Purpose

In 1840 approximately 89% of the American people lived in rural areas of the country. These "country folk" had the skills and knowledge necessary to supply and/or make most of their food and clothes, tools and shelter, furniture and amusements. They raised crops for food and fodder, cared for livestock, used tools we never knew existed to do things we never knew needed doing. And sometimes, they wrote down their thoughts and knowledge and published them for others.

Since 1840 people have been leaving the farms and heading for the cities, until today there are 89% of us living in urban areas. The skills and knowledge it took to be self sufficient have been lost to us as we have become more and more dependent on modern cities, just in time deliveries, and "super stores". Our great grandparents probably did a wider variety of things before breakfast than we do all day long.

Copyright laws in the U.S. are such that everything published before 1923 is now in the Public Domain, and with the advent of the internet and electronic media, many of those books from the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s are store online in giant archives in all sorts of formats, made available at the click of a mouse button. This blog is for the purpose of making this knowledge more available.

To download these files, click on link and RIGHT CLICK on the type of file you wish to have and "save" to your computer. Mac users: Click on link, hold down the "control" key, then click as above and save to your mac.



Saturday, August 18, 2012

General Life on the Farm

This week's selections include three books that are general overviews of life and work on the farm in the 1800s.  They include Husbandry and Rural Affairs, published in Philadelphia in 1801; Cottage Economy, published in 1833 in New York; and Cottage Farming, published in London in 1870.  Keep in mind that some of the things they "knew" were incorrect or simply a portion of the whole, and practicing what they suggest is at your own risk.  There is no life guard on duty at this swimming hole.

I had to look up some terms as I read them, for instance: a perch is a linear measurement equal to 16.5 feet, and a dibble is a pointed stick used for making a hole to plant a seed in.  These books cover a wide range of skills necessary to survive on a plot of land, but often they assume knowledge that may be missing in modern life: for instance at one point in Cottage Economy the author says that "As to the act of making bread, it would be shocking indeed if that had to be taught by the means of books", assuming everyone reading the book will already know how to make bread.  He follows this up in the next chapter by actually teaching bread making for those that do not, but other knowledge is sometimes left out because of the universal understanding assumed (which was probably known by the readers of the time).

All in all, these are great general knowledge texts for an overview of life and work in the rural homesteads and farmsteads of the 1800s, and will make a good addition to any library.  Enjoy!

Husbandry and Rural Affairs - 1801
Cottage Economy - 1833
Cottage Farming -1870
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