Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist Read online

  June 20, 1914

  Women have always been the home makers, but it is not usually expected of them that they should also be the home builders from the ground up. Nevertheless they sometimes are and their success in this double capacity shows what women can do when they try. Among the women who have done both is Mrs. C. A. Durnell of Mansfield, Mo. She has not only made a home but she has put a farm in condition to support it.

  Mansfield is on the very crest of the Ozarks and the land is rough and hilly, covered with timber, where it has not been cleared. Although one of the most beautiful places in the world to live, with a soil repaying bountifully the care given it, still it is no easy thing to make a farm out of a piece of rough land. Imagine then the task for a woman, especially one with no previous experience of farming.

  Mrs. Durnell was a city woman and for twenty years after her marriage, lived in St. Louis where her husband worked in the railroad terminal yards. Here she raised her three children until the eldest, a son, was through college and established in his profession.

  None of the children were strong and about this time the second, a daughter, was taken sick with consumption, while the youngest, also a daughter, was threatened with the same disease. Hoping to restore their health, Mrs. Durnell brought them into the Ozarks, but too late to save the sick daughter.

  As the other daughter showed signs of improvement, Mrs. Durnell decided to stay and the thought came to her to go on a little farm and make a home for her own and her husband’s old age.

  Sickness and the expense of living had used up the most of Mr. Durnell’s wages as they went along and all they had to show for their twenty years of work was a house with a mortgage on it. Mrs. Durnell saw what so many do not realize until too late, that when Mr. Durnell became too old to hold his position any longer they would have no business of their own and quite likely no home either. A small farm, if she could get one running in good shape, would be a business of their own and a home where they could be independent and need not fear the age limit.

  Mr. Durnell stayed with his job in St. Louis, to be able to send what money he could spare to help in making the start.

  They secured a farm of 23 acres a quarter of a mile from town. Ten acres was in an old, wornout field that to use a local expression has been “corned to death”; 5 acres was in an old orchard, unkempt, neglected and grown up to wild blackberries. In the Ozark hills, neglected ground will grow up to wild blackberry briars, loaded with fruit in season. As the shiftless farmer said, “anyone can raise blackberries if he aint too durned lazy.” Aside from this old orchard and the wornout field, the place was covered with oak thicket where the land had been cleared and then allowed to go back. This second growth oak was about six feet high and as large around as a man’s wrist. The fences were mostly down and such as were standing were the old worm, rail fence. The house was a log shack.

  Mrs. Durnell and her daughter moved into the log house and went to work. They bought a cow to furnish them milk and butter, but the cow would not stay inside the tumble-down fences, so repairing the fence was the first job. Some of it they built higher with their own hands and some they hired rebuilt, but there was only a little money to go on, so the work moved slowly. When the fences were in order and the cow kept at home they felt that a great deal had been gained.

  The property in St. Louis was sold and after paying the mortgage there was enough left to build a five room house, which Mrs. Durnell planned and the construction of which she superintended. It was a happy day for them when they moved from the log cabin into the comfortable new house, although it stood in a thick patch of the oak thicket that made them feel terribly alone in the wilderness.

  The crop the first year was 154 gallon of wild blackberries which grew in the orchard. There were no apples.

  In the spring, Mrs. Durnell hired the 10 acre field broken; then she and the daughter planted it to corn. When the corn was large enough to be cultivated, a neighbor boy was hired to plow it and when he said the job was done she paid him for plowing the 10 acres. What was her surprise, some time later when walking across the field, to find that only ten rows on the outside of the field had been plowed and the rest was standing waist high in weeds. Since then she has personally overseen the work on the place.

  Mrs. Durnell was learning by experience, also she was studying farming with the help of good farm papers and the state university and experiment stations. By the second spring she had learned better than to continue planting corn on the old field, so that spring she sowed it to oats and in the fall put it in wheat with a generous allowance for fertilizer. With the wheat was sowed 8 pounds of timothy seed to the acre and the next February 6 pounds of clover seed to the acre was sown over the field. When the wheat was cut the next summer there was a good stand of clover and timothy. The field was so rocky and brushy however that no one would cut the hay so the grass was wasted. This naturally suggested the next thing to be done, and the brush was sprouted out and the stones picked up, so that the grass could be cut; and the crop of hay secured.

  A good many men have failed to raise alfalfa, in the hills, but Mrs. Durnell has succeeded. She says that care in preparing a good seedbed and plenty of fertilizer does the trick. The ground must be rich and the weeds must be worked out of it before alfalfa seed is sown, she says. One piece was sown in April and another was sown in September; both are a success.

  The whole place is now cleared and seeded to grass, except in a little draw, where the timber is left to shade and protect the spring; and where the garden and berries grow.

  Mrs. Durnell and her daughter cleared away some of the oak thicket and set out blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and grapes for home use. The wild blackberries have been cleaned out of the orchard, the apple trees have been trimmed, the ground cultivated and seeded to grass. Now there are plenty of apples and good grass for hay instead of wild blackberries and briars.

