Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Tobacco cultivation June 11th, 1856 (& Recipe for Mock Strawberries)

The Planters' Advocate No. 42 Wed., June 11, 1856

Agricultural Department

TOBACCO

PRIMING, TOPPING, SUCKERING AND WORMING.

            As the Tobacco plant grows and develops, a blosom[sic] bud put out from the top which is formed buttoning. The top must be pulled off along with such of the upper leaves as are too small to be of any value. The plants are thus left usually about two or 3 feet high. The plant also shoot out suckers from every leaf, which must be broken off, care being taken not to break the leaf from the mainstem. This causes the leave to spread.

            The most regular topping is performed by measure. The topper carries in his hand a measure 6 inches long, I occasionally applying which, he can regulate the priming with great accuracy; as the remaining leaves are numbered, this governs the operation, and gains the object of even topping. The topper should always carry his measure in his hand, as it serves to prevent excuses for negligence and uneven topping. Prime 6 inches, and top 28 leaves. We have found by experience that this is the best average height. We sometimes, but seldom, Barry from this general rule. If the land is poorer than common, or if, from the backwardness of the plant, and the advanced stage of the season we apprehend Frost, we do not prime as high; (say 4 inches.) If we have an uncommon rich spot, and there is danger that the top leaves will come to the ground, we should rise in the same proportion. The crop should be wormed and suckered at least once a week.
Topping and housing.

            In about three – months after setting out, the plants assume a spotted in yellowish appearance, indicating that they have obtained sufficient maturity for cutting and housing. This stage of tobacco culture is generally reckoned the most difficult and delicate part of the whole business; and the plantar, if he wishes to be successful, must give it all his attention, as the prophet of a whole plantation for the year greatly depends upon the diligence and skillful management exercise during the few days of cutting. He should therefore be well prepared for this state of the crop, by having the Barnes close, carts and wagons in good order, and everything arranged to dispatch business as much as possible, since it is hard work he has to encounter. To save a heavy crop in the best manner requires both energy and activity. The most judicious hands should be selected for cutters. The plants are cut with a knife near the ground, and suffered to lie in the sun for a few hours, cause them to "fall" or will. When the field is a pretty large one, a middling or average hand should count the whole number of plant teacups, so that, allowing each cutter the same number, we may arrive at nearly the whole quantity cut. —We should never cut more nor less than will fill the contemplated barn; otherwise there is labor lost in attending to a barn not full, or the over–plus is injured for want of firing. The tobacco after it has "fallen" or become sufficiently limber, is carried to the barn in carts are wagons, being from 6 to 10 plant on a stick, and stowed away for firing. It is also of great importance to be particular in the arrangement of the sticks. The equal and general circulation of heat throughout the house depends on the manner in which this is done. Our barns commonly have three firing tears above, and three below, the joists. We commence arranging the sticks on the most elevated tear in the roof, to which we give 5 inches distant; and on each tier, as we defend, we gain 1 inch; so that on the lowest year, nearest the fire, the sticks are placed 11 inches apart. The disposition of the sticks, we have ascertained by late experiment, is important. The sticks of tobacco being wider apart, next to the fires, gives freer circulation, and, consequently, a more equal temperature, then the usual way of equal distance from bottom to top. Beth having more space to offend, must be more equal and generally diffused, and will give a more uniform house of tobacco. We esteemed this a considerable improvement; and if we have house – room, and make a greater difference in the proportionate distance between the sticks, it will be a still better arrangement.

To Make Mock Strawberries. —A lady in Chicago, Illinois, says: "cut up ripe peaches and soft mild cutting apples, in the proportion of three to one, into pieces about the size of strawberries, and mix them with a proper proportion; and, after they have stood together a few hours, and thoroughly mingled their flavors, even an amateur, if he will not look at the hash, might easily mistake it for strawberries."         

(The Planters' Advocate & Southern Maryland Advertiser. No. 42 Wed., June 11, 1856, p.1)
)


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Sure Sign of Spring - Garden Seed for Sale - Georgetown, Feb. 26, 1814

Ott & Bunyie,
Vegetable Seed for Sale
February 26, 1814
Federal Republican Newspaper
Georgetown, District of Columbia

