USA > Iowa > Lucas County > History of Lucas County, Iowa containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc > Part 55
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much in this way, upon matters of a general, special, and scientific interest. And, too, the reports of the various agricultural societies of the country, and of the agricultural bureau at Washington - all contain- ing able and valuable papers of a scientific character, upon many matters of interest, have enlarged the sphere of thought, of skill, and of practice in this important field of American industry.
Prior to 1830 agriculture in England was but little more of a science than it was in this country, though Lord Bacon's philosophy was applied to it by ripe minds, as early as the eighteenth century, such as Lord Kames, Sir John Sinclair, Jero Tull, and others, which induced William Pitt, in 1793, to found a national board of agriculture. A similar gov- ernmental provision for the promotion of this industry was considered in this country about the same time, but did not ripen into formulation until 1839, when the country was awakened by the necessity of having imported several million dollars' worth of bread-stuffs to supply the actual needs of the people. This fact was convincing evidence to the country that there was something wrong - that agriculture was seriously languishing through the exhaustion of the soil, because of unintelligent management. Relief from this condition of affairs was demanded, and found through the suggestion of prominent minds, that the general gov- ernment make an appropriation, to be expended by the commissioner of patents, for the " collation of agricultural statistics, investigations for pro- moting agriculture and rural economy, and the procurement of seeds and "cuttings for gratuitous distribution among the farmers." Henry L. Ells- worth was then commissioner of patents, at whose suggestion congress appropriated one thousand dollars for this purpose, that year, 1839. For each of the next years until 1845, two thousand dollars were appropri- ated; then three thousand dollars; and from 1847 this appropriation was gradually increased each year, until 1862, when it was sixty thousand dol- lars! Prior to this year -from 1839 to 1862-this work was performed by a clerk in the patent office, under the direction of the commissioner of patents, and in 1854, the first report of these congressional approprations, and other operations of the embryo bureau of agriculture, was included in the annual report of the patent office. This was thus continued until 1862, when the clerkship- the embryo bureau, bloomed into a full-fledged and independent " bureau of agriculture," with a " commissioner of agri- culture " at its head, a chief clerk, botanist, entomologist, statistician, etc. Since the organization of this bureau the annual government appropria- tions have been three times as large as it was the year of its creation.
The accomplishments of this bureau, as an auxiliary of the agricultural interests of this country, have been vast; and to which these interests are as much, if not more indebted, than to any other aids. Among other of its accomplishments which it has disseminated among the people through
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its published reports, are facts in relation to the character and peculiarities of soil and climate, favorable and otherwise to the growing of certain crops; the character of maladies, pests, destructive weather and other drawbacks; the effects of experiments with various cereals, plants, and breeds of animals; the collection of facts and figures illustrating the extent to which stock-raising and crop-growing of various kinds were managed in the various parts of the country; the growth and cost of the several branches of business, and the profits derived therefrom; the value of property ; the results of observation upon the use and advantages of new ma- chinery and implements,and of new methods of husbandry; and the con- dition from time to time of the crops of the country, and the results which show the gains or losses of this industry at the end of the year. From these statistics, from this information, it has become possible to draw deductions scientifically, to draw conclusions which could not be reached in any other direction, and which are of untold value to our agricultural interest. In addition to the information gathered from all parts of the world relating to this industry, in all its branches; including papers concerning various plants, modes of culture, and breeds of animals, showing the advantages and profit of the choicer kinds, and thus inspire a spirit of emulation in our own country and among our own people, to raise and breed the best of whatever engages their attention; the department procures from abroad, and elsewhere, the choicest seeds, plants and cuttings, and experiment with them in the government garden and upon its farm, to test their adaptability to this climate, and their value for use and profit. When thus propogated, the seeds, plants and cuttings are distributed through members of congress, and otherwise, all over the country, among gar- deners, farmers and nursery-men; and when the results of the tests given them as to adaptability to the localitly where sent, and the quality and quantity of their production are ascertained, they are gathered by the department and given through its publications for the information and benefit of the agricultural public. Not only are improved varieties of our own staple products-corn, wheat, cotton, etc., sought, but much attention has, and is being given to plants and productions not indigenous to our country, but valuable, if they bear the test of acclimation, such as tea, coffee, olives, raisins, figs, jute, or Chinese hemp, the mulberry-trees for the silk-worm, wine and grape-vines, amber and other sugarcanes. These, and many other similar importations are being made by the department, cultivated on its farm, and distributed over the country. Although the department has never engaged in importation and stock breeding, yet it has disseminated a vast amount of valuable information upon this import- ant branch of husbandry, in all its relations.
