Suit Case (1888 at least); Suitcase Farming (1931, 1936); Sidewalk Farmer (1869)

Wed Dec 28 00:35:56 UTC 2005

WIFE PUTS DEAD
HUBBY IN SUITCASE
--NY Daily News, 27 December 2005
...
...
Time to look at "suitcase." I was looking at the online "Encyclopedia of  
Oklahoma" entries and the entry "sidewalk and suitcase farmers" caught my  
attention.
...
...
...
(OED)
suitcase

1. A  small portmanteau designed to contain a suit of clothes. Hence more 
generally, a  piece of luggage in the form of an oblong case, usu. with a hinged 
side and a  handle, for carrying clothes and other belongings.  
1902  Times 8 May 15/1 Captain Clive..sent on his suit-case and other luggage 
by another  train. 1942  _W. FAULKNER_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-f.html#w-faulkner)  Go Down, Moses 235 The boy waked  him at last and got 
him and the suitcase off the train.  1981  _D. M. THOMAS_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-t.html#d-m-thomas)  White Hotel IV. i. 133 She  realized 
they were travellers, for they were weighed down by rucksacks and  suitcases.
2.  Phr. to live out  of 
(or from) a suitcase (or suitcases): to move between  temporary 
accommodation, esp. hotels and boarding houses; to be a wanderer, to  have no fixed abode.  
1946  _L. DURRELL_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-d2.html#l-durrell)  Let. 25 Sept. in Durrell & Miller Private Corr. (1963) 229, I  can't tell 
you what wonderful peace and quiet it is, having a house of your own  after so 
many years living from suitcases in hotels. 1960  J. WEIGHTMAN tr. H. de 
Montherlant's Sel. Essays 181 To live for years on end out of a small 
suitcase..seemed so much  part and parcel of my everyday life. 1969  Photoplay Jan. 69/1 ‘
It never  occurred to me it would take ten years to settle down,’ Audrey said 
recently,  after ten years of living out of suitcases. 1975  _C.  EGLETON_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-e.html#c-egleton)  Skirmish xiii. 132 He 
had spent  the greater part of his life living out of a  suitcase.
3.  a. attrib. Designating devices small or compact enough to be fitted  into 
a suitcase, usu. in connection with secret or criminal activities, as 
suitcase bomb, radio,  etc.  
1954  Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 25 Mar. 16 (heading) Now the ‘suitcase A
-bomb’. Ibid. 16/2 All of which means that a ‘suitcase atom bomb’ is no longer 
a  figment of the imagination. 1972  T. ARDIES  This Suitcase is going to 
Explode xiii. 134 Suitcase bombs have been discussed..in public. Ibid. xvii.  188 
Very damning Very such as the plans for constructing a suitcase  nuclear 
bomb. 1974  _L. DEIGHTON_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-d.html#l-deighton)  Spy Story xix. 207 Our boy with  the suitcase radio set came in five by 
five. A powerful signal.
b.  Comb., as suitcase farmer N. Amer., a farmer who is  resident on his farm 
for only a small part of the year (see quots.).  
1941  R. DILLER  Farm Ownership, Tenancy, & Land Use 2 ‘Suitcase farmer’ is 
a term used of farmers on the Great Plains  who put in a crop of wheat in the 
fall and come back to harvest it the next  summer, after having spent the 
winter in their permanent homes elsewhere. 1956  Saturday Night (Toronto) 13 Oct. 
15/1 The wheat-marketing problem means the end of the ‘suitcase  farmer’, who 
has been accustomed to spend only a few weeks on his land each  spring and 
summer for seeding and harvesting. 1970  DUCKHAM & _MANSFIELD_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-m.html#mansfield)  Farming Syst. World II. ii. 114 A  ‘
suit-case’ farmer moves seasonally between his several farms.
...
...
...

