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Subject: News from Pennsburg - July 16, 1904
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:51:06 EDT
Ref: Town and Country Newspaper
Pennsburg, Montgomery County, PA
Saturday - July 16, 1904
FARMING IN YE OLDEN TIMES
During all this active participation on the farm more than half a century
ago, there was also time for recreation. Getting out of bed at so early an hour,
of course brought forth a voracious appetite and for this very reason an
unusual meal was prepared, which to this day is known as the "Nine o'clock Repast."
Not a meal of luxury spread upon an extension table, but a simple meal under
the open air. During the entire haymaking and harvest season, every day that
the farmers and their men had work on the fields, the women of the household
served this meal, regularly, twice each day, at nine in the morning and at half
past three o'clock in the afternoon. Precisely at those hours the maidens of
the farm appeared in the fields and made their way to a large tree, in whose
shade the clean white table linen was spread, and upon this was laid that good
bread of "Ye Grandmother's Day," baked on the hearth of the old bake oven, one
loaf being as large as half a dozen loaves of our modern bakers, butter fresh
from the farm crock, which was kept in the cold spring-house nearby, tripe
that had been preserved during the butchering season of the past winter, and that
other well known Grandmother's product, so well known by the older
generations of the Pennsylvania Germans as "Duetscher Balla Kase," whose presence was
certainly always known, even if not seen, by the peculiar odor, but which was
relished by the farm hands, as one of the delicacies, that was considered by
them as appetizing as a canvas back duck by a conniosseur. All those products of
"ye olden days" consisted of substantial food, but good dried beef and
sausage, specially made during the winter months for this very meal, besides fresh
radishes and onions pulled from the farm garden, intermingled with pies and
cakes, hot coffee just pulled from the warm fire, with an abundance of honey fresh
from the bee-hive behind the old summer kitchen, such constituted the bill of
fare, and such a meal out in the open air was a relish indeed and the sight
of it, would have made any dyspeptic quake for joy, and would have fed the
tramp fraternity of upper Montgomery county for many a day. Those meals so
refreshed the workingmen, that they could do their to perfection. This custom has
practically gone into oblivion and the custom is only met with now and then,
where the repast is found still in practical use, but still a few farms in
Montgomery, Berks and Lehigh counties have farmers who spread such a meal out under
the chestnut trees, while the farmers of the bordering counties have abandoned
this extra luncheon hour. Luncheon hour over which was followed with more work
until high noon, when that old fashioned dinner bell mounted on a twenty foot
pole, or on the gable-end of the roof of that old fashioned country summer
kitchen, a scene so familiar in every farm-yard during the Revolutionary period,
tolled the dinner hour and brought the farm hands by its ringing sound from
the distant fields to the farm house to find a much more substantial meal
awaiting them, than the one they had enjoyed a few hours before. Here they found
all the delicacies Grandmother was able to make with her pastry. Her cooking was
not excelled. Ham and eggs, chicken, roast beef and veal were in abundance
and as every farmer in those days was his own butcher, the meat diet was
certainly worthy of mention. Fifty years ago a farmer would never have fostered the
idea of going to the rear end of a butcher wagon, and buy the same meat he sold
a fortnight previous to the same butcher. In those days the butcher was an
unknown product in the country. Farmers used to kill hogs at different intervals
during the year, those intended for market were slaughtered first and those
for home consumption later, or as soon as the weather got cold enough and just
before the school teacher came to board with the family. Calves and sheep were
occasionally killed and quarters loaned to neighbors, to be returned in kind.
We have been discussing appetite of many years ago, but what about the great
thirst those mowers and cradlers had? Well, those whiskey and apple-jack
experience, jolly incidents of bygone days, when the farmer bought a barrel or two
of the beverages at six or ten cents per quart, which he rolled in his cellar.
This was an annual custom and a boy was always employed to carry the
beverages after the mowers, when at work during haymaking and harvest time. A peculiar
shaped earthen jug was used in the early periods, and few are seen to-day,
nearly all are numbered with the past, and with such a jug filled and a tin-pail
filled with water, the boy trudged along, peeping now and then across his
shoulder at his superiors, and when getting a chance, he himself sometimes tried
to see how strong wonders this shining red substance would work with him, and
whenever he reached the end of a field, or some nice shade tree was
encountered, the squad of men took a few minutes rest and took the customary drink.