The publications of this department, and their distribution throughout the United States, have, beyond doubt, done more to advance the interest
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and science of agriculture, than any other single means. They have educated and enriched the industrial classes almost unmeasured by com- putation-many hundred fold more than their cost. The day is not distant when the Bureau of Agriculture will bloom into a full fledged Depart- ment of Agriculture, dignified with a cabinet minister at its head, and co-equal in importance with the other departments of the general gov- ernment.
Probably there is no state in the Nation, which has been more generally benefitted through the means and aids we have mentioned for the advancement of the agricultural interest of the country, than Iowa. The leading industry of this grand commonwealth is agriculture, which is becoming largely supported by manufacturing industries springing up in all directions, as consumers of her enormous products. Corn, wheat and grass are the staple products of her soil, which, with stock-raising, are the leading branches of this industry. The first of these in importance and value in Iowa, is corn. Of the origin of this product, there has been no little controversy. It has been claimed, with a great deal of force, that it originated in America, and from which it made its appearance in the other countries of the world. While it may not be definitely established that it originated in this country, one fact is certain, that it is indigenous to this continent. The history of this product tells us, that early as 1204, the Marquis of Montferrat, and his companions, brought back from the Orient, to Italy, a grain similar to the real maize, called " melica," which led to the supposition that corn first came from Asia. In Europe, it long bore the name of " Turkish corn," from which, it was supposed that it originated in Turkey in Asia-though neither of these suppositions appear to have been verified. A Chinese historian tells us of a plant precisely corresponding to maize, grown in his country, early in the six- teenth century. Oriental travelers incline to the belief, that our Indian corn has been cultivated in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, from the earliest ages. In the days of Pharaoh, in Egypt, corn was laid up to preserve the people against a seven years' famine which followed. " And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left num- bering; for it was without number .- Genesis, 40: 49. " The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing .- Psalm, 65: 13.
It is known, nevertheless, that corn was cultivated on this continent many centuries ago. The Ojibway Indians have a legend that corn was a gift to the red man from the Great Spirit; and the Aztec nations of Mexico, and Central America, who reached a high grade of civilization, also have a tradition that the Taltecs introduced the cultivation of corn or maize into this country early in the seventeenth century. It is proba- ble, however, that it was a product of the natives of that time, and long
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before, and that the Taltecs merely improved the methods of its cultiva- tion. We are told that a deity presided with the Mexicans, similar to Ceres of the Romans, who had a guardian watchfulness over the corn crops, and whom they worshipped as well; though this was far back, when shadowy mists hung over their civilization. Indian corn was the staple product of the soil of the American Indians long before Columbus came to the continent, because the Norsemen found it cultivated by them, as early as the tenth century, on the eastern coast.
The most reliable theory is, in the absence of positive evidence, that Indian corn, or maize, originated with the civilization that preceded the Indians upon this continent, and was found here by the present civiliza- tion; hence its name Indian corn. Of this product there was raised in the United States in 1875, 1,321,069,000 bushels, and in Iowa, 136,285,542 bushels, which places this state first in the production of this staple. In this state, indeed in the west generally, it is undesirable to export corn. Its uses in this section of the country have increased so largely that it is worth far more at home to feed the stock, for the manufacture of glucose, alcohol, etc., and thus afford the producer a good profit, besides-it is less exhausting to the soil than wheat, and most other plants, or cereals.
THE CORN FIELDS.
