USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time > Part 33
USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time, centennial ed. > Part 33
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The influence of these clubs reaches out over the whole country where they are organized, provoking rivalry among the farmers too, and arousing their attention to the importance of careful selection of seed, and the scientific cultivation of the crops. This extended mention of the school clubs is justified in a sketch of agriculture in Indiana, because it is the most practical progressive step in the history of farming, and shows what advancement the whole State may make in productive wealth, when the work of the
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county schools is based on the dominant interest of the community.
The history of the agricultural districts in Indiana shows that they have steadily endeavored to throw off the yoke of intemperance, which hampers pros- perity in the cities and reaches out for the countryman. Three fourths of the townships of the State now pro- hibit the sale of liquor, and every year the list of "dry" townships, and even counties, grows longer. This movement against the liquor traffic in the country districts is full of hope for the future, and will prove of priceless value to the commonwealth.
When factories superseded, to a certain extent, the home-made productions, agricultural Indiana added a new industry in the form of truck farming. The canning establishments which have sprung up within the factory era have provided an enlarged market for the produce of the small farmer living near these enter- prises. Several hundred thousand acres in the State are now devoted to this purpose, and it gives a greater chance for variety of crops. Probably 2,900,000 bushels of tomatoes alone are now produced annually.
The labor of woman on the farms, in the raising of poultry and fruits and the making of butter, has become an enormous economic factor in rural com- merce. In Indiana the greater part of poultry and eggs is raised by the women; and the value of this . product in the last year reached over fifteen and a quarter millions of dollars. The influence of women in the agricultural communities of Indiana does not stop with the commercial side. Her part in the Farmers' Institutes, Sunday-school conventions, church meetings, sessions of the grange, in the day schools, and the county and State fairs is fully equal to that
The Entrance to Purdue University.
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of the men. Mrs. Virginia Meredith of Indiana is a well known exponent of agricultural instruction and progress, in theory and practice; but she can call to her aid scores of efficient workers, from every part of the State, in all forward movements for the rural communities.
With a soil so rich as that in Indiana, good roads were felt, from the very dawn of her history, to be a vital necessity, as there seemed to be no bottom to the trail through the forests. The early settlers were ever floundering through mud-holes, fording streams, and helping one another's teams out of a quagmire. The improvement of the highways has been steady but very deliberate. Some districts are still far in advance of others, with a consequent effect on their prosperity. Wells County built one hundred and two miles of gravel roads last year, while another county built but one. The constant agitation of the subject by a few enterprising men in each district has added a thousand miles a year since 1900 to the sum total of good roads, which now reaches the number of 16,268 miles. Shades of the forefathers, who had to travel on horseback through the mud, bear witness and hope for more! Indiana may take pattern from the interesting story told by Joseph Brown, apropos of better roads, and how one neighborhood attained them. His story goes that
"After John Tyler retired from the presidency of the United States, his neighbors of the other party, as a sort of a practical joke, and also perhaps to show their opinion of his capacity, got together and elected him roadmaster, but they wot not that they were casting a boomerang. John accepted the office. The Virginia law gives this functionary almost unlimited power in calling out citizens
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for road service, and the distinguished roadmaster made the most of his privilege. For about three months that year, in season and out of season, he worked his constituency on the public highways, till they wished they had n't done it. Tyler stood the joke better than they did, and the travelling public got the benefits."
Purdue University authorities have for some time been making a careful study of the good roads question in the State, and received reports from hundreds of farmers, some of whom live on good roads once bad, and others on roads still bad. From these reports they have computed statistics, showing that the difference between good and bad roads amounts to seventy-eight cents an acre annually on the farms. Multiplying this amount by the entire State-23,264,- 000 acres-we have the sum of $18,145,920. Of this amount, fully two thirds is wasted every year in the State in the loss of time, and in the loss of opportunity in securing the best market for the produce of the farm. As State Geologist Blatchley points out, Indiana is rich in clay suitable for vitrified brick, rich in gravel, rich in stone for macadam roads. There are plenty of convicts needing the exercise, who could manu- facture these products in private. There is no reason, therefore, why every public road of any importance in the State should not be improved, so that it can be travelled with ease any day in the year.
