Turn, Turn, Turn - Postal History Sunday

We are looking at our first Fall frost at the Genuine Faux Farm, which means we're working a bit of extra time outside to try and get harvests in and things taken care of before that frost hits.  That means time to write Postal History Sunday is limited and I will fall back on taking an older PHS (published almost three years ago) and update it this week!

After all, there is no such thing as good writing - but there is good re-writing!

Now, take those troubles and worries and put them in the middle of a book you know has a dull spot in the story line.  Yeah, find page 212, don't you always skip over that?  This, of course, assumes you are like me and you re-read books you have read before because you don't have time or energy to invest in a new one.  If you are the sort to re-read books, you know the rules are different - read the parts you want and skip page 212 if you want.

Now that your troubles are there, you have even more motivation to skip that portion.

Two Addresses, Two Stamps, Two Postmarks?

So, we'll start this week with an item that was sent in 1865 from Etna, New York to Dryden, New York to Edward Welsh.  If you look on the lower half of the folded letter you will see the very light Etna postmark dated April 7, 1865.  There is a 2 cent stamp depicting Andrew Jackson that paid the 2 cent fee for an unsealed circular. 

A circular is a type of printed matter where similar content was sent out to multiple addresses.  In other words, it was a type of bulk mailing that qualified for a discounted rate of postage.  In order to qualify for the discounted postage, the content had be unsealed (or easily opened) so postal clerks could check to be sure there were no personal messages included with the circular itself that would disqualify the item for the special rate.

In this case, the content is preprinted with the exception of a few details entered by hand that were allowed by the postal regulations at the time. *

*for further discussion - see addendum at end of this blog

The curious thing about the item?  Well, there happens to be ANOTHER 2 cent stamp paying the 2 cent circular rate where Mr. Welsh mailed the item from Dryden on April 10 back to the Town Clerk at Etna.  To avoid confusion, he crossed out his name and address.

So, what was Mr. Welsh returning to Etna? 

This is a signature confirmation form where Mr. Welsh was accepting the position of "Overseer of Highways for District No. 143."  Postal laws of the time allowed for such signature confirmations to be an unsealed circular, even though there was additional hand writing on the printed matter.  The handwriting only consisted of signatures, a date and a district number.  There was no personal message included, which would have disqualified it for the special rate.

Now, if the Town Clerk had written "Hey Ed!  How are the wife and kids?"  That would have required the letter rate (3 cents) for this item, whether it was unsealed or not.  And, if Ed had replied with "Doing just fine thanks!" He would have had to also pay three cents.

What was an Overseer of Highways?

Overseers of highways, whether they were turnpikes or publicly funded roadways, were often farmers who contracted to maintain a section of road near their farm.  There would be several such positions for the public roads in any given township. It was not required that they personally had to perform the maintenance.  However, having known many farmers in my life, many would scoff at the idea of sub-contracting to someone else.

Early in the history of the United States, roads were largely created by the towns, cities and, sometimes, states, as public works.  In New York, eligible men were required to do roadwork three days of the year, or pay to get out of doing it.  

In the last 1700s and early 1800s private enterprise was the big driver for road development.  Turnpikes, or toll roads, were developed - often with investments by local businesses and community members.  The principle of a turnpike was that a private company would seek investors to fund the building of the road and the tolls would then keep the company running as it oversaw the maintenance of those roads.

Toll gate in Albany, NY for the Great Western Turnpike

By the time we reach 1865, when this circular was first sent out, the development and upkeep of turnpikes were on the decline.  Many of these toll roads, like the Great Western Turnpike, were losing money with the development of railroads and canals that provided better services (and received more government support).  In many cases, including the Great Western, the road was passed back to the public domain - to be maintained once again by state and local governments.

There was certainly some pushback from some of the locals who were not fond of the idea of paying tolls.  Some who lived in the area of a turnpike would use alternative routes to avoid the toll road.   These routes were often referred to as "shunpikes."  I realize you probably didn't need to know this, but isn't your life just that much richer for knowing it?

If we bring this back to our piece of postal history, there were a couple of attempts to build turnpikes through Dryden.  One in 1836 (the Norwich and Ithaca Turnpike) and another in 1816 (the Homer and Genoa Turnpike).  It is unclear to me if either were completed or active to Etna, nor is it clear to me if they were still active in the area in 1865.

The Concept of a "Turned" Cover

Each of the items I am showing today are examples of what a postal historian would call a "turned cover."  The concept is pretty simple.  An item was mailed with an initial address and then the same letter or envelope was modified to allow for it to be sent on to a different address.  

What we see next is actually an envelope that was unsealed completely and then refolded and re-glued.  The original postal address and stamp were on the INSIDE of the envelope and the second use was on the outside.  An astute collector noticed this and slit the sides open so a person could easily see each side.

This envelope was clearly started out as another unsealed circular (2 cent rate) mailed from Trenton, New Jersey, on May 22, 1868 and received, apparently, the next day at Brandon, Vermont.  The printed corner card (that's the red ink printing at the upper right) is for John A. Roebling in Trenton.  It turns out that this was a company (John A Roebling & Sons) that made wire rope which could be used as part of the construction of suspension bridges.  This company made the cables for the George Washington Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The docketing (sideways handwriting on this cover) may pertain to some sort of business dealing by the addressee E.D. Selden of Brandon, but I cannot be certain.

