The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-10-31
oLD-TIME SHOE MANUFACTURE,

beIolS tle INTRODUCTION OF machinery
the shoe manufacturers of the vicinity
gave out great deal of their work to
families IN the villages and on the farms,
especially in the colder months of the
year. Most of the uppers of prunella or
cloth shoes and carpet slippers were
done by the women, but the leather
work and bottoming was done by the
men, who worked in small outbuildings
warmed by stoves and furnished with
the old-fashioned cobbler's bench, with
Its array of shoe-pegs, sparables, shoe
makers wax, heelbali, backing pot and
bristles, shoe thread, avis, knives, lap
stone, hammer, strap and lasts.
Generally these buildings were small,
holding from four to six benches, and
they naturally became favorite resort
for the boys and old men, who from time
gossip of the neighborhood. Many a
sharp political or polemical argument
was fought out, many good story told
meals for everyone started in with a
good breakfast and lost no time when
the dlnner-horn called them home at
noon or to hearty supper at the early
shutdown.
The old Franklin or "airtight' stove
kept their little shops warm and dry;
they smoked or 'chawed" between the
intermittent exchange of argument and
conversation, and they felt perfectly in
dependent of foreman or manufacturer
so long as their work was good, and they
were up to time on deliveries.
Their work was good, honest work,
too, whether "pegged'' or "sewed, -
and the boys were each set to work
splitting out and sharpening shoe-pegs,
twisting and waxing threads, and doing
such Of the ''chores' at house and barn
as were not beyond their strength
The women for the most part did their
share of the work at home, calling in
when necessary their neighbors' daugh-
tiers, who chatted merrily you may be
sure over labors that eked out the family
resources or gave them little money
for dress, education or travel.
But that feature of shoe manufacture
has gone by, and only here and there
may be seen the tiny shops and the rot
ting cuttings of leather, and bits of wood
and iron that tell of phase of industry
as extinct as the dodo. "-Along the An
droscoggin," Maine Edition National
Magazine for October.
RENAISSANCE OF NEW ENGLAND FARM.
The recent revival of interest in New
England farming has been very largely
due to the wonderfu results secured in
various SECTIONS of Maine along special
lines of production; and although the
Aroostook potato farms have rightfully
occupied the center of the stage under
the limelight Of publicity, it is also true
that in every county Of the State farm
ers are demonstrating that young men
and investors need not Ego West" or
emigrate to Canada to make money.
secure good homes and enjoy the benefit
of large results and the best markets in
the world.
In the valley Of the Kennebec there is
found variety of soils, suitable to the
successful growth and production of
everything that is readily salable in
local and New England markets. Maine
apples have always been famous for
beauty and flavor and are again being
cultivated with the care and science that
makes a good apple orchard sure and
profitable investment.
The growth of healthy wood and am
pie rootage in the new orchards, plant
ed within the past five years, and the
splendid yields of certain old orchards,
which have been renovated and fertilized
after years of neglect, ensure revival
and increase of apple culture along the
Kennebec which should within the next
five years rival in practical returns the
best results of fruit culture in any State.
1t is almost needless to say that grow
J ing hay for sale has long been a material