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Apparent that’s how it was in the U.S. before the 20th century. People would buy a few things like molasses in bulk. And that was it. It’s quite hard to imagin
by leobg 5y ago
Apparent that’s how it was in the U.S. before the 20th century. People would buy a few things like molasses in bulk. And that was it.
It’s quite hard to imagine.
It also sounds quite inefficient. Like everybody running their own wood stove vs using centrally generated electricity. But I don’t know.
Anyone aware of books that talk of life in these times? For the early 1900s, I enjoyed “The World of Yesterday”. It would be great to get the same glimpses into the world of the 1800s.
- Inhibit 5y agoI had the chance to ruminate about wood burning recently during a conversation. The conclusion I came to was that when there's few people and they're all manually whacking at wood with axes you're (as a group) okay. When the wood collection is essentially strip mining a forest for millions of customers it just isn't the same thing. Not really comparable. Manual labor and using an axe is an efficient system in the sense that it ultimately limits use and production of wood per person.
- b112 5y agoYup, it's all about population density. At the turn of the century, Canada was >70% rural or some such. Now, it's reversed. >70% urban. When you live on a farm, in the county, and own 100 acres, a few extra acres for wood provides a long supply of wood, with time for more to grow. Every farm tended to have rocky, unusable bits, but still ok for trees. Back then, before everyone had backhoes, removing large rocks, even small rocks, was work. So some fields were best left for trees. And one of your neighbours would likely own 1000 acres or more of bush land, ok for trees, but too rocky or swampy for farming. Or local crown land would be used for harvesting trees. Back when people went in with sleighs in the winter, felled trees by hand with axe and hand saw, no one strip cut. Why would they? (It is easier with horses to pull logs out on sleigh, in winter, than over uneven, soft ground. Especially in frozen swampy land. Even today, people will use snowmobiles and sleigh to get trees out for personal use.) Anyhow back then, it was only people living in higher density locations, away from nature, which exceeded easy supply. Of course, population growth happens, and wood burning can be dirty, so now we warm homes with other methods typically.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoProblem is of course that nobody threw a switch to go from one to another. Those two approaches to wood harvesting exist along a smooth spectrum and there was likely no point that you could easily identify as "the breaking point", even though each end is clearly distinct.
- Nasrudith 5y agoThat is just wrong however. Europe outright depleted its forrest reserves in the age of sail, let alone farming uses. It took longer to reach but it was reached.
- bombcar 5y agoLittle House on the Prairie has a few books where they live “in the city” which is a small whistle-stop. Much of the supplies for day to day life came from your own work, money was spent on certain tools and other necessities- and sometimes on fancy foodstuffs.
- i_am_proteus 5y agoIt sounds like you're looking for The Rise and Fall of American Growth[1] by a gent named Robert Gordon. Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death[2] is also on-topic, he discusses how advertising has changed since the foundation of the United States. [1]https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691147727/the-rise-and-fall-of-american-growth https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691147727/th... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
- leobg 5y agoThese look great. Thanks for the recommendation!