Selden must not have been a wasteful sort, because when they needed an envelope, they deconstructed this one and essentially folded it inside out, re-gluing it and remailing it with a 3 cent stamp for the letter rate.  It was sent on to M.F. Blake Esq. of South Barton, Vermont.  The "Esq." typically indicates that the addressee advertised that they were in the legal profession in the US.

According to the History of Rutland County, Vermont, Vol 1, E.D. Selden had been the owner of the Selden Quarry (1849-1864).  But, we cannot be sure if this was E.D. Selden after he sold the quarry or if this is one of Selden's offspring with the same initials.

Turned Covers Aren't Always Neatly Opened

As you can imagine, not every piece of postal history comes out of the process of doing its job (carrying the mail) unscathed!  How often have you opened mail, only to tear it into a an unsightly mess?  After all, you aren't thinking that someone might like to collect that useless envelope in the future, right?

Now, imagine that the envelope served its duty by carrying mail once, was deconstructed, folded inside out, reconstructed and mailed again - only to have someone violently open it that second time around!  That envelope might look a bit like this one does:

Here we have another unsealed circular mailed from an unknown location to Front Royal, Virginia.  The year is likely after the Civil War and I would place it between 1866 and 1869.  The envelope was repurposed and mailed by Thomas W Ashby, Esq at the 3 cent letter rate, being sent from Front Royal to Pattonsburg (VA).  There is likely enough information here to learn more about the correspondents, but that may be for another day.

Paper Scarcity and Paper in Transition

One of the themes you might notice here is that the first mailing of a re-used (or turned) item was typically a printed matter item (an unsealed circular).  A printed matter item was typically mass-produced and several were sent out at one time to various addresses, accounting for the discounted postage rates enjoyed.

And, yes, in case you were wondering - this is what we often refer to as "junk mail." 

So, suppose you are Mrs. Eleanor Boles of Mooreland, Ohio, and you receive this nice, big envelope from some company mailing a circular to you advertising their wares.  You might not be interested in what they have to offer, but you can certainly use that nice, big envelope!  

In fact, you could mail something that was a bit heavier!  Something that weighed over a half ounce and no more than one ounce.  All you need to do is turn the envelope inside out and put six cents of postage on there to send it to Mr. Andrew Daig in Rochester, Pennsylvania.  

Hey!  Stationery was not something everyone either could afford or was willing to spend money on.  It only made sense to make do with what you had on hand!

The shortage of paper in the Southern states during the Civil War is well-known and often written about.  In fact, there are numerous examples of envelopes being made out of wall paper in the South at that time.  These, and turned covers, are often referred to as "adversity covers" in that context.  

But, there was even more at play here.  Up until this point, most paper was made of ragstock (cloth), which was a bit more expensive and becoming harder to come by.  On the other hand, the mid 1800s shows the rapid growth of the paper industry that used wood pulp as the basis for paper (the first machine credited to be able to do this was developed in 1844).

At the same time, postage rates were being decreased by many nations to support the use of postal services by the general public.  In the United States, the event of the Civil War found more people desperate to communicate with loved ones separated by conflict.  The demand for paper and envelopes for mail was increasing.

Then, you add the normal shortages that happen when there is a conflict and you either have people unwilling to pay the price for paper products or people unable to easily get said paper products.  Whether it was for the purpose of scrimping and saving or lack of access, we will never know - but we still get two stories for the price of one when we find a turned cover!

More Resources

If you would like to read a bit more about the history of paper in the United States, I found this article:

The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in Early America by Roger Mellen

Roger Mellen (2015) The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in EarlyAmerica, Media History, 21:1, 23-41, DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2014.983058

*Addendum

I did promise, way back towards the beginning of this entry, that I would give more explanation regarding the postal regulations for circulars - so here we go!

The United States Postal Act of 1863 (March 3 - effective April 1), set several new regulations for the carriage of mail in the United States.  Among them was the new definition of mailable matter and third-class mail.  One sub-class of third-class mail was the "transient circular."  These were pre-printed mailings that were not regularly scheduled as a newspaper or other subscribed material might be.  The rate was 2 cents for up to three circulars to the same address.

Section 24 of this act reads:

Mailable matter, wholly or partly in writing, or so marked as to convey further information than is conveyed in the original print, in case of printed matter, or sent in violation of the law ... shall be subject to letter postage.

In other words, an item would qualify for the reduced postage rates for printed matter UNLESS additional writing was included that extended the original message.

So, a penciled note in the margin that said, "Doing well at the farm, Martha fell into a well yesterday though," would result in the requirement for letter-rate postage.  On the other hand, the pre-printed form shown with the first turned cover was allowed because only specific filled in details (date, district number and signatures) were included.  All writing was to fulfill the function of the form and no additional messaging was applied.

On the other hand, I am pretty certain that if someone returned a commercial order form with their order filled in, it would require letter postage.  All in all, it was part of the evolving interpretation by postmasters for what met requirements and what did not. 

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Thank you for joining me today!  Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.

Around the Bend

When Tammy and I take a hike on a trail, we do like to take a moment and enjoy our surroundings as we go.  This is even more pronounced if we bring a camera along because we like to try and look at things different ways and capture different viewpoints of where we are at that point in time on the path.