GARDEN SEED.
The subscriber has just received, a General
Assortment of
FRESH GARDEN SEEDS,
AMONG WHICH ARE,
Early York                                          CABBAGES
Battersea                                                        "
Drum- Head                                                   "          
Green & Yellow Savoy,                                 "          
Early Short- Top & Salmon RADISHES
Solid and Red CELERY
Double PARSLEY, Red BEAT
PARSNIP and CARROT Seed
White and Brown ONION
Early and Late CAULIFLOWER
VEGETABLE OYSTER
MIXED ENDIVE, LETTUCE
EARLY CUCUMBER- all of which have
been tried, and found to vegetate.
He has on hand, as usual,
a large and General Assortment of
DRUGS, PATENT & and OTHER FAMILY
MEDICINES
CHEMICAL PREPARATIONS
PAINTS, OILS, DIE STUFFS,
PERFUMERY, SPICES,
HAVANA SEGARS of a superior quality &c.
All of which he is disposed to sell on the lowest terms.    JOHN OTT.
                                                                                                                        Chemist and Druggist.
N.B. For the accommodation of his friends
and the public, he keeps his Fountains of
SODA & ROCHELLE WATER
running during the winter.
Georgetown, Feb. 17.  co18t
————————————————————————
GARDEN SEEDS, &c.
            The subscriber being executor on the estate
of the late Thomas Main, Gardener, near
Georgetown, has for sale at his store, opposite the post office, Georgetown,
            Beans and Peas of different sorts
            Early York and other Cabbages,
            Turnip, Onion And a variety of other Garden seeds
                        Also, at the Nursery
some thousand plants of the Pirate cancer
Hedge Thorne, a variety of Fruit Trees
Purple Each, Paper Mulberry
Catava, Chinese Arborvitae
Honey Locust, Flowering Bushes, &c.
                        WILLIAM BUNYIE [sic].
February 15 - co[3]t*[1]







[1]  Federal Republican; Date: 02-26-1814; Page: [1]; Georgetown, District of Columbia.

Transcribed by John Peter Thompson, February 26th, 2014.

Thomas Main, a gardener from Scotland, settled in the District of Columbia around 1804. His nursery may have been the earliest in the District of Columbia.

"In 1805, Thomas Jefferson ordered 4,000 thorns from the Thomas Main nursery to plant at Monticello as a live fence.Main called this particular species the "American hedge thorn" and it grew abundantly around Washington." quoted from the website - Washington Hawthorn at http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/washington-hawthorn 

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Wheat and the Hessian Fly in Maryland 1812 - Advice to Farmers

Poulson's American Daily Advertiser.;
Date: 07-28-1812;
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rural Economy:
-
TO FARMERS:
               The following method is recommended to preserve Wheat for years from the fly that prevails more or less every year in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, Delaware and Jersey, and more particularly on the Bays, Rivers and adjacent country.[1]
               Get your wheat out of your straw as early as you possibly can; clean the straw well from the chaff and wheat; if you have a barn, put your wheat away in bulk, leaving the chaff with it.  I knew wheat kept several years during the Revolutionary War in this way free from all insects. - Rats and mice cannot burrow in this bank, it will continually fall on them.  Those that have not barns may make pens with logs, or fence rails; first laying logs or rails on the earth sufficent to keep the damp from rising to injure the wheat; then cover the floor twelve or eighteen inches thick with with straw well tread down - put your wheat on this floor miced with all its chaff, and as you fill the pen, line the sides well with straw; when you have filled your pen in this way, stack your straw on the top of it, seeing that the straw extends well over the top of the pen to carry off the rain water.              E. K. [2]




[1] Asa Fitch. 1847. Diptera. C. Van Benthuysen and Co., Albany. [accessed July 23, 2013] http://archive.org/details/101187262.nlm.nih.gov

 "The insect which we are about to consider, has for a long period been, at times, a severe scourge, in every district of our country. It is more formidable to us, says Dr. B. S. Barton, than would be an army of twenty thousand Hessians, or of any other twenty thou sand hirelings, supplied with all the implements of war. Hence it has forced itself prominently to the notice both of agriculturists and men of science. No other insect of the tens of thousands that teem in our land, has received a tithe of the attention, or been chronicled with a tithe of the voluminousness that has been assigned to this species. Our scientific journals, our agricultural magazines, and our common newspapers, have each accorded to it a conspicuous place in their columns. As may well be supposed, almost every point in its history, has by one and another of its observers, been closely investigated, and laid before the public. Very little that is  new, can, therefore, at this day be embodied in an account of this species. The most that an observer can accomplish, is to add his testimony in confirmation of facts that have been already announced. The most that a writer can aim at, is to gather the various papers that are scattered through volumes sufficiently numerous of themselves to form a library, sift from them whatever they contain of importance, and arrange the facts thus acquired, into a connect ed and symmetrical memoir. Such is the object of the present essay ; to carefully review the various accounts that have been hitherto published, extract from each the items of value which it contains, compare these with personal observations made under favorable circumstances during the past twelve months, and with the materials thus acquired, rite out a history of this species, more ample in its details than any that has been hitherto attempted, and containing a complete summary of all that is known of this insect down to the present day."   


