New-York tribune., 1901-01-06
TWENTIETH CENTURY FARMER
THE EAERClSE or HIS MEN7AL FACULTIES HAS LARGELY
SUCCEEDED PHYSICAL DRUDGERY

When the nineteenth century was vouner we
we're Nation Of farmers and gardeners. Conn
,uerce was chiefly centred in the few small
towns on the Atlantic seaboard the lakes and
the large rivers and many of the persons on
gagged in IL looked to their own gardens for the
chief part OF their table supplies. Markets
were dependent upon narrow strips of s,,r
rounding country for all bulky and perisha b1a
commodities, for a long haul over exacra HE
roads would have raised prices eno,.r,,o,,.,..
The average farmer one hundred wears AGO as
for a hundred years previously was cor,,a,ra
to produce pretty nearly all that his family re-
quired, ana could send little to distant markets
The highways OF travel ascended and descended
every hill on the route, for the early SETTLERS
built their homes on high points, and the roads
were little more than wagon tracks connecting
the houses. Thus. for many years after tho
country became thoroughly settled. the lone
winding road over hill and through valley had
10 be traversed whenever the farmer sor,gbt +ho
distant city or the nearer village which had
grown UP around the gristmilI, the tannerv ana
the country store The century was more than
half gone before these roads Were generally re-
placed by straight and more level highways
The difficulty and cost Of sending the abundant
farm products Of the country to the large mar
kets fixed the attention OF publicists at an oarIv
Erie 10 tidewater in the Hudson was first mon
toned in the New-York Legislature in 1904
when the population Of the State was less than
one million. In 1927 a meeting OF citizens OF
Baltimore began a discussion which resulted in
the building OF the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Passenger traffic was Of minor Importance; the
ruling purpose 20 bring the produce of the
rich Ohio Valley to the seaboard at a speed of
four miles an hour-possbly Of eight miles. Two
years later the Board of Directors Of Internal
Improvements of Massachusetts, reported on the
practicability OF railroads from Boston TO Albany
and from Boston TO Providence. All these plans
were TO bring the products OF the farm to an
abundant. market, and a writer in ''The North
American Review after deliberate consider
alton, expressed the belief that such railroads
passing through a rich and populous country
must be of immense benefit" though he thought
that horsepower should be used in preference TO
locomotives.
RAILWAYS BROKE HIS ISOLATION.
These were the inceptions from which have
grown the interlacing railway systems of the
country. have broken the isolation of the Amer
ican farmer and have made him a participant in
the great commercial prosperity OF the Nation.
Thus these enterprises have important place
in this brief sketch of the farmers progress in
the nineteenth century.
But this isolation, continuing for generations
was one of the forces which indelibly stamped
the American character Shut out from the
larger world, the farmer learned to look TO him
self alone for all he was to possess Of comfort
He engaged in diversified farming. and pro-
dnced nearly all food and clothing for his fam
lily. The wool from his sheep and the fax from
his field Were spun and woven and made into
garments at home. The skins from his oxen and
sheep were tanned near by and made UP in his
house by a periratetic shoemaker, who came
around on annual visits and created marvel
lously i'll fitting footgear. The farmer had
brought with him few tools and afterward
manufactured others. a blacksmtf's forge and
a carpenters bench were necessary adjuncts of
q. farmers buildings until we'll into the nine
tsenth century. He often shod his oxen and
horses, and most Of the simple farming tools Of
that day were made by his own hands. When
those os complicated nature appeared he
repaired, and, without much regard to patent
rights, sometimes duplicated them, adding vaIu-
able improvements with no thought OF wrong.