Most of the pictures don't turn out to be much of anything from a 'photo' perspective.  In fact, most of them end up being deleted.  But, some few of them look pretty good and many of them help transport ourselves back to that moment.

Then, there are pictures that - even though I remember that moment and place - make me wonder, "What would I find if I stepped into that picture and followed the trail I see?  What would be around the bend?"

Would the trees welcome our presence?  Would there be a light breeze or would it be perfectly calm?  Are there birds in the underbrush to the right and left?  Would they grow silent as we stepped through or would they continue to chatter, not caring that someone magically appeared on the path nearby?

Would we remember to look carefully at where we are now and appreciate things like the texture of bark, the smell of leaves and the rustle of sound as a small creature darts around in the brush?  Or will we focus too hard on our destination - the area after we turn that bend in the path? 

I just hope that we can be happy to be on the path in the first place.

Answers to Name That Flower

We played a game on Monday's blog called "Name That Flower."  I gave you until this Friday to see if you could figure them out on your own - now I'm going to give you the answers!  Remember, I'm not going to break it down to variety names and I am just going to stick with common names here.  Nothing fancy.  Just a little fun.

a) Zinnia

b) Aster

c) Chleome or Spider Flower

d) Cockscomb

e) Okra

f) Gazinia

g) Amaranth

h) Basil

i) Broccoli

I hope you enjoyed trying to figure these out!  If you know growing and gardening, I am guessing most of these were not too hard for you.  But I am betting you don't always think of some of these as potentially providing valuable pollinator habitat.  Diverse flower types, growth habits and bloom periods help provide the food that maintains a diverse ecosystem.  And, on our farm, that diverse ecosystem provides pollinator services for the food crops we like to grow.

Even if the broccoli bolts (stretches the heads into flower stalks) before we can harvest.  Make the best of a "bad" thing and let them feed the pollinators too.

Have a good day everyone!

Self-Critical

This post was originally published in October of 2019 and I offer it as a Throwback Thursday post.  I've done very little editing this time around.  I hope you enjoy the (re) read.

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I've been doing some thinking as I've been out digging the potatoes.  And, we all know thinking is a dangerous pastime!

I've been hearing so much criticism by everyone leveled at everyone else lately that I was wondering if anyone was actually looking in the mirror and considering how they measure up.  I realize there are several people in this world who are entirely too hard on themselves, so I recognize my characterization is likely unfair.  But, it seems the loudest voices right now are getting pretty mean without realizing that perhaps the critique being pointed at others just might apply to the source as well.

Self-critical of our own small farm's practices

It is important, if you own a small, working farm that tries to sell locally and direct to consumer, to always put on a 'good face.'  Give the people what they want and maybe you'll make a few sales.  Do what it takes to always make things look good.  Obscure anything that doesn't meet that end and stretch definitions when it seems like it is important.  And, perhaps, above all - make the customer feel like this:

 

You can take the this several ways.  It could be a critique of how out of touch so many of us are with what it takes to be in touch with nature and supportive of the environment.  Or, you can consider it a statement that calls out all of the small farms that keep putting out the beautiful farm pictures on Facebook to collect as many likes as they are able in hopes that it translates to other support (our farm included).

Instead, I took it as a reminder of how very far away the Genuine Faux Farm is from being perfectly friendly to the environment - despite everything Tammy and I think we do to work with nature.  Do not get me wrong.  It is very important to us that we try to do the right thing with respect to keeping the damage we do to the environment to a minimum.  But, there is no getting around the simple fact that our very existence as a farm is often in conflict with nature.

Deer, woodchuck and rabbit are all likely to destroy many of our crops - especially at moments when we can afford to lose those crops the least.  Foxes, raccoon, mink, hawks, owls and other predators threaten the poultry we raise.  Trees shade gardens that need full sun - or solar panels that don't do their job quite so well in the shade.  We till our soil and make life a bit more difficult for the micro-organisms that try to live there.  The snakes hate it when I turn the compost pile and the rats are generally not welcome where our poultry feed is. We grow plants and varieties that are not native to our soils.  We drive a tractor that creates soil compaction and uses fossil fuels.  We use single use plastic bags for green beans we sell.

I could probably make an extremely long list of things that we do that are contrary to the image we hope to project.  But, I have to avoid crossing the line into despair. 

We have to hope the difference we make because we actually TRY to work with nature is enough to start with.

We're happy to have some bumblebees on the farm and we'd love to have more.

It would be too easy to just throw up our hands and say, "Well, I guess that was useless.  It's just easier to stop caring."  Well, ok.  I'm wrong.  I think it would not be easy for the two of us to say this unless it was a moment of sheer frustration.  But, I don't think I am entirely wrong in saying that many people have opted for this attitude.

The - "oh well, nothing I do really makes a difference, so why try?" - attitude.

Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin & Hobbes) often got it right.

Being willing to be self-critical might actually help us do better than just trying.

I had the dubious 'honor' of having to euthanize a song-bird today.  I didn't enjoy it at all.  But, I was enjoying watching it go through its suffering even less.  This bird clearly had either been injured or it was dying from some sort of disease.  I realize that creatures of this world are constantly dealing with threats to their well-being and have been doing so well before humans started piling on additional threats and obstacles.  But, I still found myself questioning whether I had some part in the circumstances that led to this particular bird's demise.