J. W. Chapin, Extension Small Grain Specialist, Department of Entomology, Soils, and Plant Sciences, Clemson
University, Edisto Res. & Ed. Center, 64 Research Road, Blackville, SC 29817. 803-284-3343-ext. 226 jchapin@clemson.edu. [accessed July 23, 2013]

"The Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say), got its common name from the belief that it was introduced
to North America in the straw bedding of Hessian mercenaries during the Revolutionary War. It was
first reported attacking small grain on Long Island in 1779. By 1845 it was causing damage in Georgia and
has remained a sporadic pest of wheat in the South. Hessian fly can cause economic injury anywhere in
South Carolina, but fields in the southern Coastal Plain usually have greater risk.

Annual damage exceeded $4 million dollars in several outbreaks from 1984 -1989. Contributing factors for severe infestation include use of a susceptible variety, early planting, unusually warm Nov. – Dec. weather, reduced tillage into wheat stubble, volunteer wheat, and lack of rotation. Hessian fly attacks wheat, triticale, barley, and rye in that order of damage severity. Oats are not affected."

[2] Poulson's American Daily Advertiser.; Date: 07-28-1812; Volume: XLI; Issue: 11131; Page: [2]; Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Transcribed by John Peter Thompson, July 23rd, 2013.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

A Partial Bibliography - Agricultural and Political Life in Bladensburg, Maryland - 1814

Anon, 1836. A General History of the Tobacco Plant: Intended as an Authoritative Reference to Its Discovery, Dissemination, and Reception as a Luxury, Newcastle upon Tyne: Pattison and Ross. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=W-UWAAAAYAAJ.

Biddle, J.F., 1953. Bladensburg: An Early Trade Center. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 53/56, pp.309–326. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067682.

Bozman, J.L., 1837. The history of Maryland: from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver.

Buchholz, H.E., 1908. Governors of Maryland: from the revolution to the year 1908, Williams & Wilkins company.

Calvert, R.S., 1992. Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821 illustrate. M. L. Callcott, ed., Johns Hopkins University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=m9rxARyL5hcC.
Abstract: he book features letters from Rosalie Stier Calvert, a wealthy Belgian woman who married in to one of Maryland’s most prominent families after emigrating to America in the late 18th century. Her family ultimately returns home while she stays with her new husband, affording her the opportunity to write many letters detailing life in early America. ~ Book Review: Mistress of Riversdale By Brian. 


Carr, L.G. et al., 1991. Robert Cole’s World: Agriculture and Society in Early Maryland, Institute of Early American History and Culture. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=0eFwYcDLQigC.

Abstract: In 1652 Robert Cole, an English Catholic, moved with his family and servants to St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Using this family's story as a case study, the authors of Robert Cole's World provide an intimate portrait of the social and economic life of a middling planter in the seveneenth-century Chesapeake, including work routines and agricultural techniques, the upbringing of children, neighborhood relationships and community formation, and the role of religion. The Cole Plantation account, a record that details what the plantation produced, consumed, purchased, and sold over a twelve-year period, is the only known surviving document of its kind for seventeenth-century British America. Along with Cole's will, it serves as the framework around which the authors build their analysis. Drawing on these and other records, they present Cole as an exemplar of the ordinary planter whose success created the capital base for the slave-based plantation society of the eighteenth century.

Fields, B.J., 1985. Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century, Yale University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=DNd5_LRxjt8C.
Abstract: Probing the relationships among Maryland’s slaves and free blacks, its slaveholders, and its non-slaveholders, Fields shows how centrist moderation turned into centrist immoderation under the stress of the Civil War and how social channels formed by slavery established the course of struggle over the shape of free society. In so doing, she offers historical reflections on the underlying character both of slave society and of the society that replaced it.

