r 
American Agriculturist, March 24,1923 • 
Those Were the Good Old Days 
But It Is About Time Some of the Younger Generation Spoke Up 
A FTER reading the article in the Feb- 
/\ ruary 3 issue, by Alexander Legge, 
£~%, “Eighty Years With Farm Machin¬ 
ery,” I have been prompted to write an ar¬ 
ticle very closely related, and yet along a 
different line. 
I wish I could take the reader back to the 
rural home of 75 to 100 years ago. The 
majority of your readers will hardly believe 
that there has been the change in 75 years 
that has actually come to pass. I can write 
with authority because I can remember a 
grandmother who was born in 1785 and died 
in 1876. We have living close beside us, a 
lady who was 83 years old last October, who 
has told us much about the home of her 
childhood days. 
I will not dare try to mention more than a 
few changes, for it would make too long an 
article. 
The lady I have mentioned can remember 
well when the first cook stove came into their 
community. Neighbors went for miles to see 
that cook stove and soon another and then 
another bought a cook stove. I wonder how 
many would be able to get along without the 
match, and yet that is what our grand¬ 
mothers and some of our mothers yet living 
had to do. The fire on the hearth had to be 
carefully banked and, if in spite of care, the 
coals all burned out, it required either a trip 
to a neighbor to get one of his coals, or else 
resort to the steel and flint. 
A few of your readers may remember the 
flint-lock gun, and some may remember see¬ 
ing old smokers Who lit their pipes with the 
steel and flint and punk. Punk was rather 
slow in getting a blaze, so many would use 
gun powder. 
Like the Oil Stove of To-day 
And right here I must mention again the 
lady I have already mentioned. When a 
small baby, her mother placed her on the 
floor, took the powder horn and poured a 
little powder on the floor, laid the powder 
horn down, not far enough away, placed 
paper beside the little pile of powder and 
struck her steel against the flint so as to 
throw a spark into the gun powder. The 
fire spit out to the powder horn, which flew 
against the side of the room and bounded 
from there to the baby, covering her with 
fire. The mother had her arms badly burned 
in putting out the fire and the baby was not 
expected to live. Even after getting better, 
it was thought she would be blind; but though 
she carries marks of the burning, her eyes 
were not injured. 
Though no one ever thought of, or even 
heard of, buying ready-made clothing, there 
was no sewing machine in the home of that 
period. And furthermore, not much of the 
cloth for clothes was bought, but flax was 
sowed and, when ripe, was pulled and 
bunched. When dry enough, the seed was 
flailed off and the bunches then spread out 
to be watered by the rains, or if rains were 
not plentiful enough, water had to be carried 
on to it until the boon or core became brittle, 
when it had to be broken up into little bits 
over the breakers. 
These bits of stem had to be skutched and 
hackled out of the fiber, which had to be 
hackled and hackled until the finest, known 
as tow, was spun by the mother into fine 
thread _ on the spinning wheel, which was 
found in nearly every home. This was then 
taken to some one who had a loom and woven 
into cloth for dresses, shirts, pants, bedding, 
otc. The coarser fiber was spun into coarser 
thread and used in coarser cloth and carpet 
fillings, etc. This, of course, did not supply 
all the cloth. Sheep were raised and flan¬ 
nels, stocking yarn and carpet chain made 
trom the wool. Almost every housewife. 
with her daughters, when she had any, made 
all the stockings for the family. And this 
just reminds me that my father made all the 
shoes for his family for many years. 
I have had to omit many details in the 
foregoing, but I have written enough to show 
the reader that there were no idle days for 
the home makers of 75 or 100 years ago. Do 
you wonder that among such a busy, popula¬ 
tion, there was not found the flagrant evils 
that exist to-day? True, none of us wish to 
go back to the inconveniences of those years, 
but oh, how we do long for the pure Christian 
home so typical of those simple busy folk. 
Of all the needs of a trouble-racked world, 
there is none so great as the need of true 
Christian homes. —D. P. Heckman, New- 
ville. Pa. 
Ministers of Bygone Days 
O WING to the scarcity of labor, and 
the vast amount of work to be done 
at every farm hdme, I find less time 
to read than in former years. Consequently, 
I have thought it best to discontinue some 
of my papers. Never have I entertained a 
similar thought in regard to your paper. Its 
pages are filled with interesting matter, writ¬ 
ten by those who know what to say and how 
to say it. Therefore, I can only say: “Let 
’er come!” 
The article, “Where Have Men Like This 
Gone”, by Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., was very 
interesting. He is certainly one of the best 
of writers. We shall not soon forget the 
earnestness, the consecrated devotion, and 
untiring efforts of the many ministers of by¬ 
gone days. How they toiled and plodded 
through deep snows and freezing weather 
to the little school house miles away among 
the hills. Here, revivals were held, night 
after night, with good results which will 
never be forgotten. 