Does the concentration of poultry on our farm create some sort of imbalance that might impact wild birds?  This is certainly a possibility that I cannot discount.  I also know that the habitat we have installed attracts more birds to our farm than the surrounding corn and soybean fields do.  So, I suppose I should feel good about that.  And the Goldfinches love the sunflower seeds right now.  But, sometimes I wonder if I just lure these birds into a trap that exposes them to the unhealthy things that surround our farm at certain times of the year.

It is not required that every criticism I level at myself should have legs to stand on its own.  What is required is that I ask the questions so I can continue to seek out better answers.

By providing what might be considered a very small oasis by migrating song birds in the middle of corn-soybean fields, we probably expose ourselves to more instances of exhausted creatures who just don't have enough in them to continue their journey.  So, I guess we will continue to provide habitat because we think that is better than the alternative.   And, I will once again provide the dubious service of easing suffering if I am called to do so again. The difference is that the Genuine Faux farmers will move on and look critically at the habitat we provide in hopes that we can improve it.  We will also continue to consider the size of our poultry flocks in an effort to keep them, our pastures and the rest of the farm as healthy as we are able.

In the end, we know we can do better and we are willing to be self-critical so we have a prayer of actually becoming better.  We'd love it if more people joined us in this endeavor.

Stepping Back to See Better

I was curious.  If I took a look at some of the digital pictures I have in the folder labeled OctNov2013, what would I find there?  This is not an entirely facetious question because there really is no telling what sorts of images would be in any particular folder on my computer.

Of course, there are patterns.  Spring months feature a lot of young plants in trays.  September is likely to have many images of the harvest.  But, from year to year, I have not gone about collecting images with any particular plan.  Sometimes, I try to capture images of fields as they progress.  Other times, I try to discover new ways of looking at things.

And, during some of the most trying months, I find very few photos.  And thus those trying times are often allowed to fade a bit more easily with time.

This time, I noticed a few photos that documented the project of moving Eden, our smaller high tunnel from one position to the other.  Here we are, earlier in the day, with Eden in its Eastern position.  Our two lawn tractors (Biter and Beater) were out to help.  Our tractor, Durnik, can be seen in the background.  There is no Rosie (the big red tractor).  The trees near the Harvestore are much smaller.  There is no perennial planting that is now located just to the left of the lawn tractor in the foreground.

In short - things look, and feel, different in this picture than they do in the present day.

I discovered this image of the old barn in that folder as well.  I had forgotten that a wind storm had flipped the roof off and in front of the frame that September.  And all of the trees and brush that has sprung up around the old barn in the past ten years have barely made an appearance in 2013.

Now, it's not that I am completely enamored with the way things are today on the farm.  There are numerous things about both of these pictures that I wish we could have addressed and gotten to differently than we did.  But, I am okay with the increase of habitat - intentional or not - that we have had at the Genuine Faux Farm over the past ten years.

These 2013 images feel barren - and it isn't just because they were taken after the Fall leaves had fled the branches they once held on to.

Again, there are some things I really would like to "clean up" at our farm that have become "wild."  And there are wild places I would like to be a different kind of "wild."  But overall?  I still think we've been going in the right direction.  It's not perfect - but if stepping back to 2013 so I can see 2023 better leads me to the conclusion that we've done ok.   I am good with that.

Thanks for reading today!  I hope you have a fine remainder and that you have a chance to step back and get a welcome perspective.

So Many Worthless Words

Writing, what's the point?

I have set writing goals for myself over the years.  Some of them I have failed to reach.

Okay, most of them I have failed to reach.  Why? Because, I have a tendency to set expectations that are either too ambitious to be realistic or, more frequently, my target moves on me as I pursue my goal.  But, there is one type of goal I have managed to achieve with some regularity - and it has to do with just continuing to write.  

For example, when the pandemic really started to hit home for us in April of 2020 (and when I started the job with PAN), I decided I would pick up the pace on blog production for our farm blog.  In fact, I decided to blog every day for three months - and I achieved that.  Since that time, I've posted 275 blogs or more each year (2020-2022) and I am at about 250 with this post for 2023.

It's so tempting to sit back and mock myself.  So much time wasted.  So many worthless words pushed into a yawning black hole that doesn't even bother to suck them down because they don't have any substance.

And perhaps this would be the case if my goals for this blog were to establish a vast readership, "monetize" the content, and/or "make a name for myself."  Because, of course, I have accomplished none of those goals.  Oh, I have periodically written things that have gotten a bit more attention and I've received more than my share of kind words and compliments.  But if you want to measure the success of this blog by electronic media standards - this blog only stands out for its sheer stubbornness in persisting longer than most people might think would make sense.

Why write?

So, if I question my own wisdom with respect to this dedication to writing, why do I keep doing it?  

I do ask myself this question every so often.  I wonder if I should stop, or write less, or write differently.  I reassess my motivations and purposes.  I try to determine if the words "because I want to" are enough to justify the effort.

I even spend a few moments looking to other people's writing to see if there are insights there I can use as I ponder these thoughts.

This blog by a person who goes by Profound Familiarity was interesting in that the writer doesn't really attribute any great moral virtue to writing.  Instead, they simply conclude that they see it as a part of their life, they're happy that they've stuck with it for twenty years, and they feel good that it is a part of their life.

Hm.  I can relate to some of that at least.  The question now is - am I ok with simply telling myself that I feel good that writing is simply a part of my life?