Vast corn-fields bright, How grand the sight, Of rain, and dew, and sunshine born! In stately mien, In emerald green, The lands they beautify, adorn. The farmer's toil let no one deem in vain,
Whose beading sweat transmutes to golden gain,
Whose sinewy arm the nation's strong defense, Whom Nature pays in golden recompense. Through all the boundaries of the peopled earth, Since Heaven's great fiat gave creation birth, The curse, a blessing ever hath been found To him who plows and cultivates the ground. Th' explorer plants his footsteps on the sea; The scholar strives for immortality; The patriot, statesman, seek by deeds sublime To stamp remembrance on the scroll of time; The miner delves in caverns deep and dark, No labor shuns to catch the diamond's spark; But what on earth e'er yet was so supreme .As he who tills. it with his faithful team; Who annual turns the ever verdant sod, And ever grateful does the will of God-
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Bids tasseling cornfields like battalions stand, With waving plumes, in matchless beauty grand, Their rustling leaves like maiden's silken dress, As the coy zephyrs play and gently press- In billowy grandeur, with their bearding ear, Proclaim the bounty of the deepening year, Pouring from out Abundance' golden, horn The endless treasure of the golden corn- Sent to the lands with want and wo oppressed,
With miseries dark, famine and wars distressed, Painting on hunger's pallid cheek anew The rose and lilly's bright carnation hue, Feeding the world-proud minister to Thought,
From whose bright quarries, priceless gems are wrought
Welding in living fires a golden chain, That tells, though man may die, he lives again!
The next important staple product of the country is wheat. The earliest origin of this cereal is unknown; although it was doubtless developed from a species of grass. It is known that a French gardener, named Esprit Faber, through seven years' experimenting, discovered that he could develop from two certain species of grasses, a number of our species of wheat. As evidence of this, a savage plant was made to change its entire appearance and figure, and thus gradually assume a new character. It is said that wheat has been found growing wild in uninhabited regions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Texas. The former country was one of the most productive of wheat of any in ancient times. It was thither that Jacob's sons went for it at the time of a famine in Canaan, thirty-six centuries ago. The same kind of wheat of that age was found in the cerements of mummies embalmed in Joseph's time, and planted within a modern period, and found to be almost precisely like that grown in this country to-day, though a some- what larger and finer kernel. By this it is seen, that wheat has, from its earliest known period of existence, remained unchanged; and while some three hundred varieties are named in the several wheat countries, there are, practically and in fact, only three: the hard variety is grown in . the warm countries of Egypt, Italy, Sicily, southern Russia, the Bar- bary states, Chili, and Peru; the Polish wheat; and the soft variety of wheat grown in northern Russia, France, England, and North America. The hard variety, grown in warm countries, contains more of gluten, while the soft variety, grown in cold countries, contains more of starch. The Bible contains many interesting references to the wheat fields of Palestine. True, wheat-growing was among the employments of Israel- ites, while in the bondage of the Pharoahs. Among the most famous of
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the ancient agriculturists were the Egyptians, and their methods of pre- serving grain have never been excelled. They placed it in stone granaries, hermetically sealed, where they preserved it for years.
Thus it will be seen that the cultivation of wheat was among the very earliest productions of American agriculture, and is now one of the most valuable; and, too, the leading product upon which the human race sub- sist. As early as 1530, cereal grasses were found by Cortez under culti- vation in Mexico; but, we are told that wheat was accidentally introduced there by a few kernels being transported in the rice of a Spaniard. These grains attracted attention, were carefully planted, and in the course of time the new grain found its way into the Spanish-American colonies, and thus soon reached the United States. This cereal must have been either transported, or found here by the English colonists, because history tells us that Gasnold grew it on the Elizabeth Islands, off Massachusetts, as early as 1602. As early as 1648, the colony of Virginia produced sev- eral hundred acres of wheat; and thus its product increased, until now it is exceeded in this country only by that of corn. In 1875, the production of the former, in this country, was 291,136,000 bushels; value, $294,580,990. In 1850, Pennsylvania was the largest wheat-producing state in the Nation, Ohio second, New York third, and Virginia fourth. In 1860, Illinois was the first, Indiana second, Wisconsin third, Ohio fourth, Virginia fifth, Pennsylvania sixth, and New York seventh, with Iowa and Michigan a close eighth and ninth. In 1870, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Virginia had fallen to seventh and below, and to-day (1881) they are still lower down the scale, while the great wheat belt west of the Mississippi is coming up, and will soon outstrip the entire belts east of it.
