Radio Script #810

Little Talks on Common Things

June 8, 1969

Many times on this program I have referred to the great difference in the price of food and clothing today from what it was fifty or sixty. to say nothing of ninety or a hundred years ago. But I don’t think. in that connection, I have ever mentioned plants and shrubs. A price list of these items issued by Green’s Nursery Co. of Rochester, N.H. recently came to my attention. Let us see what folks were paying for trees, shrubs. vines and plants 56 years ago.

You could buy anyone of 18 varieties of rose bushes for 25 cents, among them the Baltimore Belle, the Dorothy Perkins, and the Crimson Rambler. Gladioli bulbs cost two cents apiece, dahlias 12t cents and golden glow four cents. Of the flowering vines, you could get Japanese honeysuckle for 25 cents, anyone of three varieties of clematis for 35 cents, and Chinese wisteria for a quarter. Of the shrubs. anyone of five colors of lilac cost 25 cents, and the price was the same for spiraea, syringa and forsythia. If you wanted to splurge, you could pay 35 cents for an extra large hydrangea, though the common kind cost only a quarter. You could buy trees, anywhere from 4 to 12 feet, for prices ranging from 35 cents to a dollar.

In fact the Green price list offered only three trees at that top price: cut leaf weeping birch, extra large silver maple. and red leaved maple. If you wanted to go in for fruits and berries. you could get plantings of Concord grape for ten cents each. and Delawares for 15 cents, a cherry tree for a quarter, a Bartlett pear tree for 30 cents, and a plum tree for 20 cents. The only apple trees offered by Green were Baldwins and McIntosh. You could buy the largest tree of either for 35 cents. If you wanted to set out a hundred strawberry plants, they cost you only 75 cents. and you could have ten currant bushes for half a dollar.

What a garden one could have at those prices today! But, as I have often said before, the money to pay those low prices in 1912 then came just as hard or harder than modern prices come from the bigger wages and salaries of today.

By chance I happened to see about the same time that I saw the Green price list, a catalogue issued by R.B. Downing and Co. of Bangor, dealers in seeds, dairy supplies, woodenware and agricultural implements. The year was 1916 and the prices were comparable with Green’s prices for plants and shrubs four years earlier. String beans, either speckled cranberry or Kentucky Wonder, were 30 cents a quart; early Crosby sweet corn 20 cents, and Nott’s Excelsior peas 25 cents. The catalogue has no mention of iceberg lettuce, but you could get seed for Big Boston at ten cents an ounce. The very best seed potatoes cost only two dollars a bushel.

Downing sang the praises of the Superior Hot Water Incubator. The catalogue said: “The water boiler and tank are of heavy-weight copper. The lamp has a seamless bowl and the burner is the best on the market. The incubator case has double walls with an air space insulation. The size for 65 eggs costs only $12. the larger size for 130 eggs $16.”

In 1916 there were no motor lawn mowers, but hand mowers were cheap. The Victory 14 inch mower went for eight dollars, and the 12 inch Glide for only $4. But, even without motor power, you did not have to mow a big lawn by hand. Downing would se 11 you the Townsend Horse-drawn Lawn Mower for $65. You could buy a grass sickle for a quarter, and if you wanted to keep it and your axe and scythe sharp, Downing would sell you a mounted grindstone for $3.50. And at the same time a man could get his wife a fine clothes ringer for two dollars.

In 1916 there were no electric washers, but there were washing machines. Of the Majestic Hand-operated Rotary Washer Downing said: “Very little power is required.” It cost $7.00. But on the FFV Improved Washer Downing really went to town: He said: “The lever or handle is directly geared to the mechanism, driving the machine with great power and speed. but with little labor. A small child can do the family laundry in a short time with little work.”

Even if the housewife had one of those machines she still needed to dry the clothes, so she could get 50 feet of clothesline for ten cents, and clothes pins for three cents a dozen.

Do you remember the old -wooden settees with their narrow slats? Downing sold them for a dollar. And what memories we have of the White Mountain ice cream freezer. The usual household size was one gallon, and it cost $2.75. Mouse traps were five cents, cotton gloves 10 cents, whisk brooms 15 cents, and fly swatters 10 cents.

Do you remember the Blizzard Cold Blast Lantern? I used to sell it in the old store in Bridgton. Downing advertised it for 90 cents, but you could get a cheap one for half a dollar. And let us not forget the old papier mache tubs and pails, the former for 85 cents, the .latter 38 cents. In those days no well supplied house was without a spittoon for the old man. It cost 60 cents. A pair of steelyards cost $2.00, but you could buy simple balances for 25 cents.

Downing really waxed ecstatic about his Cast Iron Sink for three dollars. He said: “This superior sink is endorsed by builders and plumbers as the very best. It has a perfect surface. The edge is finished with a raised head, which adds to the neatness and prevents wetting the outside finish. It will drain to the cesspool end, if set level.

