Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-10-14
HUNDRED YEARS pRoaREs m AoRl-
cJLURE.

When ave look back from one year
to another, we sometime think that
little progress has been made in our
agriculture. It has sometimes be en- re-
marked that otwithstand ing our numer
GUS farmers clubs throughout the state,
county and town, agricultural papers
and books, that we are going on in
about the same old Flooding way. 1t
lie true that from day to day, from year
to year we can scarcely perceive the
advance that is really taking place.
The huge elm which stands by the
wayside, yearly and daily adds to its
size, yet we are unable TO perceive it.
But when we turn back twenty-five
years or hundred years, and learn
what was the size of the tree then, we
are astonished at its wonderful increase
in size. 1t is just so in our agriculture
and on this present occasion we wish
couduct our readers back one hun.
dred years and let them look to our
agricultural tree VI hen twas saplieg,
that they may better appreciate its
gigantic proportions of tosday and its
rapid growth through all the past
years.
One hundred years ago only a small
portion of Maine was settled. Many
of the farmers lived in log houses, and
everything wore the aspect of new
settlement. But lest our readers shout d
think our comparison unfair, considers
ing the newness Of the settlements at
that time, we will draw our comparison
between the present and the old set
Elements of Massachusetts.
Could we be placed back upon q
Massachusetts farm in the year 1772,
| we should almost feel ourselves in a
haf>civilzed age.
The farm implements were few in
| numbers and of rude construction.
There were no moving machines, no
cuitivaters, no iron plows, and no cast
steel hoes. The plows were made of
wood with few iron bolts to hold
them together and few strips of iron
nailed upon the parts of wood which
were most exposed to wear. The
plows were so clumsily made that it
took almost twice the amount Of team
to draw them which would be required
for our plows, and required strong
man to hold the handles to keep the
plow in the ground, and another man
to ride upon the beam ifft was desired
to pillow to a good depth. The hoes
were made Of iron, heavy and clumsy
The threshing was done with fail and
winnowing by the wind.
The admirers of nice fruit would find
little to please the eye or tempt the
taste in the Colonial orchards. Very
little attention was given to the raising
of fruits except for making cider. Even
80 late as 1925 there was not nursery
| for the sale Of apple and pear trees III
| New England.
The cattle were inferior to our poor
est specimens. Even in England al
that time there was no stock which
was comparable with our native cattle
of to-day The average gross weight
of the neat cattle sent to Smithfeld fol
slaughter did not exceed three hundred
and seventy pounds each, and the
average weight Of sheep was twenty
eight pounds. Now the average weight
of sheep in that Same locality, is eighty
pounds and the average weight of neat
cattle eight hundred pounds, showing
what a vast Improvement has beer
made since that day. The wool of the
sheep was coarse and the fleece light
During the last fifty years great i'm
prove,nents have been effected in oul
sheep husbandry. So great has beer
this improvement, that at the Worlds
far in London, in 1851, the fleece
which commanded the highest prize fol
the fineness and beauty of staple in
free competition with Spain, baxony
and Silesia, and other parts OF Ger
many, was grown on the green pastures
Of Tennessee. At the international ex-
; position at Hamburg, in 1865, Yer.
mont merinoes took the prizes
, Even the grass crop was little At
tended to century since. The princi
pal resource for wintering the stock
was the natural grasses of swales
meadows and salt marshes. Even id
England the cultivation Of grasses wax
not attended to until the latter part Of
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