Gottschalk, L.C., 1945. Effects of Soil Erosion on Navigation in Upper Chesapeake Bay. Geographical Review, 35(2), pp.219–238. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211476.
Abstract: Alfred M. Rives, engineer in charge of a survey of bridges across the Potomac, who wrote, in 1857:13 Examination of old charts, as well as reflections upon the necessary operations of nature, convince me that these flats date from a period long antecedent to the erection of the cause? way. That they have increased rapidly during the past fifty years is but natural, when we consider what vast deposits must result from the freshet waters of the Potomac, now rendered doubly turbid from washing the shores of a highly cultivated region. It must be evident that ploughed hill sides furnish more alluvial deposit than unbroken forests or grassy slopes. By the operation of these and similar causes, many ports, formerly deep and accessible, now scarcely exist, of which Bladensburg, in our immediate vicinity, and others on our rivers of the Atlantic seaboard, are familiar examples.

Heidler, D.S. & Heidler, J.T., 2004. Encyclopedia of the war of 1812, Annapolis: U S NAVAL INST Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=_c09EJgek50C.

Holmes, O.W., 1948. Stagecoach Days in the District of Columbia. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 50, pp.1–42. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067314.
Abstract: The stages met and exchanged passengers at a tavern in the vicinity of the present town of Laurel that was then kept by Thomas Rose.3 Here the passengers also dined. For the first few years the Potomac crossing was at Alexandria, not at Georgetown. From the Maryland side of the ferry the stage travelled up to Bladensburg on the road that ran east of the Anacostia River.4 The fare between Baltimore and Alexandria was $3.00. The proprietors “presumed this commodious and speedy method of travelling will meet with due encouragement,” but the trip apparently consumed the entire day.

Johnson, W., 1999. Soul by Soul, Harvard University Press. Available at: .
Abstract: The focus of this book is on nineteenth-century New Orleans and the slave market that emerged then and there. More than other workings of slavery, slave markets reduced humans to commodities with prices. In particular, this book is interested in the story of slave showrooms, which held up to 100 slaves and where appraisals, accountings, back-room dealings, and other activities took place. The book attributes the slave trade to mercantilism whereby colonial imports serviced and stocked metropolitan centers and generated profits secured for both state-sponsored companies and the monopoly-granting state itself. Companies with well-connected leaders and government ties could gain state privileges and favors and receive special monopoly licenses to dominate trade, first in goods such as tobacco, indigo, rice, cotton, coffee, and so on, and later in human beings. The ban of the international slave trade in 1808 did not lead to the reduction or softening of slavery, but rather to new shapes and manifestations of slavery, especially as slave populations moved increasingly from the upper to the lower South. The ban led, more importantly for the purposes of this book, to the domestic slave trade. The domestic slave trade intensified during the rise of the cotton kingdom. The price of slaves changed with the price of cotton until the 1850s.

King, J.A., 1997. Tobacco, Innovation, and Economic Persistence in Nineteenth-Century Southern Maryland. Agricultural History, 71(2), pp.207–236. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3744247.

Kulikoff, A., 1986. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800, University of North Carolina Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=NCvU9_bj-1QC.
Abstract: A major reinterpretation of the economic and political transformation of Chesapeake society from 1680 to 1800. Building upon massive archival research in Maryland and Virginia, Allan Kulikoff provides the most comprehensive study to date of changing social relations?among both blacks and whites?in the eighteenth-century South. He links his arguments about class, gender, and race to the later social history of the South and to larger patterns of American development.

McWilliams, J.W., 2011. Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History, Johns Hopkins University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=9NJzbC_mlpkC.
Abstract: The story of Annapolis resonates in every century of American history. Annapolis has been home to tobacco plantations, political intrigue, international commerce, the U.S. Naval Academy, ballooning population growth, and colonial, state, and national government. Jane Wilson McWilliams’s captivating history explores Annapolis from its settlement in 1650 to its historic preservation campaign of the late twentieth century. McWilliams brings alive the people of Annapolis as she recounts their fortunes and foibles. Be they black or white, slave or master, woman or man, each has a place in this book. With unsurpassed detail and graceful prose, she describes the innermost workings of Maryland’s capital city—its social, civic, and religious institutions; its powerful political leaders; and its art, architecture, and neighborhoods.

Morgan, P.D. & Culture, O.I. of E.A.H. and, 1998. Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-century Chesapeake and Lowcountry, University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Abstract: Philip Morgan compares and contrasts African American life in these two regional black cultures, exploring the differences as well as the similarities. The result is a detailed and comprehensive view of slave life in the colonial American South. Morgan explores the role of land and labor in shaping culture, the everyday contacts of masters and slaves that defined the possibilities and limitations of cultural exchange, and finally the interior lives of blacks?their social relations, their family and kin ties, and the major symbolic dimensions of life: language, play, and religion. He provides a balanced appreciation for the oppressiveness of bondage and for the ability of slaves to shape their lives, showing that, whatever the constraints, slaves contributed to the making of their history. Victims of a brutal, dehumanizing system, slaves nevertheless strove to create order in their lives, to preserve their humanity, to achieve dignity, and to sustain dreams of a better future.

