Home Economy Tidbits1879, 1882, 1887, 1897, 1900

#95

Woman Churning Butter in 1893 (photo link)

-1879-
Oatmeal For Children

Oatmeal is one of the best articles of food known for growing children. The custom, so long in use in England, is yearly becoming more general here, of giving children a daily portion of oatmeal for breakfast. It helps to keep the bowels in good order, and in combination with milk serves to make good bones and teeth.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1882-
Making Butter

The best butter makers of the present endeavor to avoid working butter as far as possible, in order that the “butter grain” may be kept uninjured and preserved in all its integrity. To accomplish this object the cream must not be overchurned, for the butter is often seriously impaired in the grain by too much churning. When the butter begins to form, or is in small particles about the size of wheat kernels or a little larger, stop churning. The butter is then in a granulated state, and the buttermilk may now be drawn off, and the grains of butter can then be washed with cold water, and afterwards with brine,—which will free it from all milky and caseous matter. Some drain the butter milk from the churn in a hair sieve, and then wash by turning water on the butter in the churn. Butter treated in this way is never salvy or greasy; but remains with its grain uninjured, and should be in its best state. 

[Maine Farmer's Almanac]

-1887-
Exercise Out-of-Doors

Every woman should take a certain amount of exercise out-of-doors. It is necessary for good health and good nature too. If by doing so you will be obliged to leave some of the work in the house undone, who will know or care one hundred years from now? 

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

1887

To Drive Off Rats

Cayenne pepper will keep the buttery and storeroom free from rats and cockroaches. If a mouse makes an entrance into any part of your dwelling, saturate a rag with cayenne in solution, or sprinkle dry cayenne on some loose cotton, and stuff it into a hole, which can be repaired with either wood or mortar, No rat or mouse will eat that rag for the purpose of opening communication with a depot of supplies.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1897-
Ridding  the Home of Fleas

To rid a house of fleas, take a piece of fly paper and in the centre of each piece put pieces of raw meat, cut up quite fine. When the pieces of paper are pretty well filled with fleas, roll them up and put them in the fire, and repeat the process till there is not a flea left.[Leavitt’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1900-
To Polish Oil Cloth

To polish oilcloth, shred half an ounce of beeswax into a saucer, cover it with turpentine, and place it in the oven until melted; after washing the oilcloth thoroughly, rub the whole surface lightly with a flannel dipped in the wax and turpentine, then rub with a dry cloth. 
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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Hogs1853, 1877, 1880 & 1883

#93

-1853-

Parsnips for Hogs

Parsnips appear to be nearly the only root good for swine in an uncooked state. Put beets, ruta-bagas, carrots and parsnips, before them, and the question will be soon settled which they like best, and consequently which is best for them—the parsnip being wholly devoured before the others are touched.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1877-

Management of Swine

Notwithstanding the command in the law of Moses against eating swine’s flesh, and in spite of the learned doctors of the day, who warn us against uncooked pork, with horrible accounts of diseases entailed by careless cooking of it, most thrifty farmers find their account in keeping a few pigs; and will continue to do so until the world is a good deal nearer the millennium than at present. There is no reason to believe that well-cooked pork is unwholesome when taken in reasonable quantities, and not too constantly, by active workingmen. It is probably not well adapted to feed children and people who live much within doors.

Moreover the pig is made by the thrifty farmer, not, perhaps, to “pay rent,” like the Irish pig, for our farmers generally have no rent to pay, but he is made to work for his living, by working up weeds, potato tops, &c., into good manure; and his living will cost little if fed, as he should be chiefly in New England, on waste products—the swill, the refuse of dairies and cheese factories, of starch factories and slaughter-houses. For the western farmer can pack ten barrels of corn into one barrel of pork, and save freight by sending us his pork; so that, although feeding grain to hogs is generally profitable at the west, it seldom is at the east, except to fatten and finish off animals grown on cheaper fodder

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

-1880-

Enhancing the Pork Price

It is astonishing how apparently trifling changes in methods will influence sales and enhance prices. Farmer A raises pork; his hogs are kept in the old slovenly way, fed on garbage, or whatever the animal will eat. Farmer B also raises pork, but his hogs are well cared for; the pens are clean, and a bed of straw is supplied for quiet repose. Sunlight and air are admitted freely to the pens, and also plenty of clear water. During the fattening they are fed on good, sound meal and shorts, with skim milk. Farmer A finds a slow market for his pork, at the present time, at five or six cents per pound; while B cannot supply the demand for his at fifteen cents a pound.

