USA > Iowa > Lucas County > History of Lucas County, Iowa containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc > Part 53
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1879 -- Acres assessed, 276,040; value of lands, $2,072,147; town lots, $338,- 234; personal property, $1,099,681; total, $3,555.062. Poll tax, $1,314.00; state, $7,111.86; county, $17,779.67; county school, $3,555.93; district school, $23,519.45; bridge, $2,844.77; highway, $2,867.02; city, $2,073.54; insane, $711.17; railroad commissioner tax levied against railroad prop- erty, $553.80; total tax, $62,331.21.
1880-Acres assessed, 275,769; value of lands, $2.069,469; town lots, $377,851; personal, $1,241,956; total value, $3,689.276. The poll tax had increased nearly $200, reaching this year, to $1,504.50; state, $7,378.57; state levy to pay " war and defense bonds " (an indebtedness incurred by the state during the rebellion), $1,844.63; county, $18,446.40; county school, $3,689.27; district school, $23,164.40; insane, $1,844.62 ; railroad commissioners, $251.95; bridge, $3,689.27; highway, $3,478.24; city, $3,163.22; total, $68,455.07. The revenue, this year, was divided into eleven different funds, the largest number of divisions ever made.
The following abstract of assessment, for the year 1880, shows, in a tabulated form, the valuation and sources from whence the revenue of Lucas county is derived:
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REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.
VALUATION.
Lands exclusive of town property, 276,169.85 acres.
៛ 2.175,954.00
TOWNS, AND VILLAGES.
VALUE OF REALTY
IN TOWNS.
Lagrange.
$ 1,106.00
Chariton.
332,574.00
Lucas and Cleveland.
22,959.00
Derby.
19,179.00
Freedom
593.00
Russell.
25,659.00
Aggregate value of realty in towns.
402,070.00
Aggregate value of railroad property as assessed by executive council un-
der chapter 5, title 10, of the Code of 1873.
378,076.00
Aggregate value of personal property, (including horses, cattle, etc.).
864,224.00
Total valuation of the county
$ 3,820,324.00
Total exemptions for trees planted, deducted from above, $9,509.00.
LIVE STOCK.
NAME OF LIVE STOCK.
NUMBER.
AGGREGATE VALUATION.
Cattle assessed in the county.
16,166|€
254,823 00
Horses
5,857
204,706.00
Mules
498
19,687.00
Sheep
5,096
5,126.00
Swine
64
20,020
57,737.00
Total valuation of live stock
$ 543,079.00
AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS.
Agriculture is the most healthful, the most needful, and the most inde- pendent pursuit in which man can be employed. Among the first com- mands of his Creator, were, that he should go forth "to till the ground, from ·whence he was taken," and adding, that "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." It is the basis upon which all other pursuits in life are founded and obtain their support. It is the great industry from which the wealth of nations is directly and indirectly derived.
It may not be uninteresting to note, by way of comparison, the wonder- ful advancements which the agricultural industries of this country, have made from their primitive beginning to the present time.
Agriculture is a conquest over nature, through the efforts of experiment and toil; and its triumphs have won for it the grand position it occupies to-day. It has attractions which have drawn some of the greatest men of the world to its pursuit. That Roman patrician, Cincinnatus, left his plow* at the call of his country to assume the dictatorship of Rome, and when . he had relieved it of its foes, he returned to his farm. So, too, when Washington withdrew from the councils of his country, he retired to his
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broad acres at Mount Vernon where he spent the remainder of his days in the enjoyments of his chosen calling. Marshfield had ever for Webster, the great and ambitious statesman, greater charms for him than the national senate chamber, because it was the delight of his life, when not in the service of his country. What could more strongly, and touchingly evidence this fact, than his dying request, that his cattle be driven, one by one, past the window of the room in which his last hours were ebbing away ? The highest pursuit of nobility in the old monarchial countries of the world, is agriculture. It is the mother of industries, which Sully, the famous minister of Henry IV, of France, verified, when he said that agriculture-including tillage and pasturage-is "the two breasts of the state." His is a striking utterance, and true. It is the industry that sus- tains life. A thorough review of agricultural pursuits in their various branches, from the day when our first parents were driven from the gar- den of Eden, and condemned to toil-to till the ground and earn their bread by the sweat of their brows to the present time, would be a grand exhibit of progress.
