What did our Great Grandparents do?

[babice]

As I find myself worrying over what I'm going to use to try to prevent fungal diseases, etc., (as we've been having high humidity around here and I'm already noticing spots on my Zinnias and some other plants), I'm wondering:

What in the world did my Great Great Grandparents do? I am going to use the Actinovate/ExelLG foliar app one week and vary it with something else the next week (maybe a copper soap). But -- I mean, seriously -- what did our Great-Greats do? I have no clue, unfortunately, what even my Grandfather did but he might have been using a dust back then. But my Great Gfather couldn't have been, right? He was German so he would've been growing 'maters in Germany. What did they do? Just smart soil building and maybe companion planting? And then maybe just losing toms in years of high humidity and bad weather, etc?

[Worth1]

One thing you have to realize is many people back then didn't know anything about bacterial infections, viruses, or microbes.
Everything was controled by divine intervention.

I wont go any farther than this for fear of starting off a squabble on a subject not worthy of this thread or forum.

Or to insult anyone.

My great grand father was a doctor in the 1800's and traded services for livestock and took in children without parents.

He also had a farm and small garden.

One thing that was used for insects and such was cedar limbs and sulfur under the house for
Bed bugs and mites.
used motor oil and kerosine was rubbed on the farm animales for mange and flies.
lead arsinat on the plants.

Worth

[John3]

The book "Livingston and the Tomato" (which I have uploaded) printed in 1893

Example quote (spelling errors from copy and paste and not in the book - the bold I did):
53.Cut - Worms.—If you })lant on sod-ground, or
on an old pasture, plowed u}) (which is very good for a
tom^ito crop), then look out tor cut-worms. Your
plants will not be long in the ground until you will see
that something has cut them oft' near the ground.
Sometimes these are very destrnctive. just as thev are
on corn. I consider it an advantage to plow late in the
fall, and it will not hurt to jdow again in the spring.
Tearing up the ground thus often, seems to destroy the
worms, and generally u[»sets their designs upon a tomato
crop.
If it is rememl)ered that the plants are set out in
the fiekl quite a considerable distance a[>art : and that
this worm does not eat oft* roots only l)y accident, but
comes out at night to feed on the stalk, and that it burrows
into the oTound ao-ain when his meal is over, leavino-the
traces on the surface, where he went into it : then it
will not seem such an insuperable task to go and hunt
tliem out and kill tliem. They are rarely more than an
inch down in the soil. A few hours" work will kill
many, and save many a plant. Robins, yellow hammers,
meadow-larks, bluejays, mocking birds, and
quails, are very fond of these worms, and are generally
friends of the grower. I encourage all laws tliat defend
them, even if thev <h) feed on our clierries be times. Soiiietinies I tliiiik they take these more for
tlie worm in them than for the cherry. Toads should
also be let alone in yonr fields, for they do no harm, but
keep fat oh such pests as cut-worms. I know they are
not particularly handsome creatures, yet upon more intimate
accpiaintance with the toad, we are reminded of
the old and true adage, '• Pretty is that pretty does."
Besides he lias ways—real cute ways—of disposing of
these worms; you only need to see him do it once to
be ever after his friend. I know of nothing that can
be put on the plant to kill these worms which will not
also injure the [)lant.

[John3]

I did some searching and came up with these jouranls (free pdfs 1800s
The Garden: an illustrated weekly journal of gardening in all its branches [mostly 1800s] ( you can download over 60 vols at the link)
http://archive.org/search.php?query=...iatype%3Atexts

The Gardeners' chronicle : a weekly illustrated journal of horticulture and allied subjects [1800s +] - you can download around 100 vols here
http://archive.org/search.php?query=...ondon%20%3A%20[Gardeners%20Chronicle]%22&page=1

The Journal of horticulture, cottage gardener and country gentlemen
http://archive.org/search.php?query=...Robert+Hogg%22

The Illustrated annual register of rural affairs and cultivator almanac for the year
http://archive.org/search.php?query=...ther+Tucker%22

The Horticulturist, and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste
http://archive.org/search.php?query=...iatype%3Atexts

Books
The American gardener: (1856) [book]
http://archive.org/details/americangardener00cobb

The American gardener's assistant. In three parts. Containing complete practical directions for the cultivation of vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and grape-vines (1867) [book]
http://archive.org/details/americangardener00brid

The American home garden (1860) from an old catalog
http://archive.org/details/americanhomegard00wats

The American home garden : being principles and rules for the culture of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and shrubbery, to which are added brief notes on farm crops, with a table of their average product and chemical constituents (1859) book
http://archive.org/details/americanhomegard1859wats

Growing some rare hardy plants (1877)
http://archive.org/details/cbarchive...ardyplants1871

Cyclopedia of American horticulture, comprising suggestions for cultivation of horticultural plants, descriptions of the species of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants sold in the United States and Canada, together with geographical and biographical sketches (1900)
http://archive.org/details/cu31924000537732

