USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890 > Part 17
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Dennis in 1837 produced from 114 establishments, 52,200 bushels; in 1845, from eighty-five establishments, 34,600; in 1855, the town produced 19,800 bushels; in 1865, twenty-three plants produced 15,- 275; and in 1885, one person made 300 bushels.
Eastham in 1837 had fifty-four establishments, that produeed 22,- 370 bushels: in 1845, thirty-five produced 17,320; in 1855. twenty-eight produced 13,722, and in 1865, the nine works made 4,575 bushels.
Falmouth in 1845 had forty-two salt-works, producing 24,500 bush- els; in 1855, fifteen works made 9,000 bushels; and in 1865 the four remaining plants produced 2,800 bushels.
Harwich had eight different salt works in 1837, and produced 4,000 bushels; half as many, in 1845, made 450, and in 1855 one indi- vidual made 140 bushels.
Orleans had fifty plants in 1837, which turned out 21,780 bushels; in 1845, forty-six establishments made 17,072; in 1855, nineteen plants made 10,125; and in 1865, fifteen plants produced 4,740 bushels.
Provincetown had seventy-eight salt works in 1837, employing an average of two men to each, and producing 48,960 bushels: in 1845, seventy plants made 26,000 bushels of salt: in 1855, five plants made 2,304; and in 1865 the only remaining plant produced 200 bushels.
Sandwich, in 1837, had eight plants, producing 2.670 bushels; and in 1845 the number and their product had diminished one half.
145
INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES.
Truro made 17,490 bushels of salt in 1837 at thirty-nine cstablish- ments: in 1845 its twenty-five salt makers produced 11,515; and in 1855, fifteen works produced 5,078 bushels.
Wellfleet had thirty-nine of these works in 1837, which produced 10,000 bushels; in 1845 the twenty-eight works produced 6,000; in 1855, thirteen plants turned out 40,000; and in 1865, five plants pro- duced 7,000 bushels.
Yarmouth, which was long prominent in this industry, had fifty- two plants in 1837, from which 365,200 bushels were produced; in 1845, sixty-five plants made 74,065 bushels; in 1855, forty-two plants produced 27,650 bushels; in 1865, nineteen made 13,780; in 1875, three plants only remained in operation in the town; and in 1885 the re- maining one, operated by one man, produced but 1,200 bushels.
Glauber salts were at one time marketed, but the low price of that article made its manufacture unprofitable, and it was thereafter al- lowed to dissolve and pass into the bittern. This bittern or resi- duum began to be utilized in the manufacture of carbonate and calcined magnesia about the year 1850. The manufacture of Epsom was continued at South Yarmouth until the year 1888 when, for the first time in seventy-six years, the salt-mills along the shore of Bass River ceased to revolve and the business of salt making was discontinued. A view of these ruins is at page 143.
So generally have the villagers in the many hamlets of the county made salt-making a part of their business that we have classed it as a local enterprise, and in the several town histories have given detailed accounts of the hundreds of these plants. The increase in value of the pine for making the vats was a check upon the business. The supply was largely from Maine, when most of the works were built, and since the decline of the indus- try much of the lumber in these salt works has been used in the construction of dwelling-houses and other buildings. Between Hy- annis and West Dennis, some of the vats, with their dilapidated covers, yet stand, seemingly in memory of a departed industry which gave employment to many and proved a blessing to the localities in which it flourished.
The most ancient branch of industry, and one not subject to the dangers of the waves, is that of agriculture, in which the first settlers engaged, and which is largely carried on at the present time. The alluvial deposits of the north shore from Buzzards bay to Eastham, where the first settlements of the Cape were made, were highly pro- ductive; and history has recorded that Nauset was the granary of the Pilgrims, years before the white man disturbed the virgin soil. The cultivation of these lands, as soon as a spot could be cleared or the fields of the natives obtained, was the natural labor of the pioneer.
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146
HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.
Wheat and corn were the principal productions for many years, but the production of the former declined prior to 1700, because mildew injured the crop for several successive years. The wheat product was again increased during the first half of last century, but during this it has ceased to be one of the productions of the county. Corn, rye, oats, potatoes, and roots, in some towns, have long been and still are the staple crops, but as the major part of the people now pursue more lucrative avocations on the sea, the quantity of vegetable food re- quired by the inhabitants is not grown within the county limits.
The hay of the salt meadows early induced the settlers to remove here, and it has since been a staple, spontaneous product. English hay was early sought as a product of the soil, and in its steady in- crease has become one of the largest and most profitable of the field. Sheep husbandry was an early industry of the county. The sheep were allowed to run at large, ranging through the brush and woods of the central portions of the Cape, and not until the commencement of the present century did this branch of industry cease to be remu- nerative; and even later small flocks were kept, the product of which found a place in the round of domestic economy. In the commence- ment of the growth of sheep husbandry laws were enacted that no sheep should be sold out of the colony, for the violation of which law a heavy penalty was prescribed. Cattle raising has kept