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We're having a good time
looking at a January 1934 Southern Planter publication given to me by
Carolyn Clark at the library! It's truly like going back in time!
Although I was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, I spent many
summer months at my "Uncle Oscar's farm" which is not too far from here.at
Cherry Lake, Florida.
Uncle Oscar had inherited the family farm that had originally been a
Land Grant to his grandfather, James Madison McDonald about 1850.
I loved that farm and always wanted to live in the country. This
little paper is a visit back to the days - well, almost, as I wasn't born
yet in 1934.but times had not really changed that much on the farm when I
was the aggravating little cousin visiting in the late 1940s and early
1950s.
Uncle Oscar raised corn and tobacco and sugar cane and cotton that I
remember. He had a store which was located on the Georgia/Florida line.
The family story was - and I have no idea if it was true or not - that he
moved the cash register to the end of the store wherever the taxes were
lowest!
The advertisements are always fun to read! If you bought 24 packets of
Garden Seeds, sold the packs at 10¢ a packet, and returned $2.40
collected you would be given a gold decorated leatherette case, 8 pencils,
compass, ruler, pen and holder, sharpener, eraser, crayons, dictionary,
fountain pen, daily dairy (I think they meant "diary"), pocket slate and a
mirror in colors!
This fabulous offer was from the Lancaster County Seed Co., Station
193, Paradise, Pa.
And here's the ad that drew me in years later! "Send no money!" the ad
promises! All you had to do to have a Lindy Jr. Flyer wagon was to sell
12 boxes of White Cloverine Salve at 25¢ each, return the $3.00 and "the
wagon is yours!"
I sold Cloverine Salve my entire childhood! I was trying to accumulate
enough points with Cloverine for a pony! What I would do with a pony in
Riverside - Jacksonville, Florida was something that I never thought of!
Bald No Longer is the heading of another ad. The National Remedy Co.,
of New York offered "Japanese Oil, the antiseptic counter-irritant, used
by thousands for baldness, falling hair, loose dandruff and scalp itch.
Price 60¢ with the economy size at $1.00 at all druggists!"
Another of those Cloverine Salve ads offered a boy's and men's six
jewel lever movement Wrist Watch with metal link bracelet or a 22 cal.
Hamilton Repeater Rifle with magazine holding from 12 to 15 cartridges.
Merely give away FREE beautifully colored art pictures with our Famous
White Cloverine Salve which you sell at 25¢ per box (giving picture free)
and remit as per plan in catalog!
A little article headed "Prospects are Brighter" by Director McCue -
Director of the Delaware Extension Division and dean of the College of
Agriculture reads: "Agriculture is undergoing a revolution and just what
the ultimate end will be no one can safely predict. The federal
administration is striving gallantly to put agriculture back on its feet.
Some sections of the country have already benefited greatly by way of
gradually rising prices. Other sections have not as yet felt the
beneficial effects of the efforts to raise prices of farm products. It
will take time to test out fully, or feel the results of many of the
policies now being put into effect to improve agricultural conditions the
country over.
We should all be patient. One can not struggle out of the morass of
depression in a few months.
Prospects for the New Year appear much brighter than a year ago, and we
sincerely hope the promise of better times to come for agriculture will
bear fruition.
The American farmer should look to the future with optimism and
courage. Agriculture must realize that the old policy of "go-it-alone" in
crop production and marketing is rapidly disappearing from the scene; and
that a policy of orderly production and orderly marketing is appearing
over the horizon. We must gird our loins and renew our trust." |