Space forbids other than a brief glance at the accomplishments of the agricultural interests of our own country, from the period of its occu- pancy by the red man, to the presenttim The early colonists of this continent, who came to Virginia and New England, found the Indian, who, though not an agriculturist, because he thought it beneath his dig- nity to cultivate the soil, yet, he did it as a matter of necessity to secure a living, though mainly through the labor of the women and children. A careful regard and attention was given to the crop. To show the way in which the Indian prepared the ground for his crops in those densely cov- ered forest regions of the continent, we quote from Capt. John Smith, who visited Virginia in 1609, and wrote of the Indians thus: "The greatest labor they take is in planting their corn; for the country is natur- ally overgrown with wood. To prepare the ground, they bruise the bark of trees near the roots; then do they scorch the roots with fire, that they grow no more." In the timbered regions of the east, the process of "girdling trees," by cutting through the sappy portion, thus destroying the life and producing the decay of the foliage and branches, that the sun and moisture may be admitted, and thus give the crop its growing and ripening elements. The mode and implements of cultivation of the soil during the aboriginal period of this country were rude-as rude as the red man's civilization was, in its deterioration from that of which he was a barbarized relic. Evidence that the Indian of this county is the relic of a civilization long anterior to his discovery here is apparent in the single fact that his knowledge of the means of fertilization is traditional with him, and by him first imparted to the early colonist of this continent. Their means of fertilization was the burning of dead branches and wood
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every spring and spreading the ashes over their corn ground to enrich it. Fish shells were also used as a fertilizer. The soil would then be tilled, or scratched over with the flat shoulder blade of the moose, or with crooked prongs of wood. Then the corn was planted with the rudest kind of wooden hoes, or with those made with clam-shells, in rows some four feet apart. In each hill was placed, as an additional fertilizer, a crab gathered from the sea shore, or an ale-wife found in the adjacent stream. When the patch was thus planted, a hut was constructed in the middle of it, where some of the tribe lived to protect it from the birds and other enemies. When the corn came forth, the soil about it was stirred with their primitive hoes until it had grown two feet high. It was gathered before fully ripe, and the seed for the next year was selected from those stalks having the largest number of ears, which they hung up in their wigwam. Aside from the seed-ears, the crop was cured in the sun, or over fires, while in the husks. Then it was husked, shelled, and placed into birch-bark boxes, and buried in holes in the earth, which were also lined with birch-bark for protection. These excavated garners were generally concealed by the women from their lazy lords lest they should make way with it. History tells us that the early colonist once discovered one of these garners when they were so near starvation that they only had five kernels of corn to each person. When the corn was thus dried, it was cracked in a stone morter and boiled ready for food. The Indians also planted pumpkins among their corn.
Such is a glimpse of the agricultural life of the red man. But it has passed away.
" Alas for them! their day is o'er; Their fires are out from hill to shore. No more for them the red deer bounds; The plow is in their hunting grounds;
The pale man's axe rings through their wood,
The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods- Their pleasant springs are dry."
Agriculture in the colonial days of our country, was but a step in advance of that of the aboriginal period before them, though its improve- ments were rapid. The Pilgrims were an agricultural people, and Ban- croft says that one of the reasons which brought them from Holland to America, was, because they "had been bred to agricultural pursuits, which they were unable to follow in that country of their temporary stay." The great difficulty in cultivation of the soil in colonial days, was its preparation-the clearing away of the dense forests. Their fields were necessarily few and small. They lacked the implements of husbandry, too. What a contrast between the farming implements used prior to the Revolution, and those in use to-day.
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The system of agriculture best adapted to this new land of the colonists had to be learned by experiment. The cultivation of corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes and tobacco, were the extent of the agricul- tural products of the country in aboriginal days, and from the Indian, the colonists obtained their first lessons in this field of industry, which has become so great and grand to-day. Added to these aboriginal teachings the ideas and observations which these people brought from their mother country, they were able to make great advancement in the pursuit, which is to-day reduced to a science.
