The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1891-02-25


when it is in full bloom next, when the
trees are laden with fruit besides, it
yields luxury to the farmer and his
family that could not se supplied by any
thingelse-
Let US now take a glance at the inside
of the farmers house and see what the
farmers family Of fifty years ago were
doing. Household manufactures o. wool
en- and linen were made to great eX-
tent; many families spun, woye, and
made up their own clothing sheeting.
table-Iinen, quilts, coverlets, stockings
and mittens were made in the family.
These, perhaps, were neither so fine nor
made so expeditiously as those Of 3 regu-
lar tradesman, but they were produced
for domestic use, at time when there
was no other employment, and in this
manner may be said TO cost very little
except the material from which they
were made Nearly all the cllthing worn
by the farmer was homemade the same
may be said of soap and candles. which
were all made in the family. Cooking
stoves were then novelty the cooking
was all done in the fireplace the cooking
( utensils were few and simple. The first
cooking stoves brough. into the country
were made TO burn wood, and were
kind Of heating and cooking stoves com
bined, and were only used in the winter
The implements used by the farmers
| half century or more ago were rough
and simple, and many of them were
made on the farm by the farmer himself,
and we're made on the Armstrong" style.
/ Nearly every farmer managed to have
/ few tools, such as saws, augurs, chisels,
etc, to make his own implements and
do his own repairing. With axes they
were better supplied than the farmer Of
to-day-there was more chopping to be
done in clearing the land ana providing
fire-weod.
Plows were exceedingly clumsy in con-
struction, and dragged with much diff
Guilty harrogs were about the same
New beginners would sometimes drag a
heavy bruch over their fields 10 cover
their grain instead of harrow Very
little machinery was used until within 3
recent date: grass was all cut with q
scythe, and sometimes very Door ones at
that, and rsked by hand the raking was
mostly done BY women and boys; horse
rakes and hay elevators and carriers were
then unknown.
The grain was nearly all Teaped with
the sickle, except where It was thin on
/ the ground, when it was cut with the
cradle ;reapers and seIf-binders are mod
ern inventions. The threshing was all
doae with the fail or tramped out with
horses. A great deal of the threshing
was done by newly arrived emigrants
from Germany, as that was about the first
work they could do and about the only
work they could get during the winter.
| remember tie time when the first
threshing machine was brought into
Broshersyalley township or perhaps the
first in the county; steam threshefs and
separztors are a more recent improve
( ment
Il may well be said that we live in an
age Of machinery The amount Of work
performed by machinery is wonderful to
think about it is reyolgtionizing the
world, 50 10 speak. Fully half the trades
that were in all their glory half a century
I ago, giving employment to large numbers
Of people, have become either obsolete
or the next thing TO it. The shoemaker
sets up mis- shop as cobbler, but buys
the ready-made shoes and boots that he
offers for sale. The blacksmith buys his
nails and shoes all ready for the foot Of
the horse, also his bolts and screws, all
made. The carpenter has little more to
do than to put his material together.
Thousands of houses made by marhinery
are sent hundreds Of miles by rail and
Sc: up, ready to be occupied, in few
days after reaching their destination.
The farmer has the machines close
after him they are cutting his grass and
grain they are raking and pitching his
hay they are threshing and cleaning his
grain, ready for market; they are drop
ping and covering his corn and shelling
it also; they are sowing his wheat and
other grain and grass seed, and 50 on %
an almost endless extent. No one can
say that great good has not come to the
country at large By the employment Of
labor-saving machinery. It may have
at times put the old tradesman to some
/ inconvenience, but that could not be
helped.
Even at this late day some people hesi-
tate to introduce labor-ssving machinery.
especially on the farm. They ought not
to hesitate; the system is now perma-
nently established beyond the possibility
Of any other condition Of Affairs, and
hence the farmer who hesitztes 70 profit
by il is simply standing in his own light;
he cannot stand still he must 90 with
the current, and the faster be can 20, the
better for him. Let rs, therefore, employ
all the labor-saving machinery we can
find use for and can make profitable.
/ The farmers wives and daughters have
dropped their thread and needles and are
driving machinery. They have their
sewing machines, with all the latest i'm
proved attachments. in nearly every
family; they have their washing ma
chimes and wringers; they have their
cooking stoves, with all the latest styles
) Of utensils. The large factories do all the
spinning and weaving and make all the
bonnets and stockings in place Of the
monOtonons hum Of the wheel and the
beating Of the loom they nave their or
gzns, pianos, and other mu-iczl instru-
ments; they have good books and psri-
/ odicals to read 10 improve their intellect
( Every good and useful book or paper the
farmer and his family reads is an sequi-