Morse, J. & Webber, S., 1802. The American Universal Geography: Or, A View of the Present State of All the Empires, Kingdoms, States, and Republics in the Known World, and of the United States in Particular. In Two Parts ..., Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews; sold at their bookstore; by said Thomas in Worcester; by Thomas, Andrews & Butler in Baltimore, and by other booksellers.

Renzulli, L.M., 1973. Maryland: The Federalist Years, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=MsVZW6DJqpoC.
Abstract: The rise and fall of the Federalist Party in Maryland is detailed in this solid, traditional, narrative. Carefully documented, it examines the nature and voting patterns of the Federalist electorate in Maryland during the pre-Jacksonian era.

Riggs, J.B., 1946. Certain Early Maryland Landowners in the Vicinity of Washington. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 48/49, pp.249–263 CR  – Copyright © 1946 Historical Soc. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40064099.

Riley, E.S., 1906. A history of the General Assembly of Maryland, 1635-1904, Baltimore: Nunn & Co.

Sarson, S., 2000. Landlessness and Tenancy in Early National Prince George’s County, Maryland. The William and Mary Quarterly, 57(3), pp.569–598. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2674266.
Abstract: In the first three quarters of the eighteenth century, the landless component of the free population in the tidewater Chesapeake grew from a third to more than half, and that trend continued after Independence.6 In Prince George’s County, the proportion of landlessness was almost 70 percent in i8oo, 67 percent in i8io, and 75 percent in i820 (see Tables I, III, and V).

Sarson, S., 2009. Yeoman Farmers in a Planters’ Republic: Socioeconomic Conditions and Relations in Early National Prince George's County, Maryland. Journal of the Early Republic, 29(1), pp.63–99. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40208239.

Taylor, J., 1814. Arator: Being a Series of Agricultural Essays, Practical & Political, in Sixty One Numbers 2nd ed., Gerogetown, District of Columbia: J.M. Carter. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=YFVHAAAAYAAJ. 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Peirce Nursery Catalog Cover 1824, Rock Creek, Washington DC



Peirce Nursery 1824, Rock Creek, Washington DC

Author: Peirce, Joshua; Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection
Volume: 1824
Digitizing sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

 links to Peirce catalogs online:

http://archive.org/details/towhichisaddedes1824peir

http://archive.org/details/towhichisaddedes1827peir

http://archive.org/details/catalogueoffruit1857peir

 

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Bartram's Botanical Garden _ Catalog cover - 1814

Bartram's Catalog 1814 from the Special Collections of the National Agricultural Libray
(USDA ARS NAL) - Beltsville
ADVERTISEMENT.
----------
               We return thanks to our friends for many valuable presents of rare plants, which have served to increase the variety and usefulness of our collection; and to the public for their encouragement, which has enabled us to render the farden worthy of the general resort of travellers, and the lovers of horticulture.
            The following catalogue contains the names of all the plants, both domestic and foreign, which are cultivated and for sale at the Kingsess Botanic garden, - where are disposed of, seeds of American and foreign plants, on the most reasonable terms.

            N. B. The curious, by making timely application, may be furnished with dired specimens of American and foreign plants, &c.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Growing Food in Bladensburg

                "The situation of Bladensburgh is unhealthy, among swamps which surround it on all sides, and every fall obstinate fevers spread among the inhabitants of the region, which on the other hand is rich in manifold beautiful plants. Negroes are beginning to be more numerously kept here, and the people show already a strong tincture of southern ease and behavior. Also several plants are grown here which farther to the north are scarcely seen. Cotton wool (Gossypium herbaceum) and sweet potatoes (Convolvulus Battatas) [sic] are raised by each family sufficiently for its needs. The blacks raise Been nuts (Arachishypogaea) this is a pretty hardy growth, which at all events stands a few cold nights without hurt. The thin shells of the nuts, or more properly the husks, are broken, and the kernels planted towards the end of April in good light soil, perhaps a span apart. They must then be diligently weeded, and when they begin to make a growth of stems all the filaments or joints are covered with earth. After the blooming time, the pistils and young seed cases bury themselves in the ground and mature under the earth which is continually heaped upon them. The kernels have an oily taste and roasted are like cacao. With this view the culture of them for general use has been long recommended in the Philosophical Transactions, and the advantages of making this domestic oil plainly enough pointed out, but without the desired result. The wild chesnuts [sic] growing so generally in all the forests might yield a fruit quite as useful for the whole of America. It is known that in certain parts of Europe the chesnut is of almost as important a use as the jaka, or breadfruit tree. The native chesnut tree is found everywhere in America but is not regarded except as furnishing good timber for fence rails. Its fruit is indeed small, dry and inferior in taste to the European great chesnuts, but in Italy these are had only from inoculated trees, the fruit of the wild chesnut there, as in America, being neither large nor agreeable in taste. By inoculation, then, there could be had quite as fine great chesnuts here. But without that, on account of its great usefulness this fruit has received some attention from the Americans who eat it boiled and roasted, convert it into meal and bread, and fresh shelled and ground use it as a kind of soap with plenty of water.

