The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1877-07-04

Inc cattle are less cdEeu tuT cScu
than the horses, aud it is a wonder
to me how the people get any butter
81 iii. A COW never gets anything
TO eat here ia the summer, except
the natural pasIursge. and 10 winter,
sometimes q little cotton seed and
corn shucks. Sometimes nothing ia
winter either
The COW is let out 10 the N rning
and comes up at night, not to be fed,
but to suckie her calf. The mich
cows here suckle their calves until
they wean themselves 1t is droli
to see how they mich herr. The
farmer turns cows aud calves to-
gether aud then with q little tin cup
be goes up and milks from one side
leaving the calf at the other, be gets
about q pint and then empties it into
a larger bucket, aud continues till be
gets all be eau. He a only milk
with one hand and never sits down.
generally they only milk the COWS
once a day leaving all the mornings
milk to the calves. Thus il takes
four or Eve cows to supply u family
with milk and butter, whereas one
good COW should give all and more
than a family can use. The breed OF
cows here needs improving as well
as the treatment. | got q beifer
with her first calf and .he olly gave
about three quarts of milk a day
under the old regime. | separated her
from the calf emit ely and feed her
night aud mornin-, and now get
about ten quarts per day. Every
one about here prophesied that she
would not return to be MIXED if the
calf were not allowed his usual
meal, but she comes regularly for her
feed. l think she will still improve.
Cows cost from $40 TO SIS.
The people here to have
fallen into an apathetc sCrt of lie,
and have no care to improve it.
Corn bread and "hog meat ia the
winter, and in the summer green's
form the staple of their diet and they
seem to desire nothing more. |
think this diet continued is the cause
of much Of the ill-health on the
bottoms. There is a great deal of
of chills aod fever there bat none up
here. People flock to this place IN the
fall of the year to avoid the malaria.
The corn bread used continually
must impoyerish the blood, and the
pork cannot tend TO sustain the sys-
TEN ana enable il to battle uccess
fully against attacks ofillness. Since
| have been here | have seen no
fresh meat at all except once some
mutton. 0ne mar here will have a
yearling to kill and he will go to all
the neigbbors and see how much
each will take aad then when all is
subscribed for he will kill. Beef and
veal cost from four to five cents a
pound, a sheep dressed, a dollar aud
q half to two dollars, a lamb 81, a
kid 81, chickens are from 10 to %
cts. apiece, geese, 40 cts. a good
turkey. 30 cts. Butter is very poor
in quality, for the most Of the peo-
pie do not know how to make butter,
but it costs twelve to fifteen cents q
pound, lard is twelve, good honey
the same. wild honey cheaper. Best
corn is City cents q bushel, hides
twelve cts. a pound. ginseng sells for
a dollar a pound, but there is
very little gathered. while the country
is full of it.
The woods are full of chestnuts,
walnuts, beechnuts and acorns. Hogs
on them in autumn and are
then killed and sailed. ! have never
asked the price of pork, but think it
very cheap.
/ never saw such a wealth of wild
in my life as there are
here, they have commenced to turn
red, and | do believe there would he
millions of pounds if gathered. They
are sold for 10 to laets q quart In
Nashville, and also in Philadelphia.
No q gathers them. only here and
there q person who makes a little
preserves or vine. There are i'm
mense quantities Of whoFtleberries
near by, and complete forests of per-
simmons, and the forests are full OF
wild grape vines and museadines
The orchards are run wild with black
raspberries. and what they call dew
berries here, a very sweet berry par
of the qualities of blaekberries
and raspberIies both. Wild plums
and cherries weigh the trees down on
all the hills. SO you see that if peo-
pie here lack the comforts of life, it is
because they are too indolent to gath
or what Nature 50 amply provides
abounds and fish stock every
The people here don't make very
good fences and the stock are eontin-
nslly jumping them or the pigs root
ing them down.
doa't want people to think that |
An saying this 10 ridicale the country
here or the people, for the opposite is
my intention. | only wish to show
10 migrants the actual state Of
so tha. they may not feel dis
appointed and dishearteaed by such
Of poverty. imagine it to be the
natural state Of affairs because of
poverty of soil and gifts Of nature.
This country is rich and beautiful,
bat the devastation Of var has made
it seem q ruin, and the lack Of ambi
ton and knowledge 10 properly cult
vate the ground has made it seem to
be what il is not.
There are here aud there farms
where an intelligent system OF agri-
culture proves the truth OF what |
advance. namely that proper manage
nent will be productive Of excellent
l take for example Green Grove
arm, a place belonging to Mr.. Thorn
Is Jemar, a man born and raised in
his country. He has 700 acres of
and, $50 of which are under cultiva-
ion in corn, cotton, grass and wheat.
The rest of the land is 10 timber.
Ga all his land you will not see a
weed where crops are in, whereas in
'o.ne places you q scarcely see the