I also came across this "article" on the Kaiser Permanente site that espouses the benefits of jouraling or writing.  While this is probably a mash up of material from all sorts of locations and is not likely to be attributed to a particular author, it does summarize a few points that might be worth considering.

They suggest journaling (if you can call this blog a journal) is one way to maintain your health by reducing stress and anxiety, gain self-confidence and find inspiration.  Of course, they use the typical "click-bait" approach by giving us "7 surprising benefits" to keeping a journal.  So, is it odd I found none of their seven items to be... um... surprising?

I'll be honest with you.  I didn't find either of these blogs or articles to be hugely engaging or particularly well-written.  But, they still provided me with food for thought.  It's a good reminder that something doesn't have to be high art to have value.

Then, I came to this article by the Marginalian (Maria Popova).  The article is from 2014 by a person who has dedicated themselves to writing for quite some time.  The by-line material suggests that they have been doing this for seventeen years.  This article is a bit sprawling, but there is some quality writing here and some real depth to the exploration.

The content is about what some celebrated authors have said about keeping a journal and there are lots of tidbits there worthy of consideration.

But, is this the same thing as a journal?

As I read the article in the Marginalian, I realized that there is a fundamental difference between what those authors are discussing and what you see here.  A diary or a journal is typically a fully inward facing document.  These blogs are almost always written with an outward facing quality.  They are written to be read, rather than written to be written.

So, even though none of these articles fit perfectly, some things still ring true.  This is a testing ground for ideas, thoughts and words.  Sometimes things that start here become refined and find homes or purposes that are bigger than this blog.  Sure, I admit that nothing I've written or said has likely gotten much attention outside a fairly small circle of people in this world.  And that's ok.  But, if something that started here made a small positive difference somewhere - that's a win.

This is also a place where I work to refine a craft.  If I write frequently, it becomes easier to write well when my job at Pesticide Action Network requires it.  If I write often, I have prepared and organized my thoughts on a multitude of topics so that when I am invited to speak, I present those thoughts more easily and more clearly than I might have otherwise.   

And, of course, this is a place to share learning, promote ideas for small-scale, diversified farming, and to try to shine a bit of a light on what can seem like a very dark world at times.

But I still have to ask myself if I desire to write often or if the momentum of having written often is simply dragging me along.

I have no real answer for that.  And maybe I don't need one.

Name That Flower

We're going to play a game this Monday.  The game is called "Name That Flower."  If you bothered to read the title of this blog post, I suspect you were not at all surprised by the name of the game.  And, if you've read the first couple of sentences and you understood all of the words, you won't be surprised when I tell you that you're supposed to guess the names of the flowers I show you in the blog!

There are times in our lives when we just need a break.  There are times when we need something that helps us to feel good about ourselves.  So, I'm taking a break and I hope you will as well for just a few minutes.  Let's play a little "Name That Flower" and see how we feel at the end of it!

a) Monarchs have loved our long rows of these for years.

We'll start with what should be a relatively easy one for most people who read the blog.  But don't feel bad if you don't know it - that's not the point of the whole thing.  Instead, you should enjoy the pictures and the beauty depicted in them.  Appreciate the fact that Monarchs do like these flowers, and so do the larger bumblebees.  

These are an annual plant in Iowa and we grow long rows of them most years at the Genuine Faux Farm.  Oddly enough, this picture is not from our farm.  Instead it is from Blue Gate Farm.  So, that tells you this type of flower is commonly planted with vegetable crops on farms like ours.

And, before some of you get nervous, I am not looking for variety names here.  Low stress - remember?

b) A common Fall blooming perennial in Iowa

The next picture I am sharing with you is a plant at our farm.  It caught my attention because it is in full bloom right now AND it had three Monarchs on it at once.  Now, before you get all excited that we have lots and lots of Monarchs at our farm, let me disabuse you of that notion.  Sadly, it seems that the population continues to decline from our perspective.  It's not for a lack of trying on our part.

The biggest issue with Monarch decline in Iowa and the Midwest is how thoroughly we have removed connected habitat for them.  As always, there is more to it than that - but I did say this was supposed to be low stress.  Ups, sorry about that.

In any event, you will find reddish purple and purple versions of these flowers in some of the ditches in Iowa.  We've had several on our farm in the past, but it seems the dry year might have resulted in some decline this year.  Still, we've got some and we love their color and we appreciate how many different pollinators will visit them.

c) This flower, like many flowers, is known by several common names

Our next subject is another annual that we have planted most years at the Genuine Faux Farm.  It's an odd thing that the seeds are slow to germinate in the trays we use, but we often have volunteers that we can move to where we want them.  They have a range of colors that tend to go from white to purple and the plants can be as tall as four feet in height.

I will admit that I don't often see pollinators visiting these plants.  And yet, I am pretty sure someone visits them.  One of the cool things about nature is different flower shapes attract different pollinators.  There are so many different strategies for plants to produce pollinated and viable seeds - and that's part of what makes nature so interesting.

d) We grow an heirloom variety of this annual

I don't usually think of this flower as a big pollinator favorite, and yet, I have seen lots of traffic on these blooms this year.  Maybe it's because I made the wrong assumption and have not looked in the past?  I guess it doesn't matter because I have seen flies, bumblebees, honeybees, lady beetles and some very small bees on these plants in the last couple of weeks.  