  Gardening has been carefully studied; and the garden is always planned to raise the greatest variety and amount possible on the ground, and with the least labor. It is planted in long rows so that it can be plowed and leave very little to hand work. A furrow is plowed the length of the garden to plant the Irish potatoes in. These are dropped and lightly covered. This leaves them a little lower than the rest of the ground. As they are cultivated the dirt is thrown toward them and when they are cultivated for the last time they are hilled up, and the weeds have been kept down, all without any hand work. At the last cultivation, kafir and milo are planted between the rows of potatoes and early garden stuff and there is plenty of time for it to mature and make fine large heads of grain for chicken feed.

  Of all her farm Mrs. Durnell is most interested in her flock of beautiful Rhode Island Reds. “I love them because they are so bright,” she says, and they certainly seem to appreciate her kindness. Although they all look alike to a stranger, she knows every one by sight and calls them pet names as they feed from her hand. She knows which pullets lay the earliest and saves their eggs for hatching, for she has made a study of poultry as well as the other branches of farming, and knows that in this way she improves the laying qualities of the flock. “When starting my flock,” said Mrs. Durnell, “I determined to have the best and I still get the best stock obtainable.” She selects her breeders very carefully both for their early laying qualities and for their color and so has a flock of which any fancier might be proud as well as one that returns a good profit.

  Everything is very carefully looked after on this little farm, nothing is wasted. The cleanings from the poultry house are spread over the garden because there are no grass or weed seeds mixed with them to become a nuisance. The cleanings from the cow barn are spread over the meadows and if there is grass seed among them so much the better for the meadow.

  Nor has the inside of the house been neglected because of the rush of work outside. Although this homemaker has learned to husband her strength and not do unnecessary things, still she has done the job thoroughly in the house a
lso. Here are rare bits of old furniture brought from the old home, hand made, some of it, and hand carved. There is a fireplace, made according to Mrs. Durnell’s own plan, with a chimney that draws even though she had to stand by the mason as he was building it and insist that he build it as she directed. There are pictures and bits of china and there are books and papers everywhere, the daily paper and the latest novel mingling in pleasant companionship with farm papers and bulletins.

  Mrs. Durnell says she never has a dull moment, because farming is so interesting. And one can understand the reason why, after being with her in the house and going around with her over the farm.

  The whole place is carefully planned for beauty, as well as profit. The house is set on a rise of ground which adds much to its appearance and at the same time will allow of the whole place being overlooked as it can all be seen from the front porch and windows. Just south of the house is the old spring, where marching bands of soldiers used to drink in war time.

  Not far way is the sink hole, a place where the rock shell of the hills is crushed in, making a cup shaped hollow in the ground, which gathers the water from the surrounding hills when it rains. This water pours down through a crack in the rock, sometimes as large around as a barrel in volume, to flow through the crevices and caverns of the hills, emerging later, when purified by its journey; and flowing away in springs and creeks to join the waters of the Gasconade.

  Mrs. Durnell has made a beautiful home out of a rough, wild piece of land and a wornout field and she now feels that it is established on a permanent paying basis. The fruits and garden with the cow and chickens more than furnish the living. The farm is growing in value every day, without any more very strenuous efforts on her part; and the home that she and Mr. Durnell planned for their old age is theirs, because of her determination and great good sense.

  It has taken a great deal of hard work to accomplish this desired end, but it has been done without any worry. Mrs. Durnell early decided that the burden was heavy enough without adding to it a load of worry and so she chose as a motto for her life and work: “Just do your best and leave the rest”—and this she has lived up to through it all.

  Her only regret is that she did not come to the farm when her children were small, for she says: “There is no place like a farm for raising children, where they can have in such abundance the fresh air and sunshine, with pure living water, good wholesome food and a happy outdoor life.”

  Economy in Egg Production

  April 5, 1915

  To economize in the feeding of our hens, we should try to get results with as little expenditure of time and acreage as possible. We cannot produce eggs more cheaply by feeding less. It works rather the other way, for it takes a certain amount of food to keep up the body of a hen and that naturally comes first with her. Whatever food of the right kind that she eats, over and above what is necessary for the upkeep of the body, goes to the making of eggs. If the wrong kind of food is given, the surplus goes to fat and unless we wish to market the hens this extra feed is wasted.

  Some corn is necessary in the winter to keep up the bodily heat, but a little corn thrown to the hens is not enough for them to manufacture eggs from, nor is it better feeding to throw them a little more corn. Corn is a heating, fattening food and feeding of corn alone, or of too much corn, simply makes the hens fat and does not produce eggs.

  Corn is also more expensive than some other feeds that are better for our purpose. The same ground with the same amount of work will produce much more feed if planted to milo. Milo is said to have produced 40 bushels of seed on ground that would not raise 10 bushels of corn and the seed contains 80 per cent of the feeding value of corn. Jerusalem corn, kafir, and cowpeas, are also fine for the hens and will grow more feed to the acre than corn.

  Cowpeas especially are good. The hens will eat both the peas and the leaves and while feeding on them the hens will lay remarkably well. It is fine to have some planted near enough so that the hens can pasture on them and harvest whatever peas get ripe.

  Some stock beets should be raised to feed the layers in winter. The hens are fond of them and they act as a relish and appetizer as well as save other feed.