Garden guide, the amateur gardeners' handbook; how to plan, plant and maintain the home grounds, the suburban garden, the city lot. How to grow good vegetables and fruit. How to care for roses and other favorite flowers, hardy plants, trees, shrubs, lawns, porch plants and window boxes. Chapters on garden furniture and accessories, with selected lists of plants, etc. Heavily illustrated with teaching plans and diagrams and reproduced photographes, all made expressly for this great little text book .. (1917)
http://archive.org/details/cu31924002848608

Cassell's popular gardening (1884)
http://archive.org/details/cu31924002871238

The illustrated dictionary of gardening; a practical and scientific encyclopædia of horticulture for gardeners and botanists (1887)
http://archive.org/details/cu31924051991812

The standard cyclopedia of horticulture; a discussion, for the amateur, and the professional and commercial grower, of the kinds, characteristics and methods of cultivation of the species of plants grown in the regions of the United States and Canada for ornament, for fancy, for fruit and for vegetables; with keys to the natural families and genera, descriptions of the horticultural capabilities of the states and provinces and dependent islands, and sketches of eminent horticulturists, illustrated with colored plates, four thousand engravings in the text, and ninety-six full-page cuts (1914)
http://archive.org/details/cu31924052113432

[babice]

Wow, wow, wow John3! This is awesome stuff! I'll be reading for days. In the meantime, I've been reading some of that Livingston and the Tomato and it's some AWESOME reading! His writing style is hilarious! I love this blurb describing the tomato hornworm where he uses the phrase "it don't do any hurt" and then he later goes into detail about the lovely miller and gets you all like....awwwww....that sounds so pretty....then...WAP! Kill that sucker!
“It is a large green worm, about three and a half inches long, and three eighths of an inch in diameter. It has a long horn upon his rear back, and when disturbed he jerks himself from side to side, and twists himself about as though he meant to do dangerous work with this horn, but like the feints of a drone-bee to sting, it don’t do any hurt.” “The first thing to do is to raise a good sized bed of petunias near the tomato field, so as to have them in full bloom by the time the tomato plants are growing nicely in the field. If you are about these petunia beds in the early evening, you will soon discover a large miller almost as large as a hummingbird attracted by the sweet-scented flowers. He is in search of honey. If you watch him closely as he hovers over a flower, you will see him unroll a long proboscis, two to three inches long and kept in a most beautiful coil under his nose when not in use, thrust it into the flowers and take up the sweets that are hid away in its depth. Now while he eats thus is your opportunity, having a short, broad paddle in hand slap one on the other with said miller between them, or hit her a clip with one paddle hard enough to kill a rat, for this dusty and lusty insect is the moth that lays the eggs which will hatch out in due time into the tomato-worm. Therefore visit the petunia beds each evening, and make the destruction as thorough as possible, for each one you destroy keeps many worms from appearing on the crops later.”

[John3]

Originally Posted by babice

Wow, wow, wow John3! This is awesome stuff! I'll be reading for days. In the meantime, I've been reading some of that Livingston and the Tomato and it's some AWESOME reading! His writing style is hilarious! I love this blurb describing the tomato hornworm where he uses the phrase "it don't do any hurt" and then he later goes into detail about the lovely miller and gets you all like....awwwww....that sounds so pretty....then...WAP! Kill that sucker!
“It is a large green worm, about three and a half inches long, and three eighths of an inch in diameter. It has a long horn upon his rear back, and when disturbed he jerks himself from side to side, and twists himself about as though he meant to do dangerous work with this horn, but like the feints of a drone-bee to sting, it don’t do any hurt.” “The first thing to do is to raise a good sized bed of petunias near the tomato field, so as to have them in full bloom by the time the tomato plants are growing nicely in the field. If you are about these petunia beds in the early evening, you will soon discover a large miller almost as large as a hummingbird attracted by the sweet-scented flowers. He is in search of honey. If you watch him closely as he hovers over a flower, you will see him unroll a long proboscis, two to three inches long and kept in a most beautiful coil under his nose when not in use, thrust it into the flowers and take up the sweets that are hid away in its depth. Now while he eats thus is your opportunity, having a short, broad paddle in hand slap one on the other with said miller between them, or hit her a clip with one paddle hard enough to kill a rat, for this dusty and lusty insect is the moth that lays the eggs which will hatch out in due time into the tomato-worm. Therefore visit the petunia beds each evening, and make the destruction as thorough as possible, for each one you destroy keeps many worms from appearing on the crops later.”

Livingston just might be the Leonardo da Vinci of Tomatoes
It would be nice to get personal observations from growers like Livingston in a detailed (even humorous) like the detail in Leonardo da Vinci's journals.
I am thinking I might do some searching on gardening done by Monks, etc - in church gardens - diaries and journals they did.

[babice]

Originally Posted by John3

Livingston just might be the Leonardo da Vinci of Tomatoes

I mean, seriously - he is hilarious! He complains about all the ladies he sees wearing hats with birds on them...you know...they're killing off all the birds to make these hats when the birds are needed to eat insects! So totally funny!

