MILLER
FARM
1916 photo of the Miller barn and their first truck. A
corn crib is on the left. Crates for cabbage or peaches
are piled in front of the barn. Photo from the collection
of Ken Dodge..
Mr. and Mrs.
Miller both originally lived in Elmont, not far from one
another and just north of the Methodist Church. Both
families moved a number of times before finally settling
down. My grandmother's family, the Wenners, bought a farm
on Route 112 just south of the Port Jefferson railroad
station where they remained for the rest of their lives.
Shortly
thereafter, my grandparents bought the farm in Middle
Island, March of 1906. How they heard of the availability
of the Petty farm is unknown but it may well have been
through the Wenners. When my grandparents purchased the
farm it included 100 acres of scrub oak and pines north
of the Whiskey Road. That land was worthless to my
grandfather and he sold it shortly thereafter. In all the
time they owned the farm nothing was ever done with that
land that he sold.
According to my
mother's memoirs, my grandfather had intended to grow the
same sort of produce that he was familiar with and had
grown on the farm in western Long Island. However, the
land wasn't suitable for that kind of crop. The local
farmers told him that the land was orchard country. He
followed their advice. However, orchards don't start
producing crops overnight and the first half a dozen
years was a tough struggle. What he grew in those early
days to make ends meet I have no idea.
The orchards
consisted primarily of apples and peaches. Many other
types of fruit trees were grown in small numbers and
primarily for home use. The birds got more use out of the
cherry tree than the humans. The picture of the barn with
the Floral Hill Fruit Farm sign was taken in 1916, so
it's clear that the orchards were well established by
then.
The Miller Farm, north of Middle Country Road. Photo from
the New York Public Library.
However, in all
the years that I can remember, potatoes, corn,
cauliflower and cabbage were the primary crops. My
grandfather also grew hay, oats and buckwheat for the
horses. He never owned a tractor. Finally, there was a
garden whose produce was used for family consumption. In
general, in the early days, if you didn't grow it you
didn't have it to eat.
For example, it wasn't until
Roosevelt's rural electrification program that electric
power was available in Middle Island in 1935.
"Necessities"
that we take for granted today just were not available at
the turn of the century. A washing machine was a scrub
board. A dish washer was a dish pan and a pair of hands.
A clothes drier was a line and pins. A vacuum cleaner was
a hand propelled carpet sweeper. My grandmother's sewing
machine was powered by a foot treadle. Their phonograph
was wind up and the quality of the sound wouldn't be
tolerated today but it was the only music available then.
A corn sheller and potato sorter were hand powered.
A sharpener for
tools such as scythes and axes was foot powered and
wasvery similar in form to a current day exercise bike,
although the farmers didn't need any additional exercise.
A kerosene
lantern was used for light. Most of the electric
appliances of today didn't even exist. However, the
biggest impact of no electric power was probably lack of
refrigeration. There was no way to keep perishables for
more than a few days. Pfeiffer's store was a source of
dry goods. Patchogue and Port Jefferson were over an hour
away with horse and buggy on dirt roads.
To a large
extent, what you grew was what you ate. When corn was in
season, you ate corn. When peaches were in season you ate
peaches. Some vegetables like potatoes and turnips were
stored for long periods in cold cellars. Some vegetables
and fruits were canned. Chickens and eggs were produced
on the farm for home use. Never the less, the varied diet
we take for granted now was almost nonexistent. Something
as simple as ice cream was a luxury. I can remember my
father making it by hand with cracked ice and salt as the
refrigerant. When it was ready, you ate it.
The lack of
good roads and transportation had another impact on
Middle Island farm life. In this case my mother was
sufficiently concise that I can quote her as follows.
"Shipments
to the markets was another problem. The distance from
Middle Island to the New York or Brooklyn markets was too
far to go by team, and so the produce had to be shipped
by train to those markets or by boat to Bridgeport. When
the produce reached the market, a commission man took
over the shipment and sold for whatever the market that
day would bring. After shipment costs and commission
fees, the farmer frequently received next to nothing for
all of his hours of work, fertilizer, seeds, and taxes on
the farm."
There were a
number of other aspects of life on the farm that no one
today would tolerate. There was no central heating in
Miller farm house. A wood or coal burning stove provided
all of the heat and was also used for cooking until the
thirties when a bottle gas stove was also installed.
Until electric power was available, there was no hot
water except what was made on the stove.
Another
difference between the Miller farm and one today was the
lack of any form of irrigation. The farmer was totally at
the mercy of the weather. I can remember one really bad
drought when my grandfather and I went down to Bartlett's
Pond during W.W.II and bailed water into some barrels on
the truck for use back on the farm to set out cabbage
plants with the hope that rain would come in time to save
them. A farmer did whatever he had to do to succeed. It
was hard work!
Picture of
an advertising circular for the Miller Farm. From the
collection of Ken Dodge.
One year after
the orchards were established and the farm was dependent
on them, there was a very late frost. All the flowers and
small peaches were destroyed. It was too late in the
spring to plant most other possible sources of income,
with the exception of Turnips. All of the local farmers
apparently were forced to do the same thing. As a result,
there was a glut on the market and no one could sell the
turnips and most were left to rot in the ground. The long
and the short of it was that they went for a year with
very little income. It was a tough life but in spite of
the hardships, hard work and persistence triumphed in
thelong run.
Written
by,
Mr. Ken Dodge
(grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Miller)
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