the island of Jersey for nearly a century, while the Guernsey farmers have been equally jealous of all contamination of their neat stock for centuries. The result is that they are reaping a rich harvest of profit for their long and jealous care, just what the islands of nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard might do here by taking the same care.

The Guernseys are somewhat larger than the Jerseys, and the butter made from their milk is of a deeper yellow. Their color is most commonly a shade of orange, with some patches of white. The horns are short and often turn upward and inward, giving them a rather unique and stylish appearance. The general look and outline of the two breeds, and Jerseys and Guernseys are similar, and the color is very much the same, as well as other general characteristics, like the quality of their milk. Both are eminently fitted for the butter dairy. On ordinary keeping many Guernseys have yielded from fourteen to twenty-two pounds of butter a week, enough, certainly, to satisfy the ambition of any reasonable dairyman. The number of pure Guernseys in this country is now about equal to that upon their native land.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

—1864—Urine, Muck & Other Matters

#108

On most farms there can be found located somewhere upon the premises a muck hole which for ages has been filling up with decomposed vegetable matter. Shovel this muck into piles, to remain until dry, then it should be carted into the barn yard to be used as circumstances require. In mixing it with the manure in the yard, select the lowest places to spread it on, so that the drainage from the higher parts of the yard, or urine from the stable may flow upon it. Spread a quantity of it every night as litter for the cattle to lie upon. This earth, impregnated with urine, kneaded under the feet of the cattle, will lose nothing which has been given to it. 

Soap suds, and all the urine, &c., from the chambers, should be mixed with the manure heap composed of earth. The result of observations shows that a man renders per day at least three lbs. of urine and other matters; this, multiplied by 365 days, gives a yearly product of 1100 pounds per person, or 11000 pounds for ten persons who ordinarily live upon a farm. 

We hope the few foregoing remarks on manure making will serve to lead the industrious farmer into new channels of operation

[Leavitt’s Farmer's Almanac]

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This old almanac entry speaks of something that was common in the Agrarian Nation—the use of "night soil." Night soil is human excrement ("other matters") used for fertilizer.

In my extensive collection of "Cultivator & Country Gentleman" magazine from the late 1800's there are ads for "Poudrette."  Poudrette is defined as "a manure made from night soil, dried and mixed with gypsum, charcoal, etc."

It's interesting to note that "poudrette" is still being sold to farmers. It is municipal sewage sludge and it's now called "biosolids." 

I have no problems with using properly treated "humanure" as a fertilizer, but sewage sludge has all kinds of potential toxins in it. I'll bet the biosolids of today are a whole lot more toxic than the poudrette of the late 1800s. You can learn more about sewage sludge used in agriculture at this link: United Sludge-Free Alliance.

—1859, 1862 & 1874—Cow Excerpts

#105

-1859-
A Valuable Cow

A gentleman of Dorchester, Mass., who has an excellent cow, has, at our request, furnished the following description of her, together with a statement of her yield of milk, &c., in a letter dated June 23, 1858:

“She was raised by me, on my estate in Dorchester, and is six years old this spring. Her dam was from the farm of Gov. Lincoln, or Worcester—a cross of a native cow with the progeny of the celebrated bull Denton, from the Williams farm in Northboro. Her sire was a full-blood Ayrshire. She has given, for the first twenty-one days in June, 436 quarts, or a fraction less than 21 quarts per day, beer measure, or 25 quarts wine measure. Weight of the milk, 1085-1/2, or 51 lbs. 10 oz. per day,—about her estimated weight on the hoof. The proportion of cream is 13 per cent. She has given us a little more than 10 lbs. of butter per week, besides the cream used for the family. She has had nothing but grass, and is milked regularly at 6 A.M. and 6 P.M.”
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1862-
Good Points of a Cow

We offer the following doggerel lines, as combining what are popularly considered the good points of a cow, such as is commonly among the short-horned breed of Yorkshire:

She’s long in her face, she’s fine in her horn,
She’ll quickly get fat without cake or corn,
She’s clean in her jaws, and full in her chine,
She’s heavy in flank, and wide in her loin.

She’s broad in her ribs, and long in her rump,
A straight and flat back, without e’er a hump;
She’s wide in her hips, and calm in her eyes,
She’s fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs.

She’s light in her neck, and small in her tail,
She’s wide in her breast, and good at the pail;
She’s fine in her bone, and silky of skin,
She’s a grazier’s without, and a butcher’s within.

[Leavitt’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1874-
Cows on Grass

The best food for a dairy cow is grass. There can be no doubt about that. It is as plain as the nose on a face.
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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Speaking of cows, my friend, Richard Grossman,  has started a new blog about raising Dexter and Kerry cattle on his fifth generation family farm in western Pennsylvania. You can read it here: The Craighill Herd of Kerry & Dexter Cattle.

Home Economy Excerpts1830, 1833, 1834, 1849, 1852 & 1859

#103

I took this is a picture of a kitchen at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

-1830-
Easy and Safe Puke

Take two tea-spoons full of mustard from the mustard pot, or the seed, mix it with warm water,—and swallowed, instantly operates as an emetic; and is recommended in case of accidental or other internal poisoning.
—1830, Thomas’s
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-1833-
To Destroy Musquetoes

Take a few hot coals on a shovel or chafing dish and burn some brown sugar in your bedrooms and parlors, and you effectually destroy the musquetoe for the night. The experiment has been often tried by several of our citizens, and found to produce the desired effect.
[Maine Farmer's Almanac]
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-1834-
Charcoal Poultice

To half a pound of the common oatmeal cataplasm or poultice, add two ounces of fresh burnt charcoal, powdered and sifted. Mix the whole well together, apply it to foul ulcers or sores of any kind, and it will speedily remove the unhealthy appearance, and destroy the fetid smell. 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]
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-1849-
Daily Bathing

A distinguished writer upon health and longevity says, “Extend the same favor, daily, to your whole person, that you do to your face and hands. All you require is two to five quarts of cold water (and as much more as you please), and one or two towels; the whole operation need not occupy five minutes. When you can faithfully and fearlessly wash yourselves all over with cold water daily, you will have taken a vast step in the commencement of uninterrupted health.” 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]
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Here's another view of the shaker kitchen at Hancock. Notice the pipe on the ceiling. The Shakers had plumbing. They also installed electricity when it became available. Hancock Shaker Village came into existence in 1960, when the Shaker population dwindled to only a couple of old ladies.

-1852-
Good Yeast

Boil a handful of hops in 3 pints of water; add 3 mashed boiled potatoes; strain, and mix with a cupful of flour; set aside to cool, and then add a tea-spoonful of sugar, and bottle up for use. A more permanent ferment is made by boiling a quantity of wheat-bran and hops in water; the decoction is not long in fermenting, and when this has taken place, throw in a sufficient portion of bran to form the whole into a thick paste, which work into balls, and afterward dry by a slow heat. When wanted for use, they are broken, and boiling water is poured upon them; having stood a proper time, the fluid is decanted, and in a fit state for leavening bread. 
[Maine Farmer's Almanac]
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-1859-
Ox-Marrow Pomatum 
For the Hair

Melt four ounces of beef marrow, one ounce of yellow wax, and six ounces of lard; perfume, while cooling, with oil of bergamot or the essential oil of almonds.
[Leavitt’s Farmer's Almanac]

These rolling pins were at Hancock Shaker Village. I have never seen a double rolling pin like these before, and don't know the advantage that a double roller would have. I could have bought one in the village gift shop for $60 but, as much as I like the novelty, I don't really need a rolling pin.