Farming questions

[vbetts]

I'm back to working on the diary of James G. Fanning--I'll be back in Corsicana next week to finish the first transcription. At this point I'm rereading what I've already transcribed, looking for typos to recheck as well as other interesting things. I may post several questions here over for the rest of the week to try to clarify some sections. If I asked the same questions last May, please forgive me. It's all "gone with the wind" to me now...

What is Egyptian corn?

If someone cut what appears to be "hoks" from a horse's eyes, what would that be?

Is there a period corn that might be referred to as "prolific corn"? He also referred to it as "fancy corn".

What would "Nicaragua seeds" be? Possibly cotton?

If you were cutting stakes and forks for fencing, are we just talking a simple "deadline" fence, or what else might it have looked like?

If one "tittivated strange horse that worried Fanny", and also tittivated a slave, is that just a euphemism for whipped?

Has anyone else seen accounts of fighting leaf-cutter ants in gardens or orchards? What did they do?

Are wheels often described as "crazy" when they are breaking down?

How common would an "ambulance" be for a civilian to own prior to the war?

Has anyone heard of "El Paso onions"? "Sicily wheat"?

If a horse is ailing, with swelling about the head requring a mustard plaster, "dropsical", "farcy"???, the neck lanced to let out blood and water, what's likely wrong with her?

Thanks! As Fanning would say, "Enough glory for one day...."

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[Hank Trent]

Re: Farming questions

Here's some help on a few of the items.

What is Egyptian corn?

Here's a description of it from the May 1880 Manufacturer and Builder (right hand column): http://tinyurl.com/3ezdt

If one "tittivated strange horse that worried Fanny", and also tittivated a slave, is that just a euphemism for whipped?

From Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett (1848)

TO TITIVATE. To dress up. 'To titivate oneself,' is to make one's toilet. Provincial in various parts of England.

Well, I'll arrive in time for dinner; I'll titivate myself up, and down to drawin'-room.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 23.

If a horse is ailing, with swelling about the head requring a mustard plaster, "dropsical", "farcy"???, the neck lanced to let out blood and water, what's likely wrong with her?

"Farcy" is the name of the disease you're looking for. It ought to still show up in dictionaries or online searches; if you can't google it alone, try it in connection with "glanders."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Noble Pelican]

Re: Farming questions

Vicki,

The El Paso onion is supposed to be of a larger than normal size and better quality (quoted from page 104 of the Texas Almanac 1857-73). The wheat grown in Sicily (as evidenced by the great breads produced) is also supposed to be of a superior quality. I believe it is all just exotic advertising, such as the Ruston Louisiana Peaches or Vidalia Georgia Onions are today.
It would not be unusual if a large planter family without a doctor on site would have an ambulance handy for emergenicies.
I'll see what I can locate on your other questions.

[vbetts]

Re: More farming questions

Thanks, guys! I was so sure that "farcy" was a mis-transcription that I didn't even try to look it up. I'm saving your answers for future footnotes in case I can convince an academic historian to edit the journal (I've got one in mind) and Texas A&M University Press to publish it.

A few more questions...

Can anyone suggest a good book on period day-to-day nitty gritty farming practices for our period, preferably Southern oriented? Fanning grows an amazing variety of livestock, crops, fruit, and vegetables, but no cotton or tobacco, SW of Gonzales, TX, near present Nixon, if anyone knows the area. He's Massachusetts born, lived for some time in a New Orleans suburb (newspaper editor and sheriff), and has lived in Texas since the mid-1850s. I do have access to an 1860 almanac that may help some, but would like more.

Fanning receives patent office reports, and apparently once some seed from the patent office. Was this a common practice?

He seems to plant quite a bit of millet. I know what millet is, and presume that it is a feed for livestock. Feed for what animal? (Fanning has just about everything except goats.) Was the seed fed, or the tops, as a forage?

Fanning "agrarianises" his land, although he also plows and harrows as separate operations. "ploughed up ground I had agrarianised so carefully & laboriously for grass--agrarianised ground this side ravine...Wash finished agrarianising this side" "finished ploughing piece left on creek, and agrarianised about 1/2 of it" "Finished agrarianised what is planted" "Finished planting piece I had laid off at creek, & agrarianised it." He does this early in the spring. I can't pull this term out of Making of America. Any ideas?

He creates "boxes" in which he plants fruit pits, grape cuttings, etc. To me that sounds like the bottom of a cold frame--four boards around, improved, probably manured dirt inside, easy to water. Would this be common agricultural practice?

What is the modern or scientific name for "pie melon"? Oxford English Dictionary just says melon that can be made into a pie. Duh! Is it that general?

Chinese peas? Coffee beans that would be pulled up from the corn patch the first part of July?