  Sunflowers can be raised in odd places. They will grow very good heads without cultivation and for this reason can be grown in fence corners and places where nothing else can be raised to advantage. The seeds are very rich and will make the plumage of the fowls bright as well as increase the number of eggs, and all they cost is the planting of the seed and the gathering of the heads.

  Now, with the right crops planted to furnish our grain feed, let us see what can be done with the waste of the farm. Small vegetables, cabbages that have failed to head well and some turnips should be saved at gathering time to feed the hens in winter, when they will not be able to get green food. They like vegetables and the parings from vegetables either raw or cooked.

  Let the hens help the hogs save the skimmilk. Meat scraps are rather expensive to buy and skimmilk will take their place to a certain extent. Meat in some form is necessary if the hens are to lay well so if possible give them what skimmilk they will drink.

  When the butchering is done there are a good many scraps and waste pieces that should be fed to the hens. Not all at once, as too much at a time will make them sick, but a few each day until they are used up. The lights,4 kidneys and livers should be cut up in small pieces before feeding. The scraps from pressing out the lard are also good. These will all help save the grain feed, besides being just what the hens need.

  Another good plan is to save the wheat and oats in the bundle for feeding the hens. It saves the thresh bill and is much better for the hens to let them do their own threshing.

  One very important thing in producing eggs cheaply is to produce the eggs. Otherwise what we do feed is wasted. To get the eggs we must feed a variety and if a part of this is what would be saved in no other way, we are turning this waste material into cash.

  Making the Best of Things

  June 20, 1915

  We would all be delighted to have modern kitchens, with up-to-date utensils; but some of us must put up with the old things while we are helping to pay off that mortgage or to save toward buying that little place of our own. However, we need not always use the old things in just exactly the old way; and sometimes we can even do better with a skillful juggling of our old tools than we could with some new fashioned utensil.

  For instance, the woman who wishes she had a roaster so she would not be obliged to baste the roasting meat, may take two iron dripping pans, bend the handles of one pan a little narrower so they will slip through the handles of the other, and join them in that way with the roast inside. If she has poured a cup of hot water over the meat as she put it in the pan, she will not need to baste it.

  The same pans used in the same way make a covered baking pan for light bread. The loaves cannot run over nor crack along the sides as they often do if baked in an open pan, and the crust is more tender and a more even brown. These pans may be separated in a second’s time and used for anything else, and still become a roaster or baking pan at any time.

  This idea of covering things may be carried farther and do away with some of the standing over a hot stove. When frying meat cover the skillet with a close cover. It will keep the grease from spattering on the stove, the meat will only require turning once, and it will be more tender. Do the same when frying eggs and they will not need to be turned, nor to have the hot grease dipped on them. They will cook much quicker and on both top and bottom. Chicken can be fried in the roasting pans and will brown evenly all over, without turning, if there is plenty of lard or butter in the pan.

  If you wish to make some cheese and have no press, the lard press will do exactly as well. If you need the little kitchen table with the large wheel which you often see described for carrying loads of things from stove to table and from table to pantry, remember that any small table with large casters will do equally as well and be much less expensive.
r />   We may not be able to have electric lights, but we may have a much better light from our coal oil lamps and make the care of them easier by using them properly. The simple expedient of turning a lamp down before blowing it out will make the difference between a bright, clean burner with a good light and a burner that is dark and greasy, so causing a poor light with a bad odor. The wick acts as a pump to bring the oil to the blaze. As long as it is warm it keeps right on pumping. If the blaze is not there to burn it the oil overflows onto the outside of the burner, making a dirty lamp and a poor light.

  Magic in Plain Foods

  All the World Serves a Woman When She Telephones

  November 20, 1915

  The thought came to me, while I wandered among the exhibits in the Food Products building at the San Francisco exposition,5 that Aladdin with his wonderful lamp had no more power than the modern woman in her kitchen. She takes down the receiver to telephone her grocery order, and immediately all over the world the monstrous genii of machinery are obedient to her command. All the nations of the world bring their offerings to her door—fruits from South America, Hawaii, Africa; tea and spices from India, China and Japan; olives and oil from Italy; coffee from strange tropical islands; sugar from Cuba and the Philippines.

  This modern magic works both ways. The natives of all these far away places may eat the flour made from the wheat growing in the fields outside our kitchen windows. I never shall look at Missouri wheat fields again without thinking of the “Breads of All Nations” exhibit, where natives of eight foreign nations, in the national costumes were busy making the breads of their countries from our own American flour.

  We use raisins, flour, tea, breakfast food, and a score of other common things without a thought of the modern miracles that make it possible for us to have them. For instance, who would have thought that different varieties of wheat are blended to make fine flour, just as a blend of coffee is used to make a perfect beverage? An entire flour mill, running and producing flour for the market, in the Food Products building, illustrates this fact. In California mills California, Washington, Idaho, and Kansas wheat is blended according to scientific tests for the proper amount of gluten and starch. It is interesting to note that although this flour is not shipped east of the Rockies, because of the high freight rate, Kansas wheat is shipped west to make it.