The cultivation of the grasses was an important early-day industry in this country. It was one to which the colonists gave their immediate attention as a matter of necessity, to preserve their stock from starvation. The grasses untilized grew wild-native to the soil; and only about a century ago was any special effort made to reduce their culture to a science by the sowing of grass-seed. This product was of vast importance in the New England states, because of the long and severe winters through which stock had to be fed. The varieties of native grass in this country are innumerable, though not many have any agricultural value. Among those that are thus valuable, is the Bourbon blue-grass which grows throughout the west and New England. It is of early growth, very nutritious and fattening, and thrives best on limey soils. The red- top, or Herd's grass, as it is termed, is much prized, but it generally grows with other varieties, especially clover and timothy. Besides these are several varieties indigenous to peculiar localities, like the salt, and other marsh grasses. The wild prairie grasses of the west afford good pasturage, and to a large extent make fair hay. The more western states
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and territories produce a short nutritious grass, called " buffalo grass," upon which the buffalo, bison, and cattle feed. Of the cultivated varie- ties of grass in this country, from which the best and most nutritious hay is made, there is none better than the "timothy grass," which derived its name from "Timothy " Hanson, who produced the seed, and took it to Virginia, about the middle of the last century. In New England it has been known as Herd's grass, since early in the eighteenth century; thus deriving its name, Jared Eliot tells us, from the fact that a man named Herd found it growing in low land near Piscataqua, New Hampshire. However, this grass was known and cultivated in England in an early period, and we are told that the seed was taken to Virginia as early as 1760, by Peter Wynche. The orchard grass is another variety indige- nous in almost all countries. It was first introduced in Virginia from England, in 1764, and soon found popular favor throughout the country. This grass endures the drought well, produces luxuriant pasturage, and yields a bountiful aftermath, or rowen. Clover was imported into this country, but at what period, does not appear. It is more of a forage plant, and hardly regarded as a genuine grass-is more of the leguminous family.
The importance of the hay production of this country is shown by the increase of its yield from period to period. Thus, in 1840, the total pro- duct was 10,248,108 tons; in 1850, in was 13,838,642 tons; 1860, in was 19,083,896 tons; in 1870, it was 27,316,048 tons. Of this New York pro- duced 4,900,000 tons; Pennsylvania, 2,400,000; Illinois, 3,050,000; Ohio and Iowa each, 2,000,000 tons; while Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maine, and Vermont each raised over 1,000,000 tons. The rest of this immense production was distributed throughout the northwest. We have thus endeavored to illustrate the extent and importance of the grass and hay crop of the country by the foregoing historical facts.
As already noted, corn, wheat, and hay are the three leading agricul- tural products of the United States, of which corn leads, with hay second in point of value, as will be shown by the following comparison: In 1875, the acreage of the corn crop was 49,033,364, and the value thereof was $475,491,210; the acreage of the wheat crop was 27,627,021, and the value thereof was $300,259,300; and the acrerage of the hay crop was 25,282,797, and the value thereof was $300,901,252. The next census will, quite likely, show the corn and hay product far in advance of that of wheat in acreage as they are now in value, because stock-raising, and butter and cheese making, are rapidly becoming the leading branches of the agricultural interests of the United States; not only for domestic uses and consumption, but for exportation as well. Corn, grass and hay are the main products which maintain and promote these interests.
