Tri-Counties Genealogy &
History by Joyce M. Tice
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Farming a Hundred Years Ago |
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Bradford County PA
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Chemung County NY
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Tioga County PA
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| Article: Farming a Hundred Years Ago |
| Chemung County |
Article by Helen Mac Dougall Samson (1909-1995)
1976
Sent in by Walt Samson |
Retyped by Daryl Eldrett Watkins
Illustrations from book of Joyce's Grandfather
The Home Encyclopedia of Useful Information,
1903 |
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Chemung Valley Reporter
Thursday, July 22, 1976
Farming A Hundred Years Ago
By Helen M. Samson |
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In the hundred years since 1776, farmers had been drawn, ready or not
in to the beginning of the mechanical age. The pioneers were content with
the labor of their oxen and, indeed it must have been a great improvement
over the first efforts on this continent to scratch a few hoarded seeds
around the stumps pf the original forest.
In around 1876, farmers were proud of their strong teams of horses and
an ox team was a novelty. The ads in the farm publications were showing
that marvel, the steam engine as it was built for use on the farm. Some
were called tractors and could be trundled along the road from farm to
farm and used for the thrashing machine. If you remember the excitement
of being a rural kid and watching for the black smoke of the slowly approaching
old steamer when it was your father’s turn to have the thrasher, you aren’t
so young any more and you have a good memory besides. A team came first
- pulling the water tank so necessary to the work of the steam monster.
The two men who came with the outfit stayed all night and their host kept
them up late to hear their tales of the places they had worked and perhaps,
to swap a few horse trade tales.
These same tractors could be used in the fields but were more popular
in the middle west where the land was level and the fields large. Some
were used to pump water from the deep wells for watering the cattle and
to grind grain or saw wood.
The predecessor of the steam engine was horse power as applied to hay
presses and thrashers. A horse or a team was driven up on the slanted,
slatted platform and by walking rapidly, they could keep the endless contrivance
turning and the attached belt running over the large wheel which in turn
operated a machine. Large dogs were very often used on a similar treadmill
to run a churn or even to saw wood. Later presses used a team of horses
which walked around and turned a press down on the hay. One advertisement
for this type stated that by using it one might put ten tons of hay in
one car for shipping.
The best kind of plow was supposed to be the swivel plow which turned
on furrow at a time and the user walked with one foot in the furrow and
the other on the unplowed ground. The "plowman’s gait" was a very real
thing!
All kinds of labor saving gadgets were touted for the farmers and their
wives in 1876.
Apple parers and cherry pitters were invented by the dozens and any
historical museum can show you several different types. A horse clipping
machine was a great help as it could also shear the sheep and only required
two people, one to clip and one to turn the handle. The hay loader was
around to take some of the ache from the hired man’s shoulders at the end
of a day in the hayfield and Mr. McCormick’s reaper was seen on most farms.
Sometimes neighbors would pool their resources and buy one of these more
expensive machines in partnership and take turns using it during the season.
Farming was becoming more expensive one hundred years ago and more land
was necessary if a profit was to be made. The invention of the gas engine
not far in the future would sign the end of the small family farm and emergence
of the big, specialized operation.
It must have been fun to be a kid on a farm one hundred years ago. No
movies or TV, but you could take the dog and get the cows from the pasture
and swim and run barefoot all summer. Then when Pa finally let you drive
the old horse on the new drop rake and make winrows for the hay loaders,
what greater joy could a country boy ask for?
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First Added to the Site on 22DEC 2002
By Joyce M. Tice
Email: JoyceTice@aol.com
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