               Unfavorable weather and the hope of finding in the swamps along the several branches of the Potowmack certain other particular seeds or plants made our stay here also a few days longer. But we found very little we had not seen. However we were fortunate enough here to obtain a stock of acorns and nuts which elsewhere had failed. These with some other seeds we shipped on board a brigantine bound from Georgetown to London, but which never came to port."[1]

provided by:  Aeon Preservation Services LLC Final 6-02-2013



[1] Schöpf, Johann David, 1788. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Prince George's County Business Makes News in New York in 1809

               In proof of the attention of country gentlemen to the improvements of their breed of Sheep, we learn that two young rams were shorn at Northampton, the seat of Osborne Sprigg, Esq. [1] of Prince George's Co. a few days since whose fleeces averged [sic] nine & a half pounds and whose carcases [sic] 186 lbs. each.  At the same time and place the fleeces of six ewes, with twin lambs, averaged eight and a quarter pounds.  The fleece of one of the ewes weighed 12lbs.; the whole of the wool being of a remarkable fine fiber and length of staple. [2]



[1] Reporter names the plantation as the seat of Osborne Sprigg whose son, Governor Samuel Sprigg, was most likely responsible for the 1809 news. Samuel Sprigg (c.1783– April 21, 1855) served as the 17th Governor of the state of Maryland in the United States from 1819 to 1822.

"For nearly three centuries Northampton was a tobacco plantation which also produced other crops. Today the physical remains of the plantation include the ruins of the manor house, its outbuildings and roads, and the remains of two slave quarters. The latter are the focus of current archaeological excavations and historical research. Excavations continue at the frame dwelling, while the foundation and partial walls of the brick quarters have been reconstructed.

Historians and archaeologists are working together to reconstruct the lives of the many slaves and tenant farmers who lived at Northampton Plantation. Detailed information about the life of one slave, Elizabeth Hawkins, was obtained from descendants who live in the area and are active participants in the research and excavations relating to this site.

Northampton is located at the Northlake residential development in Lake Arbor, Maryland,in a community park."  - The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George's County. http://www.pgparks.com/places/eleganthistoric/northampton_intro.html

[2] The Public Advertiser; Date: 05-25-1809; Volume: III; Issue: 744; Page: [2]; Location: New York, New York.
Transcribed by John Peter Thompson, May 26, 2013.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Buy American Made and Make Money too - Columbian Agricultural Society May 5th, 1810


At a meeting of the standing committee of the Columbian Agricultural Society, held at the Union Tavern, Georgetown, on Wednesday the 13th day of December, A. D. 1809, it was determined that the following premiums be given at the general meeting of the society on the 16th day of May next, viz.

               Premium 1 - One hundred dollars[1], for the best two-toothed ram lamb.
               Premium 2 - Eighty dollars, for the next best two-toothed ram lamb.
               Premium 3 - Sixty dollars, for the third best two-toothed ram lamb.

               Best (applied to the above articles) as to quality of wool, and quantity in proportion to carcass.

               Premium 4 - Thirty dollars, for the best piece of cotton cloth, proper for men's coats or women's dresses, not less than ten yards.
               Premium 5 - Thirty dollars, for the best piece of fancy patterns for vests, not less than ten yards.
               Premium 6 - Thirty dollars, for the best piece of cotton cloth, suitable for pantaloons or small clothes, not less than ten yards.
               Premium 7 - Twenty dollars, for the best pair of cotton counterpane, full size.
               Premium 8- Twenty dollars, for the best pair of cotton stockings, large size.
               Premium 9 - Thirty dollars, for the best piece of hempen or flaxen sheeting, at least ten yards.
               Premium 10 - Thirty dollars, for the best piece of hempen or flaxen shirting, not least than ten yards.
               Premium 11 - Thirty dollars, for the best piece of hempen or flaxen table linen, not less than ten yards.
               Premium 12 - Ten dollars, for the best pair of hempen or flaxen thread socks, full size.
               Premium 13 - Twenty dollars, for the best piece of twilled bagging, or hemp, flax or cotton, at least ten yards.
               Premium 14 - Twenty dollars, for the best piece of bedticking,, of hemp, flax or cotton, or in part of all, or either, not less than ten yards.

