The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-07-23

and received for it eighteen shillings-
two dollars and twenty-five cents-per
bushel. To-day wheat is worth six
York shillings--seventy-five cents per
bushel. The land upon which that
wheat was raised was worth seventy-five
dollars per acre. To-day it will sell
for one hundred and twenty five dollars
The best Farmland. for all the year
round, received nine dollars per month
and one pair of cow-hide boots annually,
The fields upon which it was raised
bore wheat only every other year; they
were plowed with pillow turning a sim
| gle furrow; were sowed by hand,
drawn to the thresher; the grain win
moved through fanning-mill turned
and fed by hand; grain sacked in bags,
and, when the wheat was sold, tue bags
were retained. The farmers boy then
dressed in sheep gray" from wool
raised on the farm, carded, spun and
woven in the county; made by seams
tress-or "tailoress" we call her-who
came to the house and worked for three
shillings-thirty-sev and half cents
per day. Boots were made from the
hide of cows or calves killed upon the
farm, tanned in the village, and made
by the village shoemaker. A seal-skin
cap. costing seventy-five cents, lasted
through ever SO many winters, relieved
from summer duty by O straw hat. A
college student taught the winter school
for seventeen dollars q month, and
boarded round" In winter we snow
balled, slid down hills, and skated. In
summer we swan in the creek and
boated ON the pond. There was vii
lage debating society, and we had dis
trict spelling schools. We drove the
girls to aprle-paring bees in "pungs,"
made with crockery crates on "bob-
sleds" filled with straw and buffalo
robes. There were husking frolics,
candy-pullings, maple sugar-making,
summer picnics, general training,
Fourth of July celebrations, Thanks
giving dinners. We did not dance, be-
cause it was wicked, we played games
and kissed the girls for forfeits. In sum-
mer we played ball, and our mothers
made the balls of yarn unraveled from
old stockings and covered with old
buckskin gloves. We made the bats
ourselves. We pitched quoits, and the
quoits were old horse-shoes or fiat
stones. In winter we broke steers and
colts. In hog-killing time we blew up
the bladders and roasted pig-tails. In
the long winter evenings, around a
blazing fire, we had apples, cider, but
ter-nuts, and hickory-nuts-these gath
cred In the summer, and their gather
ing was holiday. We made our own
soap, our own candles, our own sau-
sages, our own dried beef; for mince
pies we boiled down cider: we dried
pumpkins and apples for winter use.
Our mothers made pickles and pre-
serves, knit our stockings, mittens, and
wooden comforters. Over our clothes,
at work, we wore tow frock. In sum-
mer after the dandelious came we went
barefoot In spring we made corn
stalk fiddles, whistles from the willow,
and flutes from pumpkin-vines. We
fished with angle-worms. We went to
school in winter, doing the chores in
the morning and evening. We worked
on the farm in summer. In winter time
the cellar was stored with pork in bar
rels, with apples and potatoes in bins,
cider and vinegar in barrels. The vim
egar was made on the farm. The
smoke-house was hung with hams and
dried beef-every farmer cured his own
hams. Cabbages and carrots were
buried for winter use. During the fall
! the winters wood was felled. At the
first fall of snow it was drawn to the
kitchen door. To chop it was part of
the morning and evening chores. All
kinds of fruits were preserved, cucum-
bers were picked, butter was sailed
| ha farv ha1o 10
of feathers, and every farmer raised
his own geese. The quilts were patch
work. Every farmers wife made her
own coverlets. Hired men were neigh
boring farmers boys, coming from
farms where there were more boys than
land.
The school-books were Webster's
spelling, New England reader, Dabolls
arithmetic, Kirkham's grammar, Olney's
geography. The home library was the
Bible, Watts Hymns and the Almanac.
An occasional Fox's Book of Martyrs"
| Baxter's Gall TO the Unconverted," or
Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress" was
found, and here and there, in a less
orthodox family, the Scottish Chiefs, F"
"Alonzo and Melissa" "Thaddeus of
Warsaw" and the children of the
Abbey"
The family was we'll to do that had
an income of four hundred dollars.
Rye whisky was twenty cents gallon I;
genuine imported havanas three cents
apiece; half-cents, and two-cent pieces
of copper, silver sixpences, and shil-
lings were abundant; the silver curren-
cy was Spanish.
Wheat or corn was taken to the mill
in grists, and "toll" was taken by the
miller for grinding Wool was carded
into rolls and spun at home upon a
spinning wheel. Flax was broken up
on hetchel at the farm, spun into
thread, and woven upon hand-loom
into cloth. There was dye-tub in
every farmers kitchen-the color was
blue or yellow and the cloth was taken
to the fulling- mill to be fulled and
bleached. Clay for bricks was trodden
out by oxen in pits. Oxen were shod,
being lifted in frame by band be-
meath the belly. Every neighborhood
had its cider-mill and press. There
was cotton mill, wooden factory, grist-
mill, broom factory, saw-mill, lime-kiln,
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