Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> Browsing through old files I found these notes and hope you will find  
> them interesting. If anyone has suggestions for additions, please  
> post same.
>
> History and Homesteading
>
>
> 15th century: European peasants lived in hut villages, tilled the  
> surrounding land, ate what they grew.
>
> 1785: The Basic Land Ordinance, lands in “the Northwest,” today OH,  
> MI, IN, IL, WI, were surveyed into townships and sections, minimum  
> purchase was a section, 640 ac., $1.00/ac. min. price.
> 1820: Congress lowered minimum purchase to 80 ac., $1.25/ac. min. price.
> 1832: Minimum purchase lowered to forty acres.
> 1841: Preemption Act, 160 ac. @ $1.25/ac. plus occupancy and  
> improvements.
> 1862: The Homestead Act, 160 ac., filing fee $10, make improvements.
>
> 1900-1920: The golden age of agriculture per David B. Danbom, author  
> of BORN IN THE COUNTRY: A History of Rural America (1995, The Johns  
> Hopkins University Press).
>
> 1929-193?: The Great Depression caused many to revert to prior self- 
> reliant lives based on home food production.
>
> 1935: FIVE ACRES AND INDEPENDENCE: A Handbook of Small Farm  
> Management, by M.G. Kains, first published. Revised and Enlarged  
> Edition, 1940.
>
> 1954: LIVING THE GOOD LIFE: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a  
> Troubled World, by Helen and Scott Nearing.
> • From the Preface: “During the deepest part of the Great Depression,  
> in 1932, we moved from New York City to a farm in the Green Mountains  
> [Vermont].”
>
> 1968: WHOLE EARTH CATALOG published.
>
> 1970: THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS was launched with a staff of two—John and  
> Jane Shuttleworth. The back cover was an ad for a special issue  
> titled How To Get Out of the City and Back to the Land.
>
> 1970: Stephen Gaskin led a group of hippies from San Francisco to  
> Tennessee and founded The Farm. (Gaskin was a former English professor)
>
> 1971: The first issue of AN OLD-FASHIONED RECIPE BOOK, by Carla  
> Emery, came out in pieces starting in 1971; the whole first edition  
> appeared in 1974.
> Carla died October 11, 2005 but her wisdom lives on in the lives of  
> many.
>  
2010: The government effectively outlaws small-scale animal husbandry by 
mandating that a microchip be placed in every chicken, and that rabbits 
receive frequent vaccinations and vet visits.