Domestic animals, fruits and seeds were brought hither, and by experi- ments and many losses, the soil and climate of the new continent were tested, as to the products to which they were best adapted. Domestic animals, cereals and fruits, which were indigenous to, and thrived in Britain, might fail and perish in the new, untried, and far distant land, and in fact did, to no slight extent. In the New England colonies, as early as 1636, cows brought the exorbitant price of thirty pounds sterling each; and yet a quart of milk would sell for a penny only. And so, too, a dozen eggs would bring but three pennies. Horses, cattle, sheep and swine of that period, were insignificant, compared with those of the pres- ent day, not only in the American colonies, but in England as well. They were small, ungainly in form, and inferior in every way. To trace the experiments and improvements in domestic animals in this country, their successes and failures, would be interesting to agriculturists; but space . here forbids. The chief reason for the great improvement in the size and perfection of domestic animals in England and. this country, during the present century, is the nutricious grasses which are now so extensively cultivated as food for them. The red clover was not introduced into England until 1633, nor the white clover until 1700. After the introduc- tion and use of these valuable grasses, there was a marked improvement in the growth and quality of cattle, as we learn from the best authority. During the early part of the last century, the average gross weight of the neat cattle brought to a leading English market for sale, was not over three hundred and seventy pounds, and that of sheep, twenty-eight pounds. The average weight of the former is now over eight hundred pounds, and of the latter over eighty pounds. This illustrates the effects of the culti- vation of those nutricious grasses and seeds for food, and what experi- ment and care will accomplish-facts which no farmer and stock raiser should not closely observe and practice. Even the natural grasses, which originated in this country; or at least, were introduced here long before they were in England, have been greatly improved through experiment and knowledge of the soil best adapted to their growth, and the manner of their cultivation. The rigors of the New England climate compelled the growing of a hardier pasturage than the various clover grasses pro-
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duced. But the tests of a long period have proved that all the natural grasses, and the various varieties of clover, thrive luxuriantly in the various sections of this country for pasturage and hay; and, too, the lat- ter varieties have also served as fertilizers, more especially, however, in those regions where winter wheat is generally grown when the clover sod, after being pastured down in the early season, is plowed under in June, and left to decay until September, when it is harrowed and cross- plowed, and found in a rich and mellow condition for the seed.
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In the early days of the agricultural interest of this county, in all its branches, the main problems to be solved, were those of adaptation, accli- mation, and naturalization. Prior to the revolution, says Prof. Brewer, of Yale College, many species of grasses, plants, and vegetables were tested from the New England colonies to the Rio Grande. Many failed in the former section, but flourished " in other localities." Plants from Europe, and many from Asia and the East Indies, were thus tested, including vari- ous commercial species such as indigo, cinnamon, etc. Some flourished with their vegetable character unchanged, while some others, in favorable localities as to climate and soil, developed new and superior characteristics. During the century and a half preceding the revolution, the experiments and trials which were then made, solved the problems of adaptations, and acclimation so thoroughly, that but slight changes have been made in the domestic animal species, and but one, of any importance in the plant species, that of sorghum or Chinese-cane. This was an acquisition to the plant spe cies of this country which has become valuable to the producing classes, and its product -- sirup mainly-is to-day a standard commodity in many of the states. The Chinese-cane plant was first introduced in the United States in 1856, by the agricultural department at Washington; and from that date, and from the seed distributed from that source, has grown the immense production of this country to-day. Its cultivation became exten- sive, as it was hardy, and would thrive in almost every part of the country; and now it is one of the staple plants of the United States, especially in the more northern ones, as Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and others. In the states above named, the census of 1860, shows the production of that year to have been 6,749,123 gallons of molasses or sirup. Of this total, Iowa contributed the largest production-1,211,512 gallons. Indiana being the next, contributed only 881,049 gallons. While this important agricultural product has been developed to a large extent in most of the states where the Chinese-cane is grown; yet it is far from having reached the degree in the manufacture of the cane juice into super- ior grades of sirup and sugar which experiments have shown that it can be brought. It can be accomplished, and the time is not distant when the growing of Chinese-cane, in this country, will be one of the most profitable branches of agricultural industry. It is estimated that we now raise
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annually over twelve million gallons of sirup; which, at sixty cents per gallon would realize $7,200,000; and that the present annual production of sugar from this cane, is over 500,000 pounds; which, at five cents per pound would also realize the sum of $25,000, thus aggregating the enormous sum of $7,225,000.00. Thus it will be seen that the pro- duction of the sorghum or Chinese-cane plant, is of vast importance as an agricultural industry in this country; not only for home or domestic uses, but as a commodity of commerce in which there is a remunerative profit to the producer.
