Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-12-10

At nome; nothing 10 buy and scarcely
anything to sell, and there was but little
money to get or to use. Grandmother
used to ride to market on horseback, and
take some butter and eggs. and used to
90 in the cart and carry some flour and
bacon and other things, and bring back
sugar and coffee and whatever else we
wanted, and maybe few silver dollars
and some shillings for the boys. There
we're no wages to pay and we needed little
money and had nothing about US to tempt
thieves; the latch string was out all night
and we never kept awake o'nights afraid
Of burglars. We had good crops; the big
barn was always full and so was the cellar.
Those were good times-no hurry, no
fretting, no worry, no crying out for
money to buy this or that every day in
the year; we had all we wanted and we
wanted very little; we worked hard but
we we happy enough, warrant"
"What crops did you raise when you
first began farming here?" asked Mr..
Martin.
Corn mostly, TO feed the hogs and
make the bread of; little wheat or rye
for bread barley an I oats for the horses /;
and the cows and sheep eat the straw. We
raised flax to spin for our linen, grew pc.
tatoes, but never seeded TO grass until we
began 10 grow clever about fifty wears
ago. Then we began 10 farm pretty much
rs we do now. | have not changed the
work much for fifty years; except that we
don't raise as much pork since we have
had no slaves to feed"
How many slaves did you keep"
asked Mr.. Martin.
had seven men and two women, all
raised in the family, and some came to me
with the farm when l bought it; and one
of the men is working for William now;
he was born in this house seventy years
ago, and thinks the whole place belongs to
him. If anything should 90 wrong, he
would 90 crazy, think"
How long have you followed your
present plan?" asked.
" A good many years. At first we did
not care so much for manure, but soon
found we could not get along without it.
Now we feed nearly everything we grow,
and for good many years we have sold
only butter, some sheep and wool, pota-
toes, spare fresh COW or some fat ones
and fat calves; and William is raising a
good many lambs now. William wants
10 sell hay and straw, and buy bran and
oil meal, but don't see the use of it. We
can save two or three hundred dollars
every year, and am satisfied When |
am gone, William will have his own way,
he will drain the meadow | suppose,
where | have cut hay every year for forty
wears or more, and plow it up; he will
-peni all he makes in buying food for his
COWS and fertilizers for the fields; but
'lont see the use Of making with one hand
ind spending with the other"
Grandfather has his own way pretty
much" remarked William; 'he has his
notions and | do as he wants me; but
m sure we could have doubled our corn
and wheat this year if we had used some
superphosphate on them. He thinks we
are doing well enough, and So we would :;
but don't want my wife and girls to 90
barefoot, and hoe corn along Withhold Joe.
in place of a hired man. We have been
growing good crops; we have plenty of
manure, and lime field every year when
we seed it down. We get forty or fifty
bushels OF corn to the acre; one hundred
bushel Is of potatoes; fifteen or twenty
bushels of wheat; forty bushels of oats
and about ton and Il half of hay; that is
as much as, or more, than any of the
nelghbors; but | am not satisfied with
that. We can make ends meet and "A litllc
more; but there is nothing to pay interest
on the cost of the farm, and if | had rent
to pay, | couldn't meet it and keep my
family as comfortable as | want them to
be, buy few books and papers and haze
II carpet on the floor If | wanted to live
in the old style, we could save money
now; but there are some things that are
worth more than money, think. want
to get larger yield than we are now get
ting, and [ think | could, by spending
some money for feed aud for fertilizers. :"