[Maine Farmer's Almanac]

1883

The Economical Pig

The pig is not a very popular animal on our eastern farms, but it is the most economical meat-making machine we have. The stomach of an ox or a sheep is very much larger in proportion to live weight than that of the pig, while the proportion of intestine is greater in the pig than in the sheep or the ox. So these latter, as ruminants generally, are best fitted to deal with food that requires long digestion, while the pig assimilates food  much more rapidly. So the pig increases in weight far more rapidly than either the sheep or the ox, and not only is the rate of increase more rapid, but this increase is far greater in proportion to the food taken. To be sure his food is usually more digestible, but his capacity for assimilation is far greater and hence the more rapid increase.

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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—1825—Sugar Maple Trees

#91

Collecting Maple Sap in 1906  (photo link for historical information)

If the farmer wish to save his sugar-maple trees he ought not to tap them in the common way; but, instead of this, bore a hole two or three inches into the tree, out of which the sap can be drawn; and plug it up after the sap has done running. Cleanliness should be observed in the vessels in which the sap is gathered. Old troughs which have lain for years exposed to the weather, are improper receptacles for the sap if regard be had to the cleanliness of the sugar, and of course to its value. Some make use of vessels in the form of pails, which they keep for the purpose, and this is certainly at least more cleanly. The vessels can be laid up every year. after the time of using them is past, and be preserved many years. In clearing pasture lands which abound with sugar-maple, it would be well to preserve these trees, as they do no injury to the pasture; but the difficulty is, that as soon as they become more exposed to the winds they are blown down. But let all the small maples in such grounds be left, and in a few years these will grow up to sufficient strength of root to withstand the winds, and become an article of profit, as well as ornamental to the farm. They may also be very easily be dug up while young,and transplanted into such pastures. This is a piece of economy which the farmer would do well to observe, if he wish his farm to yield due supplies of sugar, when the article shall have become scarcer.

This picture would probably be from the early 1900s. Long after today's excerpt (it's real hard to find photographs from 1825)

 

Twenty trees to an acre would do little or no injury to the pasture; and ten acres of such a maple orchard would, in a few years, yield no inconsiderable quantity of sugar. By boring the trees as before directed, no essential injury is done to them; so that they might be increasing in growth for fifty years, or perhaps twice that length of time.

Collecting Maple Sap in 1893: (photo link, with historical information) Note the shoulder yoke being used to carry buckets of sap. Such yokes were an important tool on farmsteads of the 1800s, before electricity and engines arrived on the scene.

The sugar may be grained, by pouring it out, when boiled down to a proper consistency, into flat pans made for the purpose, and gently stirring it while it is cooling; or it may be done in the vessel in which the sap is boiled, if it be not too large for the purpose. To render it drier and whiter, it may be put into a screw-press, and there severely pressed; by this operation the molasses is forced out, leaving the remainder almost as white as lump sugar. The molasses may again be boiled down, and converted into sugar as before, or it may be kept for use as it is.
[Maine Farmer's Almanac]

Stirring Maple Sugar in a Wooden Trough: Wagner's Maple Sugar Camp, located in southern Somerset County, Pennsylvania, was purchased in 1882 by William Wagner, great grandfather of the present owner. Appreciating the stand of many maple sugars on his land, William started the sugar camp. Many of those original sugar maples remain and some are over 200 years old. Being a cooper (craftsman) by trade, William made wooden spiles, keelers (wooden buckets), hauling casks, storage tanks, sugar troughs, sugar molds, sugar storage chests, shipping crates and barrels, mauls, paddles, and many other items used in the production of maple syrup. His handmade kettle crane (in the picture above) for lifting the iron kettles of syrup off the fire still remains in the original camp.

