The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-10-14
agricultural.
r. H. HOSklNs, M. D., Editor,
Newport, Vermont.
Farming Sixty Years Ago.

well-spent life, devoted to the noblest
of all industries. He has been for many
years prominent in all good works
toward the development of the agricul-
tural interests of his native state, hay
ing been leading member of the Board
of Agriculture and of the State Agri-
cultural Society. He recently gave, in
the Home Farm, series of admirable
articles entitled Along the Way"
from one of which we extract the fol-
lowing notes upon farming from 1920
to 1885. Many of our older readers, as
well as young ones, will enjoy reading
it, we feel sure:
To show the round of work, we may
as well start with the first SHOWS of win
ter. The years stock of wood, thirty
to forty cords, to be cut and brought to
the door, in length of eight or ten feet.
The cedar swamp must yield the quota
of posts and rails called for next spring.
These are to be split-the rails to be
hauled and piled near where they are
to be used, the posts brought home to be
morticed and sharpened at each end;
weather during the year, the finished
posts being always on hand Lumber
to be cut and hauled to the mill. The
crop of grain to be threshed with the
fail. In March the south doors of the
barn are opened, and the labor of dress
ing the flax goes on. Near the end of
the month the wooden sap-buckets are
taken out, cleaned. and distributed to
Il nl1 40 oh
from the open boiling-place and the
wood-pile prepared in fall; and here
is expected in April the full family sup
ply of sweets for the year: and in this
an ambitious boy may find all the work
necessary for his development. This
April work comes in with the cutting
of the wood at the door; and as the
snow gets low the large piles of rails
are sharpened at the ends, ready for use;
the black timber on last years burn to
be cut, ready for piling and burning be-
fore seed-time: and the first work on
the bare ground is picking those acres
of loose stones on the stubble of last
years grain, and piling them neatly to
stand till put in walls in place of the
cedar fence.
Seed-time comes, and wheat, oats,
are to 90 on the newly-prepared burned
ground. The plowed land takes the
same crops, and the piece of flax is not
ranged so that the harvest can be man
aged with the limited help. A large
breadth of rye was sown the previous
September. Potatoes, then being sure
crop, were planted last, and from two
to ten hundred bushels. In the midst
of planting, in the last days of May,
the practice was to wash and shear the
sheep. Between the planting and hoe
ing the road tax was worked, and if
more land was to be cleared the trees
were cut before haying, if any time
could be given to it. My father prac-
ticed cutting hay early, and the several
jobs that rightfully came in before were
crowded upon each other. All the hay
at first was grown on rough land, cum
bered with stumps and stones, and to
these followed the stone heaps which,
on most hill farms, would have him
dered the use of machinery, if such had
then been invented. Following the
haying came the cutting of rye, of
which we sometimes had ten or twelve
sickle, and the season of this work eX-
tended through several weeks. Cradles
for cutting grain were not in use here
till the farms had been made smooth,
and | did not see one till l was old
enough and smart enough to Law an acre
day with the sickle. We rarely saw
any grain cut with the scythe before
the use of threshing-machines Before
threshed by treading with horses or
oxen, but the filthy practice was not
popular. The use of the sickle was
continued for time after the thresh-
ing machine was in common use, as
the reaped grain occupied less space,
and the great crops of clover hay taxed
the farmer heavily for barn room.
The flax crop matured with the grain,
and when we had an acre of flaX-pull-
ing to bend over, in addition to the
reaping and binding of grain, we felt
like asking for a furlough. After the
grain harvest the ground for rye was
plowed, and this crop in some cases
came after wheat or oats on the burn,
as it was found that the land would
give heavy hay crops after two crops OF
grain; and the little the pillow could
do among the undecayed stumps
effected some grading down of hillocks
and improved the surface for the
scythe.
Rye as crop gradually went out
and barley and buckwheat came in
Beans were cheaply grown on the new
clearing, and many were fed to sheer
in winter. The flax crop was left out
as cotton cloths were cheapened anC
took the place of linen, and was rarely
seen after 1885. 1t held its place for {
time partly on account of the seed
from which oil was expressed in many
places in the state. Some effort was
made between 1920 and 1880 to intro
duce hemp as staple crop, but with
no great success. We grew some for
few years and dressed it by hand, az
flax. Dressed flax and hemp wer,
then in demand in the market towns
We made flax and hemp into ropes
making any size and length wanted
about the house or farm-with simple
machinery made by ourselves, with som,
help from the blacksmith.
AS the farm advanced in age the pillow
came more into use, and the clearing O.
the land of stones followed the clearin!
Of xunoI an1 otona tnalr bo ,,1o n,