The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-03-05
BY c. L. SMITH.

ouleu IdHu, not SO mucn with
the idea OF making money, as of max
ing a home. Producing on the farm
30 far as practicable, all the things
necessary for the comfort of the
FAMILY. All of the food and most of
the clothing was home grown and
home made. Flax and wool were
carded, spun, dyed and woven by the
thrifty housewife The hide of the
young bullock that furnished the sea-
sons supply of beef was tanned.
dressed and made into boots and
shoes by the farmer and his sons.
The virgin soil was fertile and
easily titled. The uncultivated lands
furnished free Summer pasturage for
small herds Of cattle. Hogs thrived
and multiplied, and lived on roots
and nuts in the primeval forest. The
hoe, mattock, scythe, sickle. rake and
fork were about all the farm imple-
ments The small farmer or new
settler threshed his grain with fail.
The more well-to-do had large barn
and threshing floor where the oxen
tramped the grain until 1t was shelled
from the straw The straw was raked
and forked off, and then on windy
day the grain could be cleaned by
tossing 1t In the air until the chaff
was blown away.
Produce Exchange.
The travelling tailor, shoemaker or
seamstress was usually paid In meat,
meal or wool. Surplus farm products
would be exchanged for extras of
some sort; but very rarely for money.
In the South under the slave sys-
TEN, the large plantations produced
cotton, sugar and tobacco for export.
In the North, wheat and meat began
to be produced in excess of local de-
mands and gradually built up an ex-
port trade. With the crude imple-
ments in use, it required about. 10
hours of manual labor to produce one
bushel of wheat.
With the growth OF cities along the
seaboard, the navigable streams and
inland lakes, trade and commerce
grew. Grain, meat, fruit and vege.
tables began to be produced for mar
ket.
The steamboat and the railroad IA
cilitated the marketing and greatly
stimulated the production of market
able produce. The invention of grain
harvesting machinery, threshng ma
chimes, steel plow, steel drills and
other labor saving devices, lessened
the labor cost of production and vast
ly increased the amount produced,
Then came the Civil War, the
homestead bill, the settlement of the
vast prairies of the Middle West,
railroad building on a stupendous
scale. Wheat and corn were the pio-
neer crops. They could be exchanged
for cash at the nearest railroad sta
tion or steamboat landing.
Mania for Money.
These cash crops could be produced
IN a single season. The farmer
needed money, and he concentrated
his energy on the production of the
one crop until it became a sort of
mania with him. He lost interest in
home making, in live stock, in soil
fertility, in fact everything except the
production of crop that he could
exchange for cash.
Just at this period began the first
general movement that could be
called agricultural education The
farms along the Atlantic seaboard
had gradually decreased In produc-
tive capacity until in many places
they failed to produce enough to pay
for the labor involved in planting
and harvesting the crop.
A like condition existed in thel
valleys and on the table lands Of the
Middle states. In many of the older
settled portions the farms had been
abandoned; their owners moving west
to the fertile prairies Of the Missis-
sippi Valley, where with improved
machinery they were extracting thel
soil fertility much more rapidly than
their fathers had been able to do
with their cruder instruments and
more diversified methods.
Morrill, Bill.
The Morrill, bill provided for a
large grant Of lands to the various
states for the establishment Of col
leges where students were to be
taught the science of agriculture
and mechanic arts" 1t was unfor-
tunate that the popular ideas regard