A picture of the agricultural interests of New England, during the period of which we have spoken, prior to the revolution, would be an interesting contrast with that throughout the country of to-day. As an illustration of this period, we will refer to a single colony-that of Massa- chusetts Bay-which was settled soon after that of Plymouth, with the sturdy and God-fearing Puritans. The historian of that eventful period tells us that the established colonial authorities controlled the material interests of those settlements, and that no person was permitted to estab- lish himself within the colonial jurisdiction without authority. Squatter sovereignty was not recognized-not known in those days; but every member of the colony was allotted a farm in extent to the wealth he pos- sessed. These farms were so laid out and designated, that no residence was over half a mile distant from the meeting-house. An extensive pas- ture, a peat meadow, a salt marsh, and fishing grounds were held in com- mon. With plans and purposes based upon a system of action so bold and determined in the career of these primitive colonists, in the creation of their new homes, and in the establishment and maintenance of their reli- gious faith, with agriculture as their only industry, it could hardly be oth- erwise than that agricultural communities and interest would rapidly spring up and thrive. Like the fabled warriors of Cadmus, they were armed with weapons, not for their own destruction, but for the defense of their liberties, their homes, and their religion. In the log cabin of tha- primitive agricultural era, were first cultivated religious thought, domestic virtues, sturdy habits of frugality and industry, the daring spirit, and the - devoted love of liberty, which have so grandly advanced the prosperity, the power, and the glory of the American continent. These virtues were the acorns of civilization, planted by our fathers, which have grown into stately oaks, under which millions of decendants now find peace, prost perity, and repose.
During the early periods of this country's history, very little was known of scientific farming, and much less of it practiced. The soil was fresh- unexhausted from much tillage, hence there was no thought of restoring to it its lost forces. Its unoccupied scope was so vast, and its cost so trifling, that the farmer need only cultivate new fields to secure all that
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fertilization would accomplish. There was no spirit of inquiry into this great industry prior to the revolution-neither science or poetry gave a charm to the toil of the husbandman, nor did he scarcely go beyond his narrow boundaries-hardly knew the world outside the sphere of his own life. The religious meetings, the elections, house " raisings," and huskings," where pumpkin pies and cider were, comprised the feasts, were the principal social pastimes at which these early day farmers mingled, and at which the younger generation found their merriment. The "husking" is a traditional gathering, both industrial and social in its character, extending back to the aboriginal period of the country, and down even to the pres- end day, in some parts; and which Longfellow immortalized in his song of Hiawatha.
The corn-fields having grown and ripened,
" Till it stood in all the slpendor, Of its garments green and yellow.
Of its tassels and its plumage, And the maze-ears full and shining
Gleamed from bursting sheaths of verdure; Then Nokomis, the old woman,"
Spake to Minnehaha, the merry laughing water:
" And they called the women round them, Called the young men and the maidens,
To the harvest of the corn fields,
To the husking of the maze-ear. On the border of the forest, Underneath the fragrant pine-trees,
Set the old men and the warriors, Smoking in the pleasant shadow. In uninterrupted silence Looked they at the gamesom labor Of the young men and the women; Listened to their noisy talking,
To their laughter and their singing;
Heard them chattering like the magpies,
Heard them laughing like the bluejays, Heard them singing like the robbins. And, whene'er some lucky maiden Found a red ear in the husking, Found a maize-ear red as blood is,
'Nershka !' cried they all together,
'Nershka !' you shall have a sweetheart, You shall have a handso'ne husband !'
'Ugh !' the old men all responded
From their seats beneath the pine trees."
