I’ll admit it, even though I love high tech, I really enjoy buying old books. The other day, I found a copy of the Department of Agriculture Yearbook for 1914 and couldn’t put it down. One section I especially liked listed the large public markets within major U.S. cities and showed interesting pictures of them. Some of them still stand, such as Faneuil Hall in Boston and Seattle’s Pike Street Public Market, due to some dedicated urban renewalists who saw the potential of these buildings. Others, such as the Pearl Street Market in Cinncinnati, were razed during the era of urban flight in the twentieth century. Those markets still standing in major cities have indeed become the hub of urban life. I’m certainly glad that Seattle’s was preserved. I visit there whenever I can.

Another fascinating section of this book were the results of a study conducted on the lives of farm women in 1914. They found that many suffered from, “Loneliness, isolation, and the lack of social and educational opportunities.” Most felt heavily overworked without any recompense, since every drop of money went into the farm. By far, though, the largest complaint was the lack of education. They had no way to learn about better farming practices that would make their lives easier. That’s now changed. Even though we want to learn more about how people farmed in the past, we’re doing it on the internet. As more farmers get broadband, more opportunities are made for them.

Oh, there are a couple of articles from this book that might work for modern small farmers, such as “Apple Sirup and Concentrated Cider” and “Cooperative Marketing”. It’s just so interesting seeing how people thought about things 100 years ago.