Recently in farming Category

Lucky canning house, probably 1930s
My 96-year-old mother-in-law remembers picking string beans at farms in Chanceford Township when she was 10 or so in the 1920s. She says she picked beans during the day and then helped snip them at the Lucky canning house in the evening.

I purchased a Lucky canning house ledger covering September through November, 1943 at a yard sale a few years ago and donated it to the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. The ledger shows that they were canning corn and tomatoes then.
Wholesale customers for canned corn included Daugherty & Ward, Crisfield, Del.; Fulton, Mehring & Hauser, York; Oriental Paper & Bag Co.; District Wholesale Grocery Co. and Sprague, Warner, Kenny Co., all of Washington, D.C.; Maryland Gro. Co. Baltimore, Md. and Audment Bros., Lancaster, Pa. The U.S. Government purchased both 1,500 cases of corn and 3,750 cases of tomatoes, perhaps to feed World War II troops.

See below for my recent York Sunday News column on York County canners and vegetable pickers and also a photo of the Lucky cannery workers.

Apple developed by James Hersh of neighboring Adams County, c.1880

Over the years, York area people have taken pride in their fruit and vegetables, growing gigantic specimens or even developing new strains. Click on these links for previous posts on the York Imperial Apple and York Imperial Cherry.

Mr. Cicero proudly grew figs in his East King Street back yard in 1950s. A previous post showed Christian Leaman's 1809 pumpkin, as big as a barrel. George Anstine, of Lower Windsor Township, was not to be outdone. According to the York Gazette of October 30, 1855, Anstine brought his prize quince in to the newspaper office to be admired. According to the resulting article (see below), he also grew some pretty big apples. For comparison--I just weighed a very large peach and it only weighed half a pound.

York Imperial from USDA Bulletin

The York Imperial apple won't win any beauty contests. I have several in my fruit bowl right now and they all look different. They come in various shadings of red and green with brown freckles. Shape isn't uniform either--one is round, one is lopsided and one is...well, a kind of lopsided oval that's higher on one side than the other.

Beauty isn't what has kept Jonathan Jessop's York Imperial apples popular for over 150 years. It's their firmness and long keeping qualities that made them a favorite for storage and still keeps them in the high esteem of fruit processors.

See below for my recent York Sunday News column on clockmaker, engineer and fruit farmer Jonathan Jessop and his apple.

Some of my recent posts have covered motion pictures and other forms of entertainment around York County in 1938. For a few hours local people could be distracted from the toll taken by the depression, which had dragged on for nine long years.

Click below for the previous posts.
Movies.
And more movies.
Music and dancing.

One Warrington Township farmer evidently found another way to forget the dark days. The September 15, 1938 York Gazette reports:

You have probably noticed your bread costs more lately. The rise in the price of flour has been blamed on several factors.

“ARREST MAN AFTER TEN MILE CHASE--FIND HATCHET AND SEARCHLIGHT.” So screamed front page headlines in the April 20, 1908 York Gazette.

What was the crime?

Prosperity seems to have come to the York County of 140 years ago, if the ads in the December 31, 1867 issue of the York Gazette are any indication.

Entrepreneurs and agents from New York, Philadelphia, Maryland, and Adams County were offering investment opportunities.

Real estate was enticingly offered by New Oxford Agent J. C. Zouck as an appeal to:

“CAPITALISTS
LOOK TO YOUR INTEREST!”

The Lewis Miller drawing above shows a busy King’s Mill in 1799.

In a previous post I mentioned that, now and in the past, we are impressed by the biggest and the best. Sometimes, though, we must stop and wonder if figures have been exaggerated or misreported.

The following small item caught my eye while reading the York Gazette microfilm at York County Heritage Trust. The newspaper was from the fall of 1877.

I guess it is human nature to want to have the biggest and the best. We are always impressed by the tallest buildings and the most gigantic pumpkins.

Our forebears were no different, as we can see by the Lewis Miller drawing above of a huge pumpkin. Miller captioned it: “1809. Christian Leaman, big and large pumpkin grown in his garden. It was as large as a barrel and more in circumference around. Old Dr. John Fisher bought it and sent it to Baltimore to let them see what old York can raise and examine it. No man could lift it from the ground.”

The citizens often made sure the local newspapers knew about their accomplishments. Short items from all over the county in the York Gazette in the autumn of 1877 list several examples:

One hundred and ten years ago, most folks, especially in rural areas didn't have telephones. That wonderous invention was only 21 years old in 1897. As far as other media, Heinrich Hertz has only discovered radio waves ten years before and television was way in the future.

The way to keep up with news of your neighbors was to read the newspaper. Each small community had a stringer, and no event was too small to report, especially since those free-lance reporters were reportedly paid according to the length of their column. This practice continued well into the mid-twentieth century. I remember, when I was a child, reading in the Gazette & Daily that my parents, grandparents, and I were entertained by my aunt and uncle for Christmas dinner. (My aunt happened to be the stringer for the New Bridgeville area.)

In early December, 1897 the special correnspondent of the Gazette "Jacobus Notes" column reported that: