How Much Should I Eat? Hundred Year Old Advice

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, August 3, 1912: Let me see, what did I do today? Not very much, anyway. Twas it easy this afternoon.

DSC03255.crop — Mold of Rice Filled with Chopped Meat (Source: The Butterick Cook Book,1911)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma again didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to go off on a tangent. It’s kind of amazing, but sometimes I find a hundred year old advice really useful and it sticks in my mind.

Here’s some advice about how much to eat:

Temperate people with good digestion never feel their stomachs, forget that they have stomachs, while big eaters are always hungry or faint, or bloated or troubled with heart burn, derangement of the bowels or some other conditions showing a morbid state of the digestive apparatus.

National Food Magazine ((June, 1912)

I saw this quote a month or so ago—and since then when I’m tempted to overeat, I often think that I’d better stop before I feel my stomach. (And, sometimes I forget the advice and feel my stomach—and only then do I remember that I should have followed the advice in that old magazine.)

Previous posts on eating and obesity:

Dieting a Hundred Years Ago

1911 Weight Loss Tip: Fletcherize Your Food

Are You Obese? 1911 and 2011

Driving Horses

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, August 2, 1912: Had to does some work today, but I guess anyone would get tired of playing all the time. Was out helping in the field this afternoon.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

I think that I know what Grandma was doing in the fields She was probably leading horses that were pulling a roller over a recently plowed field. It probably was a field from which oats had been harvested in July.

The field would have been plowed, and a roller was smoothing the soil, so that wheat could be planted in September. Back then farmers typically followed a four-year crop rotation: corn, oats, wheat, hay.

How do I know what Grandma was doing?

Farm work varies by season—corn is planted in the spring, wheat and oats are harvested in July, and so on.

Amazingly exactly one-year prior to this diary entry on August 2, 1911 Grandma wrote about driving horse through the dust of a plowed field. That post is repeated below:

Grandma wrote:

Wednesday, August 2, 1911: Took lessons in driving, but even though I would like to learn to drive, I did not like that kind of lesson for the horses were old and slow, and I had to drive them in the field behind choking clouds of dust.

My Comments

I read this entry to my father and asked him what Grandma was doing. He says that she probably was using a roller on a plowed field. The roller would level the plowed earth in preparation for planting winter wheat seeds.

The horses would have been hitched to the roller and Grandma would have needed to tighten one rein or the other to make the horses go in a straight line.

I can almost picture the clouds of dust stirred up by the roller swirling around Grandma as she drove the horses.

A Party at the Creek

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Thursday, August 1, 1912:

August will fly fast enough,

And at its eve will again will be

The dear old school days.

So farewell to July.

Half of the Summer has vanished,

And half of it yet to come.

Yet the days glide on as ever,

And August another month begun.

We had our S.S. class up along the creek today. All were there and had a splendid time. Such a time as we had a losing of things, but they were all recovered. I lost the heel off of my shoe and didn’t miss it for awhile afterwards. I feel like a stuffed toad this evening.

Recent photo of the stream that flows through the farm Grandma grew up on. The old Muffly barn is in the background.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

It sounds Grandma and her sister Ruth were the hostesses for the Sunday School party. What fun! . . . good friends. . . good food. . . wading in the creek . . . the perfect summer day (in spite of a broken shoe heel).

Monthly Poem

Grandma began every month in the diary with a poem. Each month I ponder whether she wrote the poem or whether she copied it from some source.

Since she’s mentioned that school will be starting in about a month in several recent posts, this month I’m voting that she wrote the poem herself.

A Trip to Watsontown

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, July 31, 1912: Made a trip to Watsontown this afternoon. Had to get some things for tomorrow. Hope it doesn’t rain anyway.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

The Muffly farm was located mid-way between McEwensville and Watsontown. Grandma would have had to walk about one and a half miles to get to either town.

McEwensville was (and still is) the smaller of the two towns, but the diary has focused more on McEwensville because it was where Grandma went to school and church.

Today, I’d like to share some recent pictures that provide a sense of what Grandma would have seen on a trip to Watsontown.

(Unfortunately the photos weren’t all taken during the same season. Three are spring photos and one is a summer photo, but hopefully you’ll still be able to get a sense of what it was like to walk to Watsontown.)

DSC04317.crop — Grandma would have walked up the road that went past her house. At the intersection she would have turned right to go to Watsontown (instead of left which would have taken her to McEwensville).

The view Grandma would have had as she walked into Watsontown. (Well, the view isn’t exactly the same because 100 years ago there would have been a bustling railroad station where the vacant lot is today.)

The homes that Grandma would have walked by as she entered Watsontown.

DSC03659.crop — A hundred years ago today Grandma probably shopped in some of these buildings in downtown Watsontown.

After Grandma finished shopping maybe she took a walk by the Susquehanna River. (There wouldn’t have been a bridge across the river a hundred years ago.)

Percent of Crops in the World Produced by United States, 1912 and 2012

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, July 30, 1912: Nothing doing at all.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’d like to share some interesting statistics about world crop production in 1912 and 2012.

According to the July 30, 1912 issue of the New York Times:

We Lead in Crops

The Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture concluded today a resume of the production of staple crops throughout the world which presents the latest information in such line of inquiry.

It shows that the United States stands first in the production of corn, wheat, oats, cotton, tobacco, and hops. The relative rank of the United States in the world’s exports is first in wheat, flour, cotton, cottonseed oil, tobacco, oilcake and oilcake meal, rosin, and turpentine.

The United States produces 19.8 per cent of the world’s wheat crop, 74.8 per cent of the world’s corn crop, 24 per cent of the oat crop of the world, 59 per cent of its cotton, 31 per cent of its tobacco, and 25 per cent of its flaxseed.

Crop.Production.B — Click on figure to enlarge.

The US produces a lower percentage of the world’s total production of wheat, corn, oats, cotton, and tobacco now than in 1912—though of course the actual amount produced would be higher. (A previous post provides data about actual crop yields a hundred years ago and now.)

Crop.rank.B — Click on table to enlarge.

In both 1912 and 2012, the US was the largest producer in the world of corn.

If you care about the details about how I compiled the data in the figures–

If 2012 data wasn’t available for a crop, I used data from the most recent year available and assumed that it was the same in 2012.

If you’d like to dig deeper into crop current crop production data here are some useful resources:

United States Department of Agriculture–Economic Research Service

Index Mundi–Agriculture

AgMRC: Agricultural Marketing Resource Center

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Major Crops Grown in the United States

Watermelon: Good For Your Health

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, July 29, 1912: There is really nothing worth writing for today.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t have anything worth writing a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a fun tidbit about watermelons that I found in the June 1911 issue of Pure Food Magazine.

Watermelons furnish a delicious and most healthful luxury for the hot season. They keep the system cool, and help to ward off fever. That is why nature has supplied them so bountifully to us during the warm season. The name “watermelon” is most appropriate for it is nearly all water—91.9 percent. Hence, it is also an excellent thirst quencher. Its other nutriments add wonderfully to its healthfulness. . . The water you get in the watermelon ripened on the vine contains no impurities.

I’m always learning new things from doing this blog. Today I learned that when people worried about water quality a hundred years ago, that one alternative to drinking the water was to eat watermelon.

Next time I’m somewhere with questionable water I’ll just have to hope that watermelons are available.

Parents Away–Had Friends Over

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, July 28, 1912: Pa and Ma went away to spend the day. Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Had company this afternoon.

Recent picture of the house and yard where Grandma lived when she wrote the diary.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Where did Grandma’s parents go? Her father’s sister Mary’s funeral was on July 20. Mary had lived with two other brothers. Maybe Grandma’s parents went to the brothers’ home in Ottawa (Pennsylvania). Families often gather soon after a funeral to write thank you notes, sort things and reminisce.

Since their parents were gone, I suppose that Grandma and her sister Ruth invited friends over for a fun afternoon.