Rural mail delivery, where the roads warrant it, has added more to the convenience and pleasure of country life than any provision of the government since regular mail service was first provided.
Another event in rural Indiana's history was the building of electric roads which have been extended across the State. Over thirteen hundred miles of
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these rapid transit conveniences now pass the doors of Indiana farmers, bringing them in close commun- ication with town and market. Telephones and automobiles have also added to the luxury of living. Land values are increased by the combined agencies of these modern conveniences; and the isolation which causes so many to desert the farm, and makes labor so scarce, will be largely overcome by rapid transit.
The greatest single instrument of progress in agri- culture in Indiana has been the progressive spirit of individuals. In the century of Indiana's history, from territorial days onward, there have been so many men who have led their immediate district into more progressive agricultural practices, that any personal mention would leave out great numbers who have been a blessing to the State by improving the conditions in their own neighborhoods. Bi- ographies of statesmen, politicians, and military men figure largely in history, but the available "short and simple annals" of farmers are so scarce that it is almost necessary to treat of them as a group. To improve the quality of seed corn or potatoes, or to import better live-stock into a region, deserves the commendation of him who "makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before." Some of these progressive residents of the State were individuals whose business did not permit them to live in the country, but who had such a genuine love for the soil that they have always been farmers in addition to their other duties, and have found pleasure and profit to themselves and their neighbors in practical agriculture. These men have helped to inspire their farmer acquaintances with increased pleasure in
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country life, and enthusiasm in tilling the soil. They have encouraged road-building, and better rural schools, introduced new fruits, poultry, and grain, and raised the grade of cattle and horses.
Among the first registered live stock in Indiana, it is said, were the pure-bred short-horn cattle brought into the State in 1825 by Edward Talbott. Since that time, the values in live-stock farming have been immensely increased by the interests maintained in Indiana on the special breeding farms. The cattle and horses shown every year by experienced and enterprising men in Indiana have commanded prizes in State and international exhibitions. These leaders have stood for high standards in pure breeding. The value of their famous herds of cattle, and breeding farms of horses, sheep, and swine, to the general farming interests of Indiana, is not to be calculated by their own financial returns.
"We have a self-satisfied way of considering [says the Gazette] that all the pioneering has been done in the work of live-stock improvements in America. We could not think farther off the true line. The whole rural community must be brought forward. It is easy enough to have faith in that which is demonstrated before our eyes by these breeders of pedigreed stock; and we may go ahead along a line marked out by a neighbor, when we hear the clink of the golden coin as it jingles in his pocket."
The National Registry Associations, which main- tain the "strict letter of the law" in live-stock ped- igrees, have always had Indiana men identified with their management. The active secretaries have given many years to the supervision of correct registry of live stock, as a means of keeping up the standards
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to the highest grade, and these citizens must be en- rolled among the vital influences of progress in the industry.
Regarding the outlook for the future of agriculture in Indiana, the following statements in the Indiana Farmer regarding farming in the middle West are very pertinent.
"The writer moved five hundred miles east, to his present location, because of the rapid division of Western ranges and ranches into small farms. By thus increasing the value of the arid lands they place the East on a fair competing basis with the far West. Western ranges which formerly yielded unlimited free grass to all comers are now on an acre basis; it must be seen that the middle West is now able to compete fairly with the far West in cattle-raising."
Another reason for expecting continued prosperity in the profession of farming is that Indiana's field crops are fairly divided into the great staple products of wheat, oats, timothy, and clover, averaging between one and two million acres of each; all of which are in steady demand. For corn the average runs over four million acres.