During those times a gallon or two disappeared every day on the larger farms of
the Perkiomen Valley, and it is useless to say, as many of the older people
still know, that the apple-jack and whiskey, although so cheap, was of a much
better quality, that what is now handed over the common country bar. If the men
now and then go a little too much under the "jacket," as they used to say in
those days, they would spent an hour under the old chestnut tree or on the barn
floor, and that was the last you heard of it. Its effects brought no
sea-sickness, like the cheap whiskey of to-day does, for the whiskey and apple-jack were
good home made Pennsylvania German liquor, distilled from their own rye and
apples. A few of those distillieries were in our midst in the earlier periods,
but the majority of the distilling was done in Lehigh county along the Blue
mountains, where to the present day in the vicinity of New Tripoli and Low Hill,
distillieries are in active operation during the distilling seasons. Across
the line in Berks county, in Albany township, we find another such distillery,
which is in active operation. In olden times the beverages were tax free and
the cost was inconsiderable, but to-day Uncle Sam wants royalty of $1.10 on
every gallon of apple-jack, or apple-brandy, as some call it, while the best
products sell at $2.75 per gallon. Apple-jack is getting to be a rare article, and
only one out of half a dozen bars, have the same for sale, consequently, the
few distillers find a ready market for their apple-jack. The older this old
time beverage gets, the more valuable it becomes. At a recent sale of cordials,
wines, etc., a lot of apple-jack sold at $70.00 per gallon and there was sharp
bidding at that. Speaking of beverages brings us back to the Old Community
Cider Press, of which not a single one is still standing in the communities
reached by this publication. However a few of you can still remember that long
upright wood screw, with a long wooden lever attached. The beds for the
apple-juice were made of straw, and the horse was attached to the lever and the rich
flowing cider, soon leaked out between the clean blades of rye straw. All this
has been changed again by modern ideas, and to-day we have the hydraulic
presses and the picturesque old community cider press of our good old days had to
take a step to the rear. This proves to us that great progress has been made
along agricultural lines in our very midst during the past thirty years, and
to-day there are indeed few farmers in this vicinity who are not up-to-date and
progressive. Many today do, and a few others, should conduct their affairs on
the farm in a methodical and businesslike way. The majority of our farmers keep
a close watch on the expense accounts, as well as on their income. The
majority are subscribers to one or more newspapers. They read and note the
improvements and new methods. Good book-keeping is as essential on the farm as in the
store. Observation and experience have taught them that the farmer must be
master of his vocation. The old notion that education drives men from the farm is
nonsence, but what does take them away from the rural pursuits of life is the
huming of machinery in our nearby towns and larger cities, where the boy or
girl of sixteen years of age and if they are at all clever, will after a few
weeks of initial work, be able to earn from $3.00 to $5.00 per week, weaving
ribbon and silk patterns, twisting tobacco into cigars, making shirts and hosiery,
and many other garments. We find that our factory inspectors have lots of
trouble with employers who employ the youth of our day before they become of
lawful age to labor at such work. How well would it be, if they could spent a year
or two with a good housewife on the farm, and learn the art of cookery, before
stepping into the busy world of toil. It would give to them an experience
which would never be regretted, and no dyspeptics would be found among them, when
old age would crawl upon them, and they would then look as hale and hearty as
our old farm veterans who are still with us. However many of our boys and
girls are urged to attend the public schools regularly. They are trained in youth
that agriculture will be benefited by their education and their success on
the farm will mainly depend on education. Our agricultural papers have
instructed the farms that common sense and work are the only sure roads to success.
Practice has taught them that hens will not lay, nor berry bushes bear for the
farmers who do not give them their very best attention. N.B. Since writing this
story, it came to the attention of the writer, that the "YEAKEL Reaper," to
which a short paragraph was devoted in part first of "Farming in Ye Olden
Times," was manufactured by the YEAKEL's, way back in the forties, but if the
YEAKELs' were really the inventors, is a matter of doubt. Mr. Isaac Y. KRAUSS, who
was for many years connected with a large machine shop, at Kraussdale, has
called the attention of the writer to the fact that this machine or rather reaper,
was patented by Obed HUSSEY, of Baltimore, Md., who happend to be one of the
pioneer inventors of harvesting machinery. Mr. KRAUSS still well remembers the
YEAKEL reaper, and saw the last one at their shop in 1880. He describes the
reaper as clumsy, particularly so if compared with our present reapers. The
frame was made of wood, three by six inches thick, the platform constructed of
inch boards, while the other parts were in proportion. Two heavy coil springs,
one at each side, were placed under the operators seat to relieve him of the
fearful jar to which he was subjected. The driver was either obliged to walk or
could ride on the near or saddle horse, as four horses were generally used. -
Felix KENELM.
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