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365 days a year, I start my mornings with maple syrup. It is my custom to have a single cup of coffee each morning, and I sweeten it with maple syrup. I also have maple syrup on my almost-daily bowl of oatmeal. Have you ever had homemade whipped cream made with maple syrup (instead of sugar) on fresh-picked strawberries? It's divine. Sometimes I just sip maple syrup from the canning jars we store it in. Oh yeah, I love homemade maple syrup!

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This is the time of the year that my family is either making maple syrup or getting ready to do so. But we made so much last year, and I am so busy this year with other projects, that we have decided to wait until next year to replenish our supply. If you would like to see and learn about our low-tech backyard maple syrup operation, Start With This Essay.

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What I find so endearing about today's 1825 essay it the idea of planting maple trees in a pasture with the intention of one day, in the future, tapping them to make maple sugar and syrup. As today's excerpt indicates, the old-timers were multi-generational thinkers. It would be decades before a maple tree planted this year would be ready for tapping.

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Finally.... I found an actual  photograph from 1825!

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—1872—Cabbage As A Field Crop

#89

Most farmers have been accustomed to cultivate cabbages in a small way in the garden and for family use. The methods of raising them are, therefore, well known. Now the great want of New England, and of any country where the winter is long, and the necessity for stall feeding so imperative, is an abundance of food for stock. With more food we can keep more stock, with more stock we obtain more manure, with  more manure we can increase the fertility of our land.

The farmer’s chief study ought to be to see by what means he can increase his supply of animal food in the cheapest and most economical manner. His success as a farmer turns very much upon this. His grass lands should be kept in the best condition; but that is not enough. He should raise a liberal supply of root crops; and even with them most farmers who are aiming at the higher point of excellence, will still want something more.

There are certain crops that are very convenient to use in the late fall, and serve not only to prevent a too early encroachment upon the haymow, but to break the too sudden change from green and succulent grass to dry hay. Such are pumpkins in October and November, as they come from the field; round turnips in December, when they  may be fed freely and to great advantage. After these follow ruta bagas through January and February, and then mangolds still later. Cabbages are conveniently fed out late in the season, about the time that pumpkins come into use, and they not only increase the milk of cows, but are nutritive and greatly relished by all kinds of stock. Cabbages contain a large percentage of flesh-forming substances as compared with most other articles of food.

For a field crop the late varieties are preferable. The seed is sown about the first of May, in beds, and by the tenth or middle of June the plants will be sufficiently large and strong to be transplanted. A piece of sod land well ploughed will answer very well, and a light clover sod is the best. The liberal supply of manure may be partly spread and ploughed under, and partly spread on the furrow and harrowed in. It is best to select wet weather, if possible, for transplanting. A smart man can easily set out five thousand plants a day. The market gardeners can set six thousand five hundred. The plants may wilt a little during the first week if the weather is dry and warm, but as soon as they get hold of the soil and hold their heads up, run a cultivator through them, to keep down the weeds and stir the soil. If the plants are set two feet by two and a half, this operation is easily performed. At those distances the number of plants will be eight thousand nine hundred to the acre. Of these it will be fair to expect six thousand heads. Some will fail to head, and others may be destroyed by disease or insects after it is too late to replace them. They will be worth, to feed out to dairy cows, say from thirty to forty dollars a thousand. The amount of feeding material on an acre of well-grown cabbages is something enormous.

The culture of this plant, for the purposes proposed, is worthy of a careful trial by every farmer. Try it under favorable circumstances, and estimate the cost of the crop as compared with the other farm crops, and then report your experience for the benefit of other farmers. Farmers ought to remember that noble old precept, “Do good and communicate.” It is a grand rule to follow.
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

Agrarian Nation Changes...