And, yes, hummingbirds often check them out too, but I don't think they provide the type of flower the hummingbirds typically like.

e) Not every flower is grown just for the flowers

This picture is also from Blue Gate Farm.  We have grown this particular flowering plant ourselves in the past, but we haven't done so for the past several years for multiple reasons.  One of those reasons is that this plant is more productive where the weather is warmer and the growing season is a bit longer.  We have had some success in the past, but it's not always a sure thing for us.

It looks a bit like a hollyhock - but it's not.  I'll give you that much to go on.

f) a bright flower we usually grow in pots

Over the years, we've moved away from some of the hybridized flowers in an effort to stick with plants that might be truer to what our pollinators appreciate.  We remind ourselves that the characteristics that make a flower attractive to us often do not match what a pollinator is looking for in a flower.  But, we do indulge in a few things - and this is one of them.

This type of flower (maybe not this hybrid) is native to Southern Africa and works as a colorful ground cover.  We do sometimes see bumblebees visiting these flowers, but not frequently.

g) There are very few pollinators on this plant.

I have not seen many pollinators on this next plant.  Perhaps that is because it is self-fertile and it does not need to attract pollinators to reproduce.  Now, I will admit that I have not spent much time observing these flowers over time for a whole host of reasons.  One of those reasons is that it is related to some plants that are irritating weeds on our farm.  In fact, we know that there will likely be a host of volunteers where this ornamental is growing next spring.

That's ok, we'll be able to take care of it with minimal effort.  And I do hope to spend a little time before the first frost figuring out who might like visiting it.

h) You've likely seen this one if you've done vegetable gardening

There are several types of plants we have grown for some purpose other than their production of flowers - and yet we happily expect them to bloom and serve as food for our workers - the pollinators.  The plant you see above has a honey bee floating nearby - and we often see many types of smaller bees amidst the blooms.  In the past we would grow hundreds of row feet of these as a companion planting and as a food crop.

i) Another picture of the same flowers as in the very first image

And to close things out, I'll show you another picture of the flowers that opened the blog.  We definitely do not plant these for the flowers, but if they start to bloom, we know full-well that the pollinators will let us know that they like them.  And that's why we often leave them.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and maybe even tolerated some of the words that went with them.  Take your time guessing.  I'll post answers later this week in the blog - so stay tuned!

Cruising Along - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to Postal History Sunday.  This week we're going to spend some time on a couple of the popular cruise ships of the 1930s.

Take a moment to make yourself comfortable.  Put those troubles away and get out the deck shoes.  If you have trouble with sea sickness, take some dimenhydrinate.  Maybe we will all learn something new while I share something I enjoy!

Receiving Mail on the S.S. Rex

Today's story starts with an envelope sent from the United States in 1935 to a couple of passengers on the Italian luxury liner named Rex. 

At first glance, this letter is simply a single-weight, surface letter from Rochester, New York in the United States to Naples (Napoli), Italy.  The rate was five cents for the first ounce (20 grams) in weight and this rate was in effect from Oct 1, 1907 until Oct 31 1953 - quite a long time for a postage rate to be effective without an increase.

At the time this letter was mailed (July 30, 1935), there were options to use the new air mail service for part of the journey to Italy at a higher postage cost, but there was not yet air service to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  But, since there were air mail options, it is important for a postal historian to note that this was sent by "surface mail" - as in, it stayed on the surface of the earth, whether it was land or water.

There is a postal arrival marking for Napoli (Naples), for August 11, on the back of this envelope, but our eyes are drawn to the bold purple marking on the front of the cover.  This is not a postal marking, instead, it was applied by the Tourism Office (Ufficio Turismo) in Napoli for what was commonly known as the Italian Line of steamships (Italia Flotte Ruinite).

The names on this marking might be a bit confusing because it is actually a combination of names that came from the origin of the Italian Line.  In 1932, three Italian steamship companies were merged to create a single, national, steamship line.  These three consisted of Lloyd-Sabaudo (based in Turin), Cosulich STN (based in Trieste) and Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI - based in Genoa).  So, the three companies actually make an appearance on this marking (Italia - Cosulich - Lloyd).  The marking was applied on arrival at their offices and we can assume that the letter was handled by the shipping line for their passengers from that point on .

Artwork by James A Flood

Some of the motivation for the merger came directly from the Italian government because, during the 1930s, most national powers touted a strong shipping line to show their strength.  The British had the combined Cunard - White Star Line and Germany had the HAPAG and North German Lloyd lines.  Now Italy would have a strong steamship line and with that line would come state of the art ships such as the Rex.

The Rex was one of a number of very large, speedy ships that were being developed in the 1930s, but its true distinction came with the on-board accommodations which attracted strong attention from customers in the United States seeking to visit the Mediterranean.   The ship boasted not one, but two swimming pools, a theater and a cinema among other things.  In March of 1933, a radio broadcast from the ship of Schubert's Ave Maria, sung by Rosa Ponselle was heard on both sides of the Atlantic - a first.

Map taken from the GG Archives for the Aug 21, 1935 sailing of Rex

The Rex sailed its western-bound route beginning in Genoa, Italy, and it terminated the eastern route in Naples (Italy). The terminus in the United States was the harbor in New York.  The Italians held a great deal of pride in this ship and it secured the Blue Riband of the Atlantic in August of 1933, taking it from the German ship Bremen, that had set the previous speed record for an Atlantic crossing just one month prior.