               All premiums shall be judged at one of the general meetings of the society, by a board of five members appointed by the president, and standing committee, from among such disinterested persons as may be present.

               The society will lay no claim to any article for which a premium has been awarded, but the owner or exhibitor may, immediately after adjournment of the society, on the day of exhibition, remove such article and dispose of it at pleasure.

               The premiums will be paid in cash, or in plate of equal value, with suitable devices, at the option of the fortunate competitor.

               Premiums to the amount of least five hundred dollars will be given at the fall meeting of the society, for neat (sic) cattle, woollen (sic) manufactures, native dyes, written essays, &c.

               It is earnestly recommended by the committee, that every member appear at the meeting of the society, dressed in home manufactures.[2]
                                             DAVID WILEY, Secretary[3]

              
              
              



[2] Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political; Date: 05-05-1810; Volume: X; Issue: 2783; Page: [2]; Location: Alexandria, Virginia.
Transcribed by John Peter Thompson, May 5th, 2013.

[3] The scientific agricultural magazine of the Columbian Agricultural Society of Georgetown, District of Columbia, was an octavo consisting of 32 pages. It was the first periodical devoted strictly to agriculture. It was published by the Columbian Agricultural Society.[2][9] The publisher was W. A. Rind of Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

The editor was a Reverend David Wiley who was a minister that moved to Georgetown in 1800. Rev. Wiley was in charge of the Columbian Agricultural Society and was its secretary and teacher. The society was established for the purpose of inspiring local agriculture manufactures. The magazine was a branch of the society that discouraged imported products. Wiley was Georgetown's postmaster, superintendent of the turnpike, merchant, miller, and the major.  from Wikipedia

Friday, May 3, 2013

Vegetable Seeds for Sale in Georgetown near Bladensburg May 1814


GARDEN SEEDS.
The subscriber has just received, A General
Assortment of
FRESH GARDEN SEEDS,
AMONG WHICH ARE,
Early York
Battersea                                       CABBAGES
Drum-Head
Green & Yellow Savoy,
Early Short-Top & Salmon RADISHES
Solid and Red CELERY
Double PARSLEY, Red BEET
PARSNIP and CARROT Seed
White and Brown ONION
Early and Late CAULIFLOWER
VEGETABLE OYSTER[1]
MIXED ENDIVE, LETTUCE
EARLY CUCUMBER - all of which have been tried, and found to vegetate.

He has on hand, as usual,
A LArge and General Assortment of
DRUGS, PATENT & and OTHER FAMILY
MEDICINES
CHEMICAL PREPARATIONS
PAINTS, OILS, DYE STUFFS,
PERFUMERY, SPICES,
HAVANA SEGARS [sic] of a superior quality &.
                                All of which he is disposed to sell on the lowest terms.
JOHN OTT,
Chemist & Druggist.

N. B. - For the accommodation of his friends
and the public, he keeps his Fountains of
SODA & ROCHELLE WATER
running during the winter.

Georgetown, Feb 17.                                                                            co18t [2]



[1] Perhaps Tragopogon porrifolius a plant cultivated for its ornamental flower, edible root, and herbal properties. It also grows wild in many places and is one of the most widely known species of the salsify genus, Tragopogon. It is commonly known as purple or common salsify, oyster plant, vegetable oyster, Jerusalem star, goatsbeard or simply salsify (although these last two names are also applied to other species, as well). from Wikipedia.

[2] Federal Republican; Date: 05-03-1814; Page: 4; Location: Georgetown, District of Columbia
Transcribed by John Peter Thompson, May 3rd, 2013.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Reward for Runaway Horse April 30, 1813


FIFTEEN DOLLARS REWARD.[1]

               Strayed away from the subscriber on the 15th inst. a dark bay HORSE, between 17 and 18 handshigh, 6 years old this spring, remarkable for very large hoofs.  He has been lately bled, and on the side he was bled there was a swelling on his shoulder occassioned by the collar.  He was raised in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and has no doubt taken the Frederic[ ] or Leesburg road.  Whoever will decline said Horse to the subscriber or his manager, Mr. Francis Clements, living near Bladensburg, shall be entitled to the above reward.

