January 2009

Rev. William Plumer Jacobs, fresh out of Columbia Seminary, arrived in Clinton in May of 1864. He was 22 years old, and had been hired as the first full-time pastor of the Clinton Presbyterian Church, now First Presbyterian Church, Clinton. The next year he married Mary Dillard, and by the time he was writing this garden notebook, he was living in his own home with his wife and two children, Florence and Ferdinand. He was supplying several churches in addition to the Clinton church, and had already begun publication of the True Witness, which was later to become The Farm and Garden, and still later, Our Monthly.

With all his other activities, he had a reputation as a fine gardener, and his garden was among the best in Clinton. He kept meticulous notes of the work being done, the seeds planted, how things were fertilized, what was being harvested, and which crops had succeeded or failed. His notes, found in two small notebooks, give a detailed picture of the farm life of a 19^th century homeowner, who grew most of the food needed to supply his family.

We plan to publish these notes in several segments, to correspond to the months in which they were written. Hopefully you will find them informative, and they may even give you ideas for a garden of your own. Many of the seeds he mentions are still available from heritage seed catalogs.

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Record of Garden Successes and Failures

January 1868

Jan. 1. Concluded not to have freedmen to work on my farm this year. Weather freezing.

Jan. 17. Hired Elmore May at $5 a month. My sweet potatoes gave out today.

Jan. 20. Shucked out balance of corn – 5 bushels. Cow had a fine red calf. The knot on cow’s side is going away since the calf came. I had bathed it with grease and tar.

Jan. 24. Had shuck pen built up better, so that cows could not get to it.

Jan. 26. Moved fence up to front of patch. Patched up fencing generally.

Jan. 27. Hung meat. Some of it had worms on the joint. Elmore keeps busy hauling wood.

Jan. 28. Made tool chest, & bot a set of tools.

Jan. 29. Weather still very severe – no ploughing done yet.

 

January 1869

Jan. 1. I hired George May to work on my farm this year. He is a very small boy, but I will try to make him useful.

Jan. 8. Filled my stables with leaves – the beginning of the manure factory.

Jan. 9. Had a Chicken-house and hog lot made today. I want my stock so arranged that they will not interfere with my farm. My Chicken house cost $4.00 – my lot cost me $6.25.

Jan. 12. Obtained one bushel of Dickson’s cotton seed from David Dickson, Oxford, Geo.

Jan. 13. Got today ½ ton of Navassa Guano from Baltimore [Note: Guano was discovered on Navassa Island in the Caribbean by Baltimore ship captain Peter Duncan in 1857. The resulting fertilizer, rich in phosphates, was shipped all over the U.S. until phosphate deposits were discovered in this country, including South Carolina, at the end of the century.]

Jan. 15. Got today some hyacinth bulbs from James Vick, Rochester, N.Y. & set them out thus in garden: 8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1. The bulbs are as on the page within:

1. Single Hya. Graaf von Nassau. Deep blue, early, low.
2. Double Hy. Madam Zoutman. Red, early, tall.
3. Double Hya. – Czar Nicholas. Rose, early, low.
4. Double Hya. – Goethe. Rose, early, tall.
5. Double Hyacinths – Pieneman. Yellow, early, low.
6. Double Hyacinth – Bloksberg. Light blue, late, low.
7. Single Hyacinth, Emilius. Rosy white, early, low.
8. Double Hya. – Louis D’or. Yellow, late, tall.

Jan. 24. I have got George hard at work breaking up the old field & Bill is hired a few days to split rails. I spaded a little in garden – sorted Irish potatoes.

Jan. 26. Still breaking up the old field. Another day’s ploughing would finish. I planted today, manuring with Stable manure & Navassa Guano:

1. Dan’l O’Rourke peas
2. Savoy long leaved spinach/Hammersmith Lettuce

This has been a remarkably warm January, not so much as one frozen day this year – hardly any frost.

Jan. 29. Planted today in garden

1. ?? E. York Cab/White Butter Lettuce

2. E. Long S. Rad/Summer turnip radish

Jan. 30. We had a heavy thunderstorm last night. This whole month has had very few days in it in which a fire would not be pleasant. Tuesday uncomfortably warm. Coat off & all the windows up.