Suit Case (1888 at least); Suitcase Farming (1931, 1936); Sidewalk Farmer (1869)
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Wed Dec 28 00:35:56 UTC 2005
WIFE PUTS DEAD
HUBBY IN SUITCASE
--NY Daily News, 27 December 2005
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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.
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(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.
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_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
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_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) :
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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.
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_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)
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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.
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_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)
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A Defence of "Sidewalk Farmers," by Sereno Edwards Todd.
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_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) :
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_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.
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