The first appearance of cattle on the American continent was at a very
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early date. As early as 1493, Columbus brought cattle to the West India Islands, of the Spanish breed. These found their way into Mexico, and were the parent stock of the Texan cattle of to-day. It is supposed that the cattle which the Indians had on the Red River of the South, in 1690, were of the Spanish breed from Mexico. As early as 1553, cattle were landed on the island of New Foundland by the Portuguese, though their existence there was short. So, too, the French brought Norman cattle into Canada in 1608. In 1610, Virginia had cattle of her own, which had originally been brought from the West Indies. The next year, 1611, a hundred head were imported from Devonshire and Herefordshire, Eng- land. In 1620, Virginia had five hundred head, from whence Maryland obtained her cattle. The first cattle, appearing in New England, was in 1624, which were brought from the mother country by Gov. Winslow. From 1626, to 1630, a hundred and forty-two cows more were brought over, which were mostly kept at Salem for the use of the "Governor and others of Massachusetts Bay." The increase of these importations were distributed among the colonists. The breed of these importations is unknown, but are historically mentioned as " black, white and brindle." John Mason, in 1631-33, made several importations of cattle from Den- mark into New Hampshire, among which were many large ones, uni- formly yellow in color, and designed for work cattle. Similar importa- tions were made to New York in 1620, through the Dutch West India company from the Island of Texel, off Holland, which were black and white Dutch cattle-perhaps the present Holstein breed.
It can but be seen that the indiscriminate mixture of the various breeds of foreign cattle thus imported to this country, such as two or three Brit- ish breeds, French, Spanish, Dutch and Swedish breeds, however pure they may have originally been, would result in the destruction of their purity, through intermingled cross-breeding, the hardships of the climate, and neglect incident to those early colonial days. The product of this promiscuous breeding was soon reduced to a "native breed." Hence it is, that cattle-raising in this country is now divided into two grades- "native " and "thorough-bred." Until a hundred and fifty years ago, but little attention was given to the improvement of cattle in England, through scientific breeding for the development of special characteristics, though that country had given more attention than any other, to the improve- ment of neat cattle. In America, no attention was given in this direction, until after the war of the Revolution. It was not until the last half of the last century and early in the present one, that cattle breeding, on scientific principles, in England developed with much rapidity. The most promi- nent breeds that there were, and have since been known, as the result of those scientific efforts, were the Durham, or Short-horns, the Devons, the Alderney, the Jersey and the Ayrshire. Of these, the Durhams have
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been more generally imported to this country than any other, because of their fine beef quality for which they are mainly prized. The same is true of the Devons, though of a smaller breed. The Alderneys, yellow and white in color, fine shape but slenderly built, are chiefly valuable for the rich quality of their milk. The Jerseys, natives of the Jersey Island, in the British Channel, are small, of Norman origin, and like the Alderneys, are valuable for their milk and butter productions. So, too, are the Ayr- shires great producers of milk and butter, with an outward garment of roan and piebald. These are the leading English breeds, and which have mainly been imported to this country by our stock-raisers. The Italian, French, Swiss, and Hungarian cattle, have their reputable qualities upon the Euro- pean continent; but, similar to the Andalusian fighting-bulls of Spain, are not as valuable for industrial purposes as those of English production; hence, have found no favor on this continent. About the first pure Dur- hams or Short-horns imported to the United States, were brought to Vir- ginia in 1793, by a Mr. Miller, and to Maryland the same year by Mr. Gough. In 1797, some of these were taken to Kentucky, where they became widely known in the blue-grass region, as the "Patton stock," Patton being their owner. Other importations soon followed, and that section of Kentucky became widely known for choice breeds of this stock. Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and other states, soon turned their atten- tion to this thoroughbred stock, and, since 1840, Short-horns have been imported very extensively. Thus, we see that cattle-raising in this coun- try, naturally divided itself into two periods-the one, when only " native cattle " were bred; and the other when we began to reform our breed by the importation of "thorough-breds" from England. In 1817, Henry Clay sought to introduce the Hereford cattle in Kentucky, but they yielded less beef than the Durhams, and less dairy qualities than the Alder- neys, Jerseys, or Holsteins, which are gaining favor in this country for dairy purposes. Aside from the "native," and "thoroughbred," considera- ble attention has been given in this country to " graded cattle," produced through the cross-breeding of natives with thoroughbreds, which has been productive of good results by improving the native breeds with better blood.
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