Fanning puts live fish in his cistern to destroy mosquito eggs and wigglers. Would this be common? When his cistern top gets broken, and the top edge starts to cave in, he put logs across most of the top, adds a pump, and covers the cistern with mud. Was that to add an adobe-like top? Would it need to be covered to keep rain off in a climate like Gonzales, TX? (coastal plain). If so, he doesn't mention that part.

How common is it for hogs to eat lambs?

If a man "kneed" a horse after finding her out on a prairie, what did he do? It definitely hurt her enough to slow her down considerably on the way back home.

"Mr. C scrubbed scabby, or scratchy sheep. Ticklish stock these sheep." Is this the same as "scabby mouth"? Does anyone have a period description of treatment that includes scrubbing? About one week later he starts dipping his sheep in tobacco water--"The dirtiest job ever done about this ranche. Wonder if all the labor will cure the sheep." A year later (March 22) he's dipping his sheep in what appears to be 2/3 bucket lime to 4 gallons of water, but he doesn't mention scabby sheep. What might that be for?

He hauls clay for sheep pen. To use as a flooring that wouldn't bog down? He covers the pen with cane and cornstalks.

Whenever Fanning travels into a town of any size, he carefully notes what he spends, including what appears to be tips to slaves. Would this be common?

When Fanning comes down with bloody flux, his wife gives him a "dozen opiates', after which he sleeps (!), then he says he takes "cords of opiates." I think I have mistranscribed the handwritten "cords"--what would be appropriate, and close, visually, to that?

He's trying to grow Hungarian rice. I can find modern mentions of it, but again, not in Making of America. Does anyone have a period Dept. of Agriculture report that might mention it?

Another horse diagnosis. Tiger, his stallion, is up and being fed corn--evidently he is ailing and is getting special attention. On June 17th he is "pretty sick." On the 23rd he's a "doubtful case--maybe he will recover." On the 24th he's "no better." On the 24th he buys 3 bottles of "Radway's Relief for Tiger. Applied it." On the 25th "Tiger apparently neither better nor worse...bled Tiger 1/2 bucket full & rubbed soft soap & salt on his loins." On the 26th "Tiger appears better." On June 27th "Cold water system on Tiger--strong wrap his loins in a quilt, & keep it wet. Dash water over him 3 times a day." On the 28th "Tiger much the same--doubt whether it is loin complaint." On July 2--"Tiger apparently no better." Tiger continues the same until July 22--"commenced operation--blistering &c on Tiger" and by the 25th he seems somewhat better. On August 2 he applies hot salt water. "Salt don't seem to save him." By September 6 Tiger is worse and he is put into the stable. September 24 "Prepared to swing up Tiger. He has got so bad that he will fall down, & can't get up." 25th. "Swung him up." October 10--"Re-commenced operations on Tiger. Gave him polk root--a piece rated 1/2 as big as my thumb. Made him cavort some." October 11--"Tiger seems better. Washed him with decoction of polk root." October 30--"Tiger seems better--bled him in tail." November 23--"cut off Tiger's tail 2d time yesterday." November 29--"Gave Tiger spts Turpentine & salt petre." December 13--"Shot Tiger." Does any of this give any indication what was wrong with Tiger, or what Fanning thought was wrong with Tiger?

Thanks for any answers, tips, sources, etc. Just reading through this you have to sympathize with the gambling nature of agriculture. If it's not grasshoppers, it's leaf-cutting ants, or drouth, or flood, or late killing frost, or animals getting sick, or wandering off, or eaten by wolves....

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[markj]

Re: More farming questions

How common is it for hogs to eat lambs?

Hi Vicki,

I'm no farmer but my personal experience is that hogs and wild boars can get pretty aggressive. When I was a kid my grandfather gave me a piglet, which was promptly killed and *ugh* cannibalized by another, larger hog when the piglet strayed too close to it. I was heartbroken....

Hogs are notorious rooters and foragers too. They have certainly been known to attack humans and *double 'ugh!'* there are documented cases of Union and Federal dead on various battlefields being partially eaten, and even uprooted from graves, by hogs. At least two photos of Gettysburg dead show this.

Back in the 19th Century, farm fences were often not built to keep hogs IN but, rather, to keep them OUT of certain areas.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[styler]

Crazy for you

Re: Crazy

My Websters 5th, 1943, defines it as "1. Full of cracks or flaws; unsound."

I don't have anything at hand for a period quote, though I've seen it enough to describe things that aren't working properly. Think of "crazing," the fine cracks seen in the glazing on older ceramics, for a common modern usage. Perhaps it needs to be included in our mid-19th century vocabulary.

Oh, and isn't "Nicaragua" a variety of tobacco?