Speaking of the German Ship Bremen

Well... looky here!  Another envelope featuring the National Parks issue stamps I enjoy.  And, this one has the words "S/S Bremen" boldly written at the top.  I wonder what that could be about?

Here is a larger envelope that carried some sort of letter mail content from New York City to Lahti, Finland, in July of 1935 - just 25 days prior to the first piece of letter mail shown above.

There is 24 cents of postage on this particular item, rather than the 5 cents on the first one.  This was also sent by surface mail (no air mail), so the need to have more postage had to be for other reasons.  First, the letter was sent as a "registered letter," which cost an additional 15 cents.  Registered mail provided the customer with tracking that was intended to provide more security that the item would get safely to where it was going.  The fifteen cent registration fee to a foreign destination was effective from Dec 1, 1925 until Jan 31, 1945.

The rest of the postage is mostly accounted for if we consider that this letter was a "double-weight" letter.  It weighed more than one ounce and no more than two ounces.  The first ounce, as we saw with the first letter, cost five cents in postage.  Each additional ounce cost three cents more.  So, the postage needed was eight cents plus fifteen for a registered letter.  Apparently, this item was overpaid by one penny.

Artwork by James A Flood

So, this letter was intended to be taken on the Bremen, the same ship that had held the Blue Riband by setting an Atlantic Crossing record in July of 1933 at 27.92 knots.  From a practical standpoint, this meant this ship could complete a round trip on a two week cycle since a one way trip could be completed in less than five days.  And, in fact, the Bremen maintained a schedule of departing from New York every other Friday.  It's sister ship, the Europa, had actually held the Blue Riband pror to the Bremen.  That meant a German steamer from the HAPAG/North German Lloyd line could leave port every Friday.

It just so happened that July 5 of 1935 was a Friday.  So, it might make sense that the sender of this letter was expecting one of the fastest steamships of the time to take the letter across the Atlantic.

And, yet, we are left to wonder - why did this letter arrive in Lahti, Finland, on July 20th - fifteen days later.  Surely, it did not take ten more days to get from Bremen or Hamburg to Finland?

The answer is actually on the front of the cover.  The words "S/S Bremen" have been crossed out.  This could be because the letter was received at the post office too late to be placed in the mailbag for the Bremen or perhaps, mails for Finland were not to be routed via this ship.  I suspect it was for the second reason because there was no "too late" marking applied to the letter.  But, I cannot prove either reason.

The Bremen Incident

As with the Rex, there are numerous interesting stories that surround the Bremen during her tenure as one of the finest vessels crossing the Atlantic Ocean.  One particular story occurred just a few weeks after the July 5th departure that this particular letter missed.

from this ALBA article

German vessels at this time were flying the German Weimar Republic flag and the Nazi flag.  The presence of the Nazi flag was not welcomed by many and an incident on July 26, 1935, created an international incident when the Nazi flag ended up in the water.

Members of the American League Against War and Fascism were regularly protesting and handing out anti-Nazi propaganda to those who sought to board the German luxury liners.  But, after the capture of one of their own and suspected torture by the Nazis, they decided that a stronger demonstration was needed.  

It was a regular practice for departing ships to allow the public on board for a nominal cost prior to departure (ten cents in this case).  This allowed relatives and friends, the press, and, in this case, persons intent on removing a certain offensive flag, to be on board until those without tickets were told to leave with the call "all ashore that's going ashore!"

The first-person account of Bill Bailey, the individual who eventually managed to get the flag down and into the water, can be found at this location.   

"I hurdled the last sea breaker and grabbed the first rung on the short ladder leading to the bowsprit. Pandemonium was all about me as I reached the top. The Nazi symbol was just a few inches from me. I drew a deep breath. Behind me I could hear the screams of the passengers, the barking of orders in German of the captain and the blowing of police whistles as dozens of police boarded the Bremen."

The United States deflected German claims that their ship had taken injury in an American port by stating that the Nazi flag was not the official flag of Germany, but they did issue formal apologies.  They found themselves apologizing yet again when Magistrate Louis Brodsky dismissed most of the charges against the "Bremen Six."

So - if I wrote all of that just because this particular envelop had the words "S/S Bremen" written on it - what would I have done if it had actually been carried on the July 26 sailing on the Bremen?

Bonus Material

But, wait!  There's more when it comes to this particular letter!

I did a cursory look at the addessee, Mr. J.G. Sihvola, but I did not find anything.  However, I shared this cover with an online acquaintance who lives in Lahti and I immediately got confirmation that this correspondence is fairly well known by postal historians in Finland.  Score one for sharing what we enjoy!

Jorma Sihvola worked at the Finnish Legation in Washington, D.C. for over ten years, starting in the 1930s and remaining through World War II.  His correspondence to family in Lahti is typically colorfully adorned with postage stamps, suggesting the possibility that there was a collector or two in the family, and has been distributed to collectors of stamps and postal history over time.  

J.G. and Aino Sihvola (husband and wife) had a wool clothing factory in Lahti.  Their son, Jorma, had probably not been in the United States for terribly long when he sent this letter.