We who have already lived the three score 
years, wtell remember that half a century ago, 
in most families there were from four to 
eight children. These children, early in life, 
learned to share not only the joys, but all 
their sorrows and troubles with each other. 
The discipline was good. The care which 
came to them early in life helped to give them 
strength of character and thoughtfulness for 
one another. Then there were boys for the 
ministry, boys for lawyers, some for doctors, 
and some for blacksmiths. When mother 
was sick and unable to care for her large 
family, if no girls of suitable age were there, 
one large boy could drive* over to the home 
of another farmer and bring in a strong girl, 
who was willing to come and help out with 
the housework for a time, for a fair wage 
per week. -v 
American people have sadly neglected tl^ 
child crop for many years. As an example: 
My grandparents raised thirteen children. 
My parents raised six. Wife and I have 
raised three. The next generation has one 
or none at all. Is it any wonder that there 
is no one to fill the useful positions in life 
.any longer? 
other Good Preachers of Bygone Days 
One good old pastor, the Rev. L. R. Swin- 
ney, of De Ruyter, N. Y., had gone to bed one 
very cold night, but he kept thinking of a poor 
family living at some distance. So he dressed 
and went to the home of this family, taking 
a bed quilt for them that he might know that 
they were comfortable. Another good 
preacher, the Rev. J. M. Todd, preached for 
our people at Brookfield for 30 years. He 
finally said he was not weary of the work, 
but was weary in it. His was a life of kind¬ 
ness and thoughtfulness for others, being en¬ 
tirely free from hatred and sarcasm. 
Mighty good man I remember was the Rev. 
W. C. Byrer of Unadilla Forks. He used to 
come over the hill and preach to us some¬ 
times. As an example of how we should 
live, he said: “There were two farmers 
who were brothers, living side by side. Both 
were poor men. There came a year when 
crops were very poor. One man was think¬ 
ing of his brother and his large family and 
wondering how he would get through the 
coming- winter. So he said to himself, ‘Now 
to-night I’ll go down to the wheat field and 
put some of my shocks of grain over the 
fence in my brother’s field, then when he 
comes to draw home his grain, he will have a 
little more.’ At the same time, the other 
farmer was thinking of his brother in the 
same way._ So these two men met down in 
the field, just at dusk, each trying to put 
some of his wheat over the fence in his 
brother’s field. In grateful memory of these 
beloved and consecrated men of God, who 
have long since gone to a just reward, let 
us reverently say: 
Tenderly, tearfully lay them away. 
To them comes no anguish. 
No cold bitter day. 
No hatred, no envy. 
No strife and no sin, 
Their present condition 
We all, yet, must win. 
For the friends we once had 
Who have passed from our view. 
For the deeds they have done 
For the lessons they knew. 
We will ever give thanks, 
And while hei’e humbly bow. 
Trusting all will be clear 
That we question just now. 
—L. P. Burdick, Brookfield, N. Y. 
A Boost For Wayne County 
I THINK that the records show that 
Wayne County is the banner county for 
long term subscribers of any county in 
the State, also for winning the first prize at 
the New York State Fair for the besit dis¬ 
play of fruit of any county in the State in 
1922, which I think was through the efforts 
of L. J. Sweezey, President, and E. R. Wag¬ 
ner, Manager, of the Wayne County Farm 
Bureau, which looked after the spraying, 
sending out letters to all of the members 
what to use and when to ‘spray to get the 
best results. Farmers are busy at present 
who have timber lots, getting bolts cut for 
crates. Celery takes a great many crates 
each year as they are never used but once, 
and most of the crate factories are kept 
busy making crates-for the muck farmers as 
most of them use a great many crates. 
Years ago before there was so much under 
cultivation, Wayne County grew and dis¬ 
tilled about all of the peppermint oil in the 
United States or the world, and it was all sold 
to two buyers at Lyons and shipped all over 
the world. In those days a farmer used to 
work all summer, and in the fall draw away 
all that he raised for a money crop which 
was mint oil in a democrat wagon at one 
load to Lyons and bring back several hun¬ 
dred dollars. Since the days of license when 
barley was used for malting, some farmers 
grew barley for a money crop, but barley is 
not raised now much and only for feed. Red 
beans are now raised mostly by all the farm¬ 
ers on grain farms as a money crop and the 
town of Marion is said by all of the buyers to 
produce the best beans raised in Wayne 
County. 
Marion is an inland town and all of the 
produce bought years ago was beans and 
dried apples. They were then drawn by 
{Continued on page 273) 