Dateline: 10 February 2012

There will be no regularly-scheduled excerpt from the old agrarian writings today. I have decided to make a change from posting here twice a week (Friday and Monday) to once a week, on Monday mornings. I am making this change to free up more time for myself, and it is a permanent change.

Those of you who read my blog, The Deliberate Agrarian, know that I am working on a new book. I have put a few hundred hours into the book already. I still have a long way to go, and spring is coming. I really want to get it done, or as done as I possibly can, before the good weather of spring arrives. Also, this is a slow time of the year for my Planet Whizbang mail-order business, and it will get much busier come May and June.

The book's working title is, The Planet Whizbang Idea Book For Gardeners. I can tell you there isn't another book like it on the market, at least that I know of. What makes the book unique is the blend of old and new ideas for gardeners. Much of the old will be in the form or excerpts related to gardening from the old farm almanacs. Such excerpts will not be a major focus of the book but they will be interspersed throughout.

The most time consuming part of the book for me is the many illustrations and the page layout, which I started working on last weekend. After four long days of focused work, I have ten book pages completely done. I expect the book to be over 200 pages, so I have a long way to go. And I have a regular job that I work at three days a week.

Please check back here Monday for the next Agrarian Nation excerpt, and every Monday thereafter.

Best wishes,
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Herrick Kimball
Editor, Agrarian Nation

—1871—Farmer's Plans

#86

Haying in the Agrarian Nation

(click the picture to see enlarged view)

A live farmer, always awake to the spirit of improvement, will have his farm, at the end of ten years, in a vastly better condition in respect to attractiveness and real value than it was at the beginning, while another will plod on, work quite as hard, perhaps, and find his farm no better, and probably worse, than it was in the beginning. 

The difference will be found in the planning, the brain work, of the two men. One has an idea in his brain that he means to attain, and by degrees it is developed into actual results; the other merely plods on from day to day, always hesitating about undertaking anything out of the ordinary routine of farm labor, working hard enough with his hands, but little with his brain. If there is a waste place in his lot, an ugly eyesore, he is slow to begin its improvement. if there is a rock in the way of the scythe or the plough, it lies there year after year, though an hour’s work might remove it.

The true way to progress on the farm is to do something, be it more or less, every year. It may not amount to a radical change in any one year, but in the aggregate the improvement will be apparent, and the real money value of the farm enhanced.

If the profits of farming are less apparent than those of mercantile pursuits at certain times, it should be borne in mind that neither are the wear and tear of mind and body, nor the labor and risks so great. The chances of a happy and comfortable life are greater upon the farm than in any other calling, and if the spirit of improvement exists in the mind, the sources of real and permanent happiness are inexhaustible.

We hope to see the time when our young men will incline to the culture of the land, rather than to dissipate their intellect and their energies in our villages and cities. To hasten this time, we must increase their intelligence, their sense of the true dignity of agriculture, adopt new methods of farming, apply  more science and more knowledge to the details of this calling, make farming attractive, agreeable, and productive, and this is to be accomplished by the system, the forethought, and the plans of the human brain.
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]
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—1881—Ensilage

#84

A Lovely Old Silo

We have all heard, for the last year or two, a great deal about ensilage, or the packing of green fodder crops in silos, for preservation and use for the winter feeding of cattle. The word, therefore, has become familiar; but doubtless there are many who do not fully comprehend its meaning and its significance. A silo is a close pit, usually built in masonry, with brick or concrete walls, and calculated to exclude air. The most convenient form is thought to be rectangular, the width about one-third of the length, and the depth about two-fifths of the length. It is to be filled from the top, and hence will save labor if sunk wholly or mostly beneath the surface. The material to be used in filling is any green forage crop, rye, millet, sorghum, or green fodder-corn, taken in the blossom, and cut by a fodder-cutter into little pieces less than half an inch in length. This fine material is packed down as tightly as possible, the top covered with plank, and heavily weighted, to drive out and keep out the external air. In this way it is preserved in very much its original freshness and condition for months, to be fed out to stock as it is wanted from day to day. The fodder kept in this way is called ensilage.

Ensilage cutter & blower

 

This method of storing and preserving green feeding substances for stock has been known in France for many years, though nowhere generally adopted. It has been tried, to a limited extent, in this country, and with apparently great satisfaction and economy.

Every farmer knows that the amount of fodder-corn that can be grown on an acre of well-cultivated land is something enormous. Forty or fifty tons, as it comes from the field, is by no means unusual, and a far greater weight than that can easily be grown under favorable conditions, the plants being allowed to grow till they “tassel out,” or blossom, when the ears are just beginning to form. Taking it, therefore, for granted, that the amount of nutritive properties in forage plants is at its height at this stage of growth, the amount of nutritive feed in an acre of corn is something amazing; but the practical difficulty heretofore has been to cure and preserve it without a positive and large loss incident to drying and housing so bulky a product. The silo seems to solve the problem. It avoids the necessity of drying entirely, and keeps the material in very much its original condition. The ensilage, as it comes out of the silo, has undergone but a slight fermentation, but if allowed to lie on the barn-floor, or loose in a bin for a few hours, heating and fermentation set in, and a strong and very marked alcoholic smell is generate. Stock of all kinds are exceedingly fond of it, and will leave the best of hay to seize it with avidity. The process to which it has been subjected has rendered it more digestible, probably; and if so, the animal system will more completely utilize the actual nutrition which the plant contains when it its best condition. 

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We all know that dry hay, and dry fodder of any kind, will pass the animal only partially digested, very much of it appearing in the form of woody fibre in the excrements. If we feed oats, or any unground grain, to horses, we know very well that considerable portions of such food pass undigested, and very much of the actual nutriment which it contains will be lost. It has done far less good, no doubt, than if it had been finely ground, or more completely masticated. It has served some good purpose in distending the stomach, and so keeping up the healthy condition of the animal economy, and preventing a sensation of hunger, but its real elements of nutrition are by no means all assimilated so as to become incorporated, as it were, in a form to build up the animal system. It is apparent that there is some loss, more or less considerable, in proportion to the completeness of the process of assimilation. The reason why cattle appear to thrive better on an abundant supply of green grass, succulent forage of any kind, is, probably, that it is more easily, and so more completely digested. It is the natural form of food of most of our domesticated animals; and all forms of dried forage for winter feeding are artificial, and designed to form the best substitute we can get for the natural summer food of stock.
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Corn stalks being fed into the ensilage cutter & blown up into the top of the silo.

Now, if we can preserve the forage in its natural and succulent condition, without loss of its succulency, as the silo appears to do, it certainly seems to be a great gain. More extended, complete, and satisfactory experiments are needed to prove conclusively that this system will  effect this result, and it may prove to be good economy to supplement the feeding of ensilage by the addition of oil-meal to make a complete feeding substance; but so far as we can see now, the system bids fair to lead to the most important practical results.
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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The 1881 almanac explains what ensilage is to the readers of 1888. Here is part of what Wikipedia says of it 131 years later...

Using the same technique as the process for making sauerkraut, green fodder was preserved for animals in parts of Germany since the start of the 19th century. This gained the attention of a French agriculturist, Auguste Goffart of Sologne, near Orléans, who published a book in 1877 which described the experiences of preserving green crops in silos. Goffart's experience attracted considerable attention. The conditions of dairy farming in the United States suited the ensiling of green maize fodder, and was soon adopted by New England farmers.

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Ensilage creates a nutritious food for livestock. It can be substituted for root crops; it is easily digestible; milk produced by animals eating silage maintains its quality and taste; it can be provided irrespective of the weather; it provides grass all year round; and a larger number of livestock can be supported on a given area by the use of ensilage than is possible by the use of green crops.

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I have made sauerkraut, and I have been involved in the making of ensilage, and the same technique is not used for both. But it is similar in that a natural fermentation takes place.

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If you have never read my silo story, Click Here.

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Alas, but I have violated an unwritten rule of the Agrarian Nation blog with today's post. Can anyone tell what it is?