[John3]

Originally Posted by babice

I mean, seriously - he is hilarious! He complains about all the ladies he sees wearing hats with birds on them...you know...they're killing off all the birds to make these hats when the birds are needed to eat insects! So totally funny!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History..._United_States
"The first settlers in Plymouth Colony planted barley and peas from England but their most important crop was Indian corn (maize) which they were shown how to cultivate by the native Squanto. To fertilize this crop, they used small fish which they called herrings or shads"

Ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. As an example, German American farmers generally preferred oxen rather than horses to pull their plows and The Scots Irish built an economy with some farming but more herding (of hogs and cattle). In the American colonies, Scots-Irish focused on mixed-farming. Using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and as feed for hogs and other livestock. Many improvement-minded farmers of all different backgrounds began using new agricultural practices to raise their output. During the 1750s, these agricultural innovators replaced the hand sickles and scythes used to harvest hay, wheat, and barley with the cradle scythe, a tool with wooden fingers that arranged the stalks of grain for easy collection. This tool was able to triple the amount of work down by farmers in one day. A few scientific farmers (mostly wealthy planters like George Washington) began fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and rotating their crops to keep the soil fertile.
Before 1720, most colonists in the mid-Atlantic region worked with small-scale farming and paid for imported manufactures by supplying the West Indies with corn and flour. In New York, a fur-pelt export trade to Europe flourished adding additional wealth to the region. After 1720, mid-Atlantic farming stimulated with the international demand for wheat. A massive population explosion in Europe brought wheat prices up. By 1770, a bushel of wheat cost twice as much as it did in 1720. Farmers also expanded their production of flaxseed and corn since flax was a high demand in the Irish linen industry and a demand for corn existed in the West Indies.

[John3]

George Washington practiced some permaculture principles

http://www.permies.com/t/6354/permac...e-permaculture

Some interesting quotes by George Washington about his farming practices at Mt. Vernon (which I found here). Apparently the farm went to pot while he was off running the country. He describes some of the techniques he used to restore the land - "My favorite objects as I have often repeated to you, are to recover my land from the gullied and exhausted state into which it has been unfortunately thrown for some years back. " (Letter to William Pearce, July 13, 1794). I have arranged these quotes in date order.


"When I speak of a knowing farmer, I mean one who understands the best course of crops; how to plough, to sow, to mow, to hedge, to Ditch and above all, Midas like, one who can convert everything he touches into manure, as the first transmutation towards Gold; in a word one who can bring worn out and gullied lands into good tilth in the shortest time."
George Washington
(Letter to George William Fairfax, June 30, 1785)

"Nothing in my opinion would contribute more to the welfare of these States, than the proper management of our lands; and nothing, in this State particularly, seems to be less understood. The present mode of cropping practiced among us, is destructive to landed property; and must, if persisted in much longer ultimately ruin the holders of it. "
George Washington
(Letter to William Drayton, March 25, 1786)

Began to plant Corn in the common way at the Ferry on Monday last few fish heads and guts & ca. Ordered to be put into some of the Corn hills, to try the effect of them as manure."
George Washington
(Diary entry, May 9, 1787)

"Consequently two things must be engrafted into our plan: 1st, Crops which are useful on our farms, or saleable in our markets, and 2d, the intermixing these crops by such relations and with such dressing as will improve, instead of exhausting our lands. To effect these is the great desiderata of Farming, and ought to be the pursuit of every farmer. On this ground every experiment is a treasure, and the authors of them valuable members of Society. "
George Washington
(Letter to Charles Carter, January 20, 178

"The reasons, however, which induced me to give my Corn rows the wide distance of ten feet, was not because I thought it essential to the growth of the plant, but because I introduced other plants between them... As all my Corn will be thus drilled, so between all, I mean to put in, drills also, Potatoes, Carrots (as far as my seed will go) and Turnips alternately; that not one sort, more than another may have the advantage of Soil. "
George Washington
(Letter to Alexander Spotswood, February 13, 178

"Every improvement in husbandry should be gratefully received and peculiarly fostered in this Country, not only as promoting the interests and lessening the labour of the farmer, but as advancing our respectability in a national point of view; for in the present State of America, our welfare and prosperity depend upon the cultivation of our lands and turning the produce of them to the best advantage. "
George Washington
(Letter to Samuel Chamberlain, April 3, 178

"My object is to recover the fields from the exhausted state into which they have fallen, by oppressive crops and to restore them (if possible by any means in my power) to health and vigour. But two ways will enable me to accomplish this. This first is to cover them with as much manure as possible (winter and summer). The 2d a judicious succession of crops. "
George Washington
(Letter to William Pearce, December 18, 1793)

"If buckwheat is not plowed in while it is green and in a succulent state, to have it on the ground will prove an injury rather than a benefit because it is from the juices that the putrefaction and fermentation proceeds, and causes it to become manure."
George Washington
(Letter to William Pearce, July 13, 1794)

"It has always appeared to me that there were two modes in which Buck wheat might be used advantageously as a manure. One, to sow early; and as soon as a sufficiency of seed ripened to stock the ground a second time, to turn that in also before the seed begins to ripen: and when the fermentation and putrification cease, to sow the ground in that state, & plough in the wheat. "
George Washington
(Letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 4, 1795)

[arivaraci]

Possibly the most interesting thread ever! Thank You for the research and posting it!