Dairy farming in Indiana has been very largely confined to the northern counties, and near the capital. But her geographical position seems to indicate a sustained future demand for this industry. Indeed, Indiana farmers are fortunate in being about the centre of things, for markets, temperate climate, fertility of soil, and transportation. Under these favorable conditions, intensive farming is an assurance of increased income in the future.
In closing a sketch of Indiana's progress in agri-
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culture, it is not amiss to recall again that, owing to her geographical position, the State is spread before the eyes of the travelling world. If she has shiftless farms and untidy villages, they are "seen of all men." More thrift is desirable, not only for increased revenues to individuals, but for the good name of the State. The following thoughtful suggestion from a Winona Agricultural Institute address is most invaluable to rural Indiana:
"During the next few years we may be sure that lawn- planting, as an art, will develop into a most important feature of home life of the humblest owner of a spot of ground. An abundant variety of trees, blooming plants, ferns, and trailing vines may be found hidden and unseen by the man that owns them. What a wealth of education and enjoyment they would bring into everyday life, if a goodly portion of them were placed near the house; such decoration would be a source of pleasure to those doing the work, and to all the occupants of the home."
Most farmers try to cultivate too much land, and they would in many cases grow rich faster if they cultivated less land and planted the less productive places, the odd bits, the rough stony fields, and abrupt slopes, the small irregular lots in the angles, with trees, that would beautify their place and in time add value to the property. In the future, the home garden and dooryard, well kept, as part of the real farm work, is to be the distinguishing mark of the domain of the enlightened farmer.
CHAPTER XXI
NATURAL RESOURCES
M OST of the natural products necessary for modern existence may be found within the limits of the State of Indiana. Without surpassing States that have a larger area, she comes within the first ten in the development of a large range of products and deposits. This makes residence within her borders far more desirable than if she possessed in abundance any one of the precious metals, to the exclusion of necessities. The variety of the agricultural resources of the State has been considered elsewhere. They have always been counted as her chief source of wealth, but the geographical position of the State, and the development of the deposits in the geological strata underneath the surface, make manufacturing also a great source of profit. Most of the natural resources of Indiana lie undeveloped, and none of them has been exhausted. The maxi- mum of agricultural crops has not been approached ; the mineral deposits await the demands of the future. The uses to be made of Indiana's limited lake shore is an undeveloped feature of the great commercial life that is only dawning upon its business world. Already great manufacturing interests have recognized the availability of combined harbor and railway
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facilities possessed by the extreme northwestern portion of the State. This district formerly had no inhabitants but huntsmen in quest of game. Now, vast industries, which will require a great population to carry them on, are being established, making the whilom sand dunes and marshes of great commercial importance.
Of the wealth of timber once possessed by the State there is but a fraction remaining. Statistics show that more than four-fifths of the area, at its settlement, was heavily timbered with the most valuable varieties of forest growth. There were the many varieties of oaks, walnut, ash, cherry, poplar, elm, maples, hick- ories, beech, cottonwood, sycamore, and more than one hundred other varieties. Much of this timber was very large; an early explorer left a memorandum of blazing a sycamore that was forty feet around. The official measurements of the State Statistician gives authentic record of oaks-black, white, burr, and scarlet varieties-that were six and seven feet in diameter and a hundred and ninety feet in height. This fine timber was an encumbrance to the early settler, who had no market for it and must raise bread- stuffs. What would now be worth billions of dollars was rolled into great piles and burned, when there was more than could be used for fences and fuel, in order to clear the land for cultivation of crops. For many years the corn raised on these same lands would not sell for more than ten cents a bushel. As lumber came into demand, later on, Indiana was almost devastated of hard-wood timber. Her forests furnished enormous amounts of the hard woods used in the manufactories of the country. In the early days, there were great areas covered with sugar-maple
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trees, which served the settlers as "sugar orchards," and sugar-making time was a season of harvesting the annual sweets. The Indians were as fond of maple sugar as the white man. One red chief, who had been sent west of the Mississippi to a reservation with his tribe, stole off and wandered back to his old haunts in Indiana, grunting "must have maple sugar." Most of the present timber areas are second growth, except in the hill regions of the southern counties. The statistics of 1905 report that there were still a million three hundred and seventy thousand acres of timber land in Indiana, but probably not more than half a million acres that could be called mer- chantable for manufacturing purposes. Professor Stanley Coulter, than whom there is no greater authority on the flora and forests of Indiana, says, that, originally, seven-eighths of the 21,673,760 acres, comprising the area of the State, was covered with a dense growth of timber. Many of the most valuable hard-wood forms reached their maximum development, both as regards size and number, within the bounds of this State; what remains can but little more than remind us of the wealth of the past. Of the one hundred and thirteen species of trees found within the State, seventy-five were in use in manufactures, and hence had a market value. Professor Coulter makes an eloquent plea for a systematic reforestation of un- tillable lands.