Just having a name to refine searches brought me to an old newspaper where the likely sender of this letter was featured as a guest for the Singer's Guild in Washington, D.C.  That's one way to add a little color to the story.

My thanks to Tapio Hakoniemi for pointing me to this article that  features numerous items from the Sihvola correspondence during World War II, including a 1944 letter that suggests Jorma Sihvola had been in the US for a little over ten years. 

Looking for Examples of Higher Rate Letters

The letter to Finland is a pretty good example of a letter that was an excellent candidate to be heavier than the one ounce limit for a single weight letter.  The difficulty is that, unlike some of the early postal history I collect, there aren't many clues to confirm that an item really did require more postage. 

Above is another 1935 letter from Stratford, Connecticut, to England.  Twenty cents of postage are applied to the envelope.  The letter is not registered.  There are no markings to tell me it went via air mail.  And, the valid postal rates we might consider for surface mail are:

• 5 cents for a letter up to one ounce
• 8 cents for 1 to 2 ounces
• 11 cents for 2 to 3 ounces
• and from there it would be 14 cents, 17 cents and 20 cents.

Do I believe this letter held over five ounces of material?  The short answer is "no."  It is not at all uncommon to find letters that were overpaid simply because the recipient was a stamp collector... or maybe the sender was the stamp collector and they hoped to see the envelope again in the future.

On the other hand, something like this letter below feels much more likely to be an actual payment of the 8 cent rate for a letter over one ounce in weight.

Is it still likely a collector was involved?  Yes, I think so.  But, I also believe it more likely that it paid a proper 8 cent rate.   You might notice that this item was sent from one person to a relative that must have been traveling in Europe at this time in 1934.  Sure, they could probably expect the envelope to come back to them if they were a collector, so why not use interesting stamps?  But, why not also put some extra content in the envelope as well?

And then, there are items like this one.  There is ten cents worth of postage on here, which probably means the individual who sent it thought the rate was five cents per ounce of weight, so they overpaid by two cents.  

Can I verify this information?  

Once again, I cannot prove any of my assertions, but there are signs that might support my guesses.  If a person were going to send a letter that was solely with the intent of sending some stamps through the mail, they typically took the time to put things much more neatly on the envelope (such as the first in this series).  And, the postmarks seem to indicate that the collector wasn't standing over the clerk asking for light cancellations so the stamps would be "collectible."

And then there is this larger envelope.  It could clearly handle enough contents to warrant 17 cents in postage to go along with the 15 cent registration fee.   And, a business address makes it likely that business correspondence of some sort was included.  Is it still possible that the sender or recipient collected stamps?  Sure!  That, in itself, may be the reason this particular item still survives today!

Travel by Air

Everything up to this point has focused on letter mail that was classified as "surface letter mail."  But, air mail was beginning to make its presence known in the 1930s, so it shouldn't be surprising that I might show an example of that mode of conveyance here.

Here is a letter that actually used the air service in the United States, crossed the Atlantic on a steamship, and then used air mail in Europe to get to Athens, Greece in 1935.  The cover itself gives me multiple confirmations that my reading of its travel is correct.  A blue label (Par Avion / By Air Mail) states that air mail is to be used.  Red and blue parallelograms around the edge also indicated to the post office that air services were desired.

We also have this docket at the bottom of the envelope that may have been a directive to simply confirm what the postage was for.  It is also possible this text was added AFTER the letter had gone through the postal services by a collector.  I have no sure way of telling, but air mail was new enough that some direction in the form of a docket might have been useful.

The postage costs for air mail went through a number of changes in the early years and some of the calculations could get a bit complex.  Happily, this one is not so difficult.  We can start with the fifteen cent fee for a registered letter.  That leaves us with 11 cents for the letter mail postage.

The US required 8 cents in postage for each ounce in weight (Nov 23, 1934 - Jun 20, 1938), which included postage for the air carriage to the Atlantic port city as well as the Atlantic crossing on a steamship to England.  An additional 3 cents was added for each half ounce for air carriage in Europe (Jul 1, 1932 - Apr 27, 1939).

Well, I sure am glad that one added up properly (15 + 8 +3 = 26 cents)! 

Epilogue - End of the Line

Both the Bremen and Rex reached the end of the line in the 1940s, though only one of the two was a casualty of war. Oddly enough, the Bremen succumbed to a fire set by a disgruntled employee while it was at Bremerhaven.  

"The Gestapo initially suspected that British intelligence had a hand in the destruction of the ship, but before long the investigation fell upon a 15-year-old deckhand from the Bremen, Walter Schmidt, who eventually confessed to having set the fire in revenge for a clip on the ear given him by a supervisor. Wartime justice was swift and severe. Schmidt was executed." taken from the Cruise Line History site.

The Rex, on the other hand, was laid up for the war in Trieste until the Italian Armistice on Sep 8, 1943.  At that point, the German forces seized the ship and gutted her of anything of value to them.  In September of 1944, the ship was towed out of port and anchored off the Istrian coast where it was bombed and sunk by Allied planes.

And thus ended two of the most widely lauded ocean-going vessels of the 1930s.  Both fast ships and Blue Riband winners - and neither was on the move when they met their doom.

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Thank you for joining me today!  Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.

Postal History Sunday is published each week at both the Genuine Faux Farm blog and the GFF Postal History blog.  If you are interested in prior entries, you can view them, starting with the most recent, at this location.