This week, it's a newspaper article from the San Diego Union dated 20 February 1899 (page 3, accessed on GenealogyBank):
The newspaper had a "Points for Growers, Helpful Hints by Horticultural Commissioner Hall" column that included this information about my great-great-grandfather, D.J. Carringer:
The article says this:
"D.J. Carringer & Sons, also from Colorado, have and are fitting up pleasant homes on Thirtieth and Watkins. Mr. Carrington gives a gloomy picture of the fruit industry in Colorado. He was one of the directors of the Longmont Horticultural Society and Boulder Fruit Association. He says blight and woolly aphis are fast destroying the apple industry in that state, and having had twenty years experience there he knows some things not known here. That's right, D.J., when a rancher finds out he can make mistakes he is in a fair way to keep out of the house of correction. Not only ranchers, but Uncle Sam, who has been playing Ophelia to the Philippine Topsy (who truly, in this instance, just 'growed' onto us), and is finding out there are things we wish we hadn't had to touch. Woolly aphis and woolly barbarians are a hard lot to deal with. In Colorado they cut up the trees to get rid of the aphis. Let us hope a better fate is in store for Uncle Sam's Topsy-turvy people who have had to receive unexpected chastisement, and must feel somewhat cut up."
Unfortunately, the writer of this article goes off on a political tangent after relating D.J.'s comment about woolly aphis. I wish he had written more about D.J.'s experiences in Colorado.
The next portion of the article provides comments about my great-grandfather, H.A. Carringer:
"H.A. Carringer has alfalfa cut for his cow, has made nine crops, and in July it was thirty inches. August ditto, and this, remember, is on red mesa soil. Maples grew eight feet in a year, cherimoyers are doing well, and white Meshanack potatoes yielded prolifically from a small patch, had enough for his family and a few sacks to sell. Secret, the land is well fed, hence it returns the compliment."
What's a "cherimoyer?" The Free Dictionary says:
Cher`i`moy´er
| n. | 1. | (Bot.) A small downy-leaved tree (Anona Cherimolia), with fragrant flowers. It is a native of Peru. |
| 2. | Its delicious fruit, which is succulent, dark purple, and similar to the custard apple of the West Indies. |
I also looked for "Meshanack potatoes" and found no reference to it in a Google search. There is a "Meshanick potato" in a search, but I found no definition.
It is apparent that both D.J. and Henry A. Carringer (and their wives) knew a lot about growing crops and food and shared that knowledge with their neighbors.
It's fun to find articles about your ancestors in the newspapers.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/treasure-chest-thursday-dj-carringer.html
Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver
No comments:
Post a Comment