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If, perchance, superior intelligence manifested itself in -the agricultural pursuits of that early period, and attempted any innovation upon the old ideas through experiments, it found no encouragement, but was rather ridiculed as folly. The history of those times tells us that one who would presume to leave the old beaten ruits of his ancestors, and "did not plant just as many acres of corn as his fathers did, and that, too, in the 'old of the moon;' if he did not sow just as much rye to the acre, use the same number of oxen to plow, and get in his crops in the same day; or if he did not hoe as many times as his father and his grandfather did; if in fine, he did not wear the same kind of homespun dress, and adopt the same religious views and prejudices, he was shunned in company by the old and young, and looked upon as a visionary." As before remarked, the fertilization of the soil was unknown. It is related that the tillers of the soil knew so little about the value of manure, that they would sometimes move their barns and sheds to get them out of the way of the vast heaps of this valuable fertil- izer; not believing that the cost of removing it upon their fields would return to them again. Neither was the rotation of crops known to aug- ment their production. Says a writer: "Cattle were rarely housed dur- ing night or winter. In was thought necessary to leave them out of doors, and expose them to the summer's sun and dew, and to the winter's storm, in order to 'toughen' them. It was a common opinion in some of the colonies that housing and milking cows in winter would kill them."
The American Revolution produced a great change in the agricultural interests of this country. None can fail to see the vast improvements which have since been made in its agricultural industries. For a century and a half prior to the revolution, these industries remained quite station- ary. The implements of the husbandman were few and imperfect, were never improved. The hoe, plow, spade, fork, and occasionally a harrow, generally covered the implement inventory of the farmer, and with this slender outfit he toiled for his bread for many long and tedious years. The changes which the Revolution produced, were not so much in the way of awakening a greater interest in the cultivation of the soil, as in enlarging the freedom of exchange of commodities. The entire agricul- tural interests were well-nigh paralyzed during the revolution, which of course, did not speedily recover. The colonies had always been preyed upon by the mother country, without any return to them. The war ended, the colonies became states of an independent Nation, and their people werc at liberty to buy and sell where they pleased. This stimu- lated them to a greater advancement in American agriculture, and from this period a notable degree of progress was made. The declaration of peace was one of the causes, and the foreign demand for the agricultural productions of this country, caused by destructive inflences which the wars of the countries of Europe had upon their agricultural interests,
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was another cause of this demand; besides the densely populated coun- tries of Europe were mainly engaged in the manufacturing industries, and were compelled to look to countries where agricultural products were their chief commerce. Since our American Republic assumed its place among the nations of the earth, its supply of the demands of for- eign countries with the products of the soil has increased, until to-day it has become enormous, probably second to that of no other country; not only in the products of the soil, but in its export of live stock as well. Another great aid in this grand development of the agricultural interests of this country, is the wonderful improvement in the character of farm- ing implements and machinery. Through the genius of invention and the great interest given this vast American industry, the labor of the hus- bandman is a pleasure rather than a wearisome drudgery. Mark the contrast between the farming implements used by the Puritans prior to the establishment of the Union, mentioned farther back in this chapter, and even those used by their descendants down to about the middle of the present century. What an improvement in the plow of primitive times, and that in use now; the one made from the crotch of a tree, one branch forming the beam, and the other the share; that of to-day made of iron and steel, of single and double shares, the latter attached to wheels and riding gearing, and propelled by steam, which will turn over ten acres of soil sooner and better than the rude ones of earlier times would one acre. And thus it is with the harvesting machine, mower, and the thresher, as compared with old-fashioned cradle, scythe and flail. The cultivator takes the place of the harrow, the corn-planter the place of the hoe and bag of corn tied about the waist, and the horse hoe in place of the hand implement. And thus it is all through, the implements and machinery which experience and genius have invented for the agricul- tural industry of this country, have enlarged its scope many fold, and given it a stimulus which has enabled the Nation to gain the mastery in the balance of trade through her exports, over, not only her mother country, but also over those that were aged and powerful, when ours was in her infancy, and weak. But America had the God-given resources, and the spirit of enterprise and progress implanted within her people, to push and school them for the accomplishment of the wonderful development of them, which have been made through her various indus- tries, of which agriculture was, and is, the grand basis.
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