The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-01-16
THE CHANGES OF EIGHTY YEARS
"a. W. Cheever in New England Farmer.


Four-ffths of the most wonderful
century in the history of the human
race has passed since the first issue of
the "New England Farmer What
changes have occurred during those so
years. Not many now living can re-
member much about the conditions of
the country at that time. To New Eng
land people the ''West" was somewhere
in Ohio, beyond which was supposed to
be principally forest and Indians The
South was country not safe to travel
in unless one left his Puritan notions
and ideas behind. Steam appliances for
TRANSPORTATION and manufacturing were
among the things yet to be, not to men,
ton the Harvesting of electricity. In
favorable seasons plain food was as
abundant on farmers tables as at pres
ent, but in variety it was not to be com
pared, and when frosts or droughts cut
off the crops there were no great stores
1 200 miles away that could be called by
wire at a weeks notice or less. Agri-
cultural and other newspapers were few
and far between and cost much more
than now. The laws of plant growth
were but poorly understood even by the
wisest. Chemistry was a comparatively
new science, especially as applied to
agriculture. Questions discussed in
those days related to the influence of
the moon; the signs in the almanac
governed the destiny of pigs, calves and
babies: weather predictions We're based
on the thickness of corn husks and the
shape of a goose bone. There was no
settled conviction as to whether manure
lost its value most by washing down
through the soil or evaporating up
through the atmosphere; whether deep
OF shallow ploWlng was to be preferred;
whether Milling or more level culture
would bring the best results i'll the corn
and potato fields, OF whether corn suck
ers should be cut off OF left to help the
ears fill.
Sex in plants was never dreamed of,
and so far as it concerned strawberries
it mattered little, for none were ever
planted. Grating of fruit trees was
known, but little practiced, as most of
the apple crop was made into cider. The
occasional occurrence of a greening tree
producing fruit part sweet and part sour
was explained by insisting that shrewd
ancestor had nicely divided and then
joined halves of scion, bud or seed.
The practice, almost universal, of salt
ing hay in the NOW to make it keep was
seldom questioned for long years after
agricultural papers found their way
to farmers homes. Draining land to
carry away surplus water had not been
thought Of and when tiles were intro
duced, many farmers did not believe
that the water would ever find its way
down three OIL four feet into them.
Where stones were Overabundant, they
were usually piled into fences, not be-
cause fences were needed, but to get the
stones ''out of the way" In some sec
lions this idea resulted in embellish-
ing the landscape with fences of tree
stumps. When iron plows were intro
duced it was feared they would poison
the land
But great as is the contrast between
the methods Of those days and the pres
ent-the Scythe and the moving ma
chine, the sickle and the steam harvest
ers, the straw stack and the modern
slIo. the primitive dairy room and the
| cooperative creamery, the drying of
fruits then and the sealing in glass jars
in all these changes for the better
ment OF the farmers condition. the OPP
portunlty for Increasing his mental pow
ers has been equally advanced. 1t is
true that changes have been going OH
all these years outside his immediate
sphere that have called for no little
thought and study, but no more to the
farmer than to other classes. With the
marked reduction in the cost of papers
and books. the establishment of agri-
cultural schools, and the government
endowed experiment stations, and last
but not least, the coming OF the grange
into every agricultural community, the
farmers of the present have no cause to
sigh for the good old times, OF to wish
that they had been born in some pre-
vious age.