By 1916 the Motor Age had begun. So let us see what Downing had to say about the Z H HP Farm Engine for $35: “The engine is set on skids with built-in magneto. Here is an engine that does your pumping, sawing, grinding, and other chores at lowest cost. It comes complete with fuel tank, cooling hopper, and does away with battery troubles, insuring quick and easy starting. It will use either kerosene or gasoline.”

What memories are aroused by just naming some of the other items in the Downing catalogue: barrel covers, calf weaners, cider mills, fanning mills, fish oil soap, sap spouts, stable scrapers and watering troughs. What a change the Motor Age, to say nothing of the Atomic Age. has wrought  since 1916.

A few weeks ago the press carr; ed the fo 11 owi ng news item: “The Great Northern Paper Co. says it has entered into a mineral exploration agreement with Humble Oil and Refining Co. to make extensive exploration of three large blocks of timber land in northern Maine. Arrangements for mining any mineral deposits found will depend upon the result of this program.”

That news item is evidence that hope of successful mining in Maine has never been abandoned. In fact, within the past ten years we have seen active resumption of mining in Hancock County, especially at Blue Hill and Sullivan.

So I thought you might be interested in what the Maine Business Directory of 1880 – 89 years ago — had to say about mines in Maine. Believe it or not, that directory listed 130 stock companies interested in actual or prospective Maine mines. They were located in 23 Maine towns, mostly near the seacoast in Waldo, Hancock and Washington Counties. although one location was at Acton in York County and another at St. Albans in Somerset. The Acton project was promoted by eleven different companies, the largest of which was the Consolidated Acton Silver Mining Co., capitalized at a million dollars. Six companies were interested in the Blue Hill region, led by the Bangor-Blue Hill Falls Mining Co. Though the companies were looking principally for copper, one of them was called the East Blue Hill Gold and Silver Mining Co. The island of Vinalhaven had the Island City Silver Mining Co. and the Maine Tin Mining Co. And good old Maine mica was not forgotten, for the directory listed the Maine Mica Mining Co. of Gilead.

I noted with interest that the 1880 directory listed the academies then active in Maine — 68 of them. Today only 19 are left. the most prominent of which are Hebron, Coburn. Higgins, Bridgton, Gould. Kents Hill, Oak Grove and North Yarmouth, though most of these have radically changed since 1880.

Let me note just a few of those that were very much alive in 1880. but have now been closed so long that they are nearly forgotten: Little Blue School at Farmington. the Eaton Family School at Norridgewock. the Oxford Normal Institute at South Paris, Gorham Academy, Presque Isle Academy, Paris Hill Academy and East Pittston Academy.

Not long ago I discussed on this program the public lands of Maine, their original vast extent. their co-ownership with Massachusetts, and their eventual disposal into private hands. I am not sure about the extent of large holdings today, but I can give you the figures of 1956, only twelve years ago. At that time the Great Northern Paper Co. held 2,261,000 acres of Maine land; International Paper had 850,000 acres; Scott Paper 650,000; St. Regis 700,000; Penobscot Chemical Fibre 500,000; the Brown Company 385,000; and St. Croix 350,000. Compared with those enormous holdings, those of Oxford Paper and S.D. Warren were small. Oxford had 150,000 acres and Warren 60,000. Hudson at Augusta had larger acreage than Oxford, 162,000 acres.

Some of the family-owned lands still remain. By no means all the acres have been sold to the paper companies. Once there were the large holdings in Aroostook County of A.A. and E.C. Burleigh, F.A. and Llewellyn Powers. and J.P. Bass.

In Washington and Hancock Counties the large holders were Joseph Coffin, James Minclire Sons, and Thomas Baldwin. In Franklin and Somerset were the Coburn Heirs. J. Manchester Haynes. and S.W. Philbrick, while in Penobscot and Piscataquis the large owners were Moses Giddings, S.F. Hersey and H.H. Putnam.

From time to time I have told you about the detailed care with which men made their wills 150 years ago. Here is how a man in Somerset County provided for an unmarried daughter who had kept house for him after the death of his wife: “To my daughter Hannah I give t 44/6/8 in lawful money; also my best Bible, my pewter tankard, and one half of all the remaining part of my household goods; and I give to her the use of the westerly lower room and the chamber above it in my dwelling house, together with a convenient part of my cellar, also yard room before the door, with free liberty of passing to and from said house and cellar; also the use and improvement of one acre of land (boundaries specified) as long as she remains single; also the constant keeping of one cow of her choice from my herd; also three cords of wood provided yearly by my executor — all provided she shall live a single life in my dwelling house.”

When I spoke recently about the old quarry in Waterville, I had forgotten just how that stone was described when it was used to build Colby’s Memorial Hall. listen to what the Colby Oracle of 1867 had to say: “The whole building is of blue slate — stone taken from quarries in the vicinity and is trimmed with Augusta granite. ”

And with that additional reference to the old quarry,we must say Good-by until next week.

Year: 1969