                              WILLIAM DUDLEY DIGGES
April 22 - 6T[2]



[1] One US DOLLAR 1813 = $11.236 in 2010.

[2] Daily National Intelligencer; Date: 04-30-1813; Volume: I; Issue: 103; Page: [1]; Location: Washington (DC), District of Columbia.
Transcriber by John Peter Thompson, April 19, 2013.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Can you believe how many apple varieties you could buy in April 1814? - Mail-order from Burlington Nursery, New Jersey


BURLINGTON NURSERY.

               For sale, an extensive collection of upwards of one hundred and thirty kinds of APPLE TREES, of which the following are of sizes larger than are usually offered for sale, at 12 cents[1] each, delivered at the Nursery - with the additional charge of freight and package, if sent abroad by the packets.

                                             AMERICAN TABLE APPLES
Early Bough,                                                                          Dumpling,
Prince's Harvest,                                                                     Monstrous Pippin,
Summer Queen,                                                                                      weighs 27 oz.
Large Codling,                                                                        Michael Henry Pippin
Summer Pippin,                                                                      R. Island Greening,
Large Sweeting,                                                                      Burlington Greening,
Large Fall Pippin,                                                                    Roman Stem,
Holland Pippin,                                                                        Black,
Trenton Redstreak,                                                                 Newark King,
Shippen's Russeting,                                                               Brownite,
Doctor,                                                                                 Lady Finger,
Morgan,                                                                                Pennock,
Wine,                                                                                    Vandevere,
Monstrous Bellflower,                                                            Sweet Pippin,
Collet,                                                                                  Quince Apple,
Flushing and                                                                         Priestly,
Esopus Spitzemberg,                                                             Lobb,
Swaar,                                                                                 Winter Permain,
Seek no further,                                                                    Rambo,
Pompion,                                                                             Bellflower,
Pound,                                                                                Prince's Everlasting,
Irish Apple,                                                                         Evesham large Rus-
Romanite,                                                                                                  seting,
                                             ENGLISH TABLE APPLES
Loans Permain,                                                                       Double bearing Crab,
Nonsuch,                                                                               Evergreen striped
Olive,                                                                                                  Crab,
Margill,                                                                                  Non Pariel,
Ribstone Pippin,                                                                      Pearson's Pippin,
Royal Russet,                                                                            
FRENCH TABLE APPLES.
Pomme d'Apis or La-                                                              Pigeon,
dy Apple, a much ad-                                                              Domine,
nired dessert fruit.                                                                  Fenoullet Gris,
Red Calville,                                                                          Cr[aa]m,
Large Reinette,                                                                      Capendu.
Gros Faros,
                                             AMERICAN CIDER APPLES.
Harrison,                                                                              Royal Pearmain,
Campfield,                                                                            Catline,
Poveshon,                                                                            American Pippin,
Granniwinkle,                                                                       Ruckman's golden
Coopers Russeting,                                                                               Pearmain,
Wine Sap,                                                                            Curlis Sweet,
Greyhouse,                                                                          Wetherill's Sweet,
Hewe's Crab,                                                                       Cann Apple,
Spice,                                                                                  Orange.
                                             French Metoisee Crab.
                                             ENGLISH CIDER FRUIT.
Cockagee,                                                                           Catsbury,
John,                                                                                  Whitesour,
Golden Rannet,                                                                    Styre,
Woodcock,                                                                         Hagloe Crab,
Royal Wilding,                                                                     Redstreak,

An extensive variety of one hundred foreign
               and native Pears, and native Pears                             20 cents
Italian Mulberries                                                                     12
Quinces                                                                                  18
Georgia and Athenian Poplars, large
               size,                                                                        12
               Orders sent by mail will be carefully executed.

                                                            DANIEL SMITH & CO.

               Burlington, (N. J.) Feb 20, 1814
                              Feb 25                                                             1aw6t [2]

Vandevere apple variety probably originated
near Wilmongton Delware in the 1700s.
image from the Special Collections of USDA ARS NAL
Beltsville Maryland





[1] One dollar in 1814 equaled approximately $10.334 in 2010. http://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Documents/dollar/index.php?cyear=2010
[2] Federal Republican; Date: 04-30-1814; Page: 4; Location: Georgetown, District of Columbia.
Transcribed by John Peter Thompson, April 27th, 2013.