_http://www.okhistory.org/enc/sidesuit.htm_ 
(http://www.okhistory.org/enc/sidesuit.htm) 

"SIDEWALK AND SUITCASE FARMERS." "Sidewalk farmers" refers to individuals  
who live in urban areas and drive to the country to care for their crops and  
livestock. In 1935 the federal census of agriculture recorded 213,325 Oklahoma  
farms, but by 1980 there were only seventy-two thousand. In the 1997 census, 
due  to a change from the Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC) to 
the  North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), aligning Canada, 
Mexico,  and United States enumeration categories, the number of farms in 
Oklahoma  increased to 74, 214. However, 41,154 of these owners claimed their primary 
 income came from something other than farming. There are thousands of these  
part-time agriculturalists in the state, and they spend much of their weekend 
 taking care of the family farm.
Less numerous are "suitcase farmers," who reside great distances from their  
land but tend it a few weeks annually at planting and harvesting time. This 
type  of hobby farming lends itself to wheat, one of Oklahoma's most popular 
crops.  Suitcase and sidewalk farms help many of their owners rekindle a sense of 
rural  identity while enjoying the benefits of waged incomes in urban 
environments.  This often allows families to continue their long relationships with 
the  ancestral farm, which may have been in the family for generations. The 
fact that  ties to the land are held today by city dwellers illustrates the 
strong  agricultural roots that were recorded in the census of 1920, when farm  
population made up half of the state's population.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ralph E. Olson, "Agriculture in Oklahoma," in Geography of  
Oklahoma, ed. John W. Morris (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society,  1977). 
U. S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Agriculture (Washington, D.C.: G.  P. 
O., 1890-1997). Gilbert C. Fite, American Agriculture and Farm Policy  Since 
1900 (New York: Macmillan, 1964). 
Larry O'Dell 
... 
... 
... 
_THE  STRICKEN EMPIRE OF WHEAT; A Picture of the Prairies Whose Golden Grain 
Has  Become a Harvest Without Profit, of the Men Who Work Them and of the 
Machines  That Changed Life and Helped to Make the Surplus A PICTURE OF THE 
STRICKEN WHEAT  EMPIRE The Golden Grain That Has Become a Harvest Without a Profit, 
the Men Who  Grow It and the Machines That Have Changed Farm Life _ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=98339470&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&V
Type=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1135728363&clientId=65882) 
By JAMES C. YOUNGPhoto by Rittase.Photo Courtesy Kanasas City Board  of 
Trade.. New York Times. Aug 9, 1931. p. 64 (3  pages) : 
... 
Second Page: Meanwhile this new and greatest of wheat empires has  lived upon 
canned milk, canned beans, canned this and that--a canners' paradise.  
"Suitcase farming," they call it. 
... 
... 
_THE  VAGUE, ROAMING 'DUST BOWL'; A New Picture of the Region In Which the 
Soil Blows  The Problems Created by Past Mistakes, and the Outlook THE VAGUE, 
ROAMING 'DUST  BOWL' OF AMERICA A Picture of the Great Region in Which the Dust 
Blows, and of  the Far-Reaching Problem That It Presents to the Nation _ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=87968945&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=P
ROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1135728740&clientId=65882) 
By H.H. BENNETTWASHINGTON.. New York Times  (1857. Jul 26, 1936. p. SM1 (3 
pages) 
... 
Pg. 17: A fellow came in there last Fall, one of these suitcase  farmers, and 
sowed a lot of wheat. He's a dentist in Los Angeles--and good at  pulling 
teeth, maybe. 
... 
... 
_Masthead  2 -- No Title_ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=79362444&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1135729045&
clientId=65882) 
New York Times (1857-Current file).  New York, N.Y.: Jun 22, 1869. p. 5 (1 
page)  
... 
A Defence of "Sidewalk Farmers," by Sereno Edwards Todd. 
... 
... 
... 
_Display  Ad 15 -- No Title_ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=68&did=106327368&SrchMode=1&sid=5&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=113572
9863&clientId=65882) 
New York Times (1857-Current  file). New York, N.Y.: Jul 1, 1888. p. 8 (1 
page) : 
... 
_Trunks, Bags, & c._ 
Intending buyers of Trunks, Traveling Bags, Dress Suit Cases, Hat  Boxes, 
Hampers, and Steamer Chairs will find itto their advantage to call and  get our 
prices. They average 2 per cent. below those asked by other houses. 
_Simpson, Crawford & Simpson,_ 
6TH-AV. AND 19TH-ST.