"It was of course necessary to reduce the original timber lands in order to gain agricultural areas; but the demand for crop areas being satisfied, the remaining timber lands should be so treated as to secure their constant reproduction and betterment. The present impoverished condition of the forests is very largely the result of the neglect of such
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precautions on the part of the preceding generation of landowners." 1
The day is coming when timber will be a more paying crop on some lands than corn. Systematic and scien- tific reforestation should be the watchword of en- lightened landholders in a State where the native forests indicate exceptionally superior natural adapta- bility of soil and climate for tree-growing. That growth showed what the results of planting may insure in the future. There is no aesthetic and mer- chantable future for denuded hillsides, made barren of verdure by the removal of trees and incapable of producing crops. The lowlands are the natural home of the nut trees, and a little attention to forestry will again make both hills and valleys a source of profit and beauty.
The coal deposits of Indiana form one of her greatest resources. Eighteen counties contribute to the total production. Some of the mines produce block and others bituminous coal, making it possible for the State to furnish both superior and cheap grades of fuel. The better grades have great heat, steam, and gas properties. The production of coal has increased rapidly and uninterruptedly during the last dozen years, having trebled, in that period from 3,905,779 short tons in 1896 until in 1907 it reached 12,492,255 tons. Coal is at present the greatest tonnage of any commodity moved in the State. Fifty million tons, annually, could be produced from her own mines if there was a demand; nearly ten million dollars are paid in wages to miners of this product each year.
1 Coulter, Stanley, "Flowering Plants, Ferns, etc., Indigenous to Indiana," 24th Annual Report of Dept. of Geology and Natural Resources, 1899, page 574.
The Picturesque Sand Dunes Cast up by the Great Lakes.
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The State Geologist shows that no State in the Union, except Pennsylvania, possesses a better and cheaper supply of fuels than Indiana. The coal is used to great advantage in the creation of "producer gas," which is largely used for manufacturing purposes, since the failure of natural gas.
Indiana has developed oil fields in four different sections of the State, and in as many different geo- logical strata, varying in depth from 100 to 1350 feet, with an annual output, in late years, of from eight to eleven million barrels annually. The Trenton rock area, covers portions of nine counties, in the central northeastern part of the State, and belongs to the same field as the Lima-Ohio oil and gas. A smaller field, in the region of Terre Haute, pro- duces petroleum from the Corniferous limestone, and there is an almost abandoned field in the same formation in Jasper County. The Princeton field, in the southwestern part of the State, near the Illinois line, has developed deposits of oil in the Huron sand- stone strata, after disclosing five different veins of coal in boring the wells, but the region about Princeton has been very superficially tested, and further develop- ment will probably reveal greater deposits. There is no way of determining, in Indiana, by any surface indications, whether petroleum or gas may be found. Both lie in pockets, and may be developed in remun- erative quantities for years to come, one well being no test for any location even a few feet away. No doubt oil exists beneath many localities where there has never been any prospecting, and where the ex- ploration has been too shallow to reach the great depth at which the deposits are found in this State. In the future, when there is greater scarcity elsewhere,
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the fields within the State will be more carefully developed.
An interesting revelation is that the clays of Indiana rank in value next to coal and petroleum. The State Geologist demonstrates that Indiana has within her counties the raw material in abundance for making every kind of clay product used within her borders. Kaolin of the purest quality occurs in vast quantities, the veins extending through miles of territory where outcroppings reveal deposits that have never been uncovered. "There it lies," writes Mr. Blatchley, "a great mineral resource of untold value, unworked, unutilized, awaiting only the coming of energy and capital to make it up into many kinds of products which are now brought into the State from distant lands." 1 Fire-clays of fine quality also await the manufacturer. In many different counties there are small industries engaged in the manufacture of building brick, paving brick, encaustic tile, terra-cotta, drain tile, stoneware, and some white wares. These factories increase annually, and those already established find it profitable to increase their capacities. The materials for road construction have been revealed in inexhaustible quantities. The stone for macadam, the gravel deposit, and clays for brick are unsurpassed. Of the deposits of shale, so available in Indiana, the State Geologist says that a dozen years ago those great soft beds of soft blue-gray, thin-layered rock, which occur over vast areas in the coal-bearing counties, were looked upon as a wholly valueless nuisance, which had to be removed or tunnelled through before the underlying veins of coal could be reached. To-day
1 Blatchley, William S., State Geological Report, 1906. Indian- apolis.
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the smoke is pouring forth from hundreds of kilns where these shales are being burned into paving brick, sewer pipe, hollow brick, conduits, drain tile, pressed front, and ordinary building brick. Not only have the carboniferous shales been proven in the highest degree suitable for the best of such products, but the knob-stone shales, which were accounted even more valueless, are now being utilized for vitrified and pressed brick as well as the clay ingredient of Portland cement. These knob-stone shales are very available, lying, as they do, close to the surface, over an area three to forty miles wide and extending from Jasper County to the Ohio River. Allied to these industries is the very interesting development of making superior building brick from the white sands of the lake counties, where clays are scarce. Combined with eight to twelve per cent. of unslacked lime, and moulded under steam pressure, a cream-colored build- ing brick is manufactured. Unlimited quantities may be made from the mountains of sand cast up by the great lake.
Lying near the great Chicago market for building material are the extensive deposits of marly clay, excellent for the manufacture of a terra-cotta fire- proof material for building purposes. These marl beds in the lake counties of Indiana are also suitable for the making of Portland cement. This greatest of modern commodities may also be created from the limitless quantities of limestone found in all sections of the State. The growth of the values of concrete for the manufacture of structural materials, and the use of the clay products in Indiana for those purposes, show that capital is awakening to the resources immediately at the door of the great markets, and
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their availability on account of the State's central location and transportation facilities.
Indiana has become justly famous for her quarries of unrivalled building stone, outranking any other State in the desirability and variety of stone for purposes of construction. Twenty-three counties have working quarries in operation. The Oolitic limestone, known to commerce as the Bedford stone, which possesses so many qualities of excellence for great architectural monuments, is only on the threshold of its development. The formation stretches from Putnam County to the Ohio River, in a tract from two to fourteen miles in width; and occurs in a stratum near the surface and varying from twenty-five to one hundred feet in thickness. This stone is easily carved when first quarried, has beauty of color, great fire-resisting properties, and the stratum is so massive that the size of the blocks quarried need only be limited by the facilities for its transportation. Its availability is further enhanced by its immediate location along the lines of railways. Perhaps the building stone which ranks next in importance in the State is the Niagara limestone, which also occurs over a wide area and in very accessible localities. It is found lying in natural seams, making it easily quarried without blasting. It is handsome in color and very durable. There are also beautiful sandstones for building purposes, in great abundance along the lower western border of the State. Stones adapted to paving, the manufacture of concrete, macadam, ballast, flagging, and other purposes are found in all sections of the State; the formations used in the manufacture of lime have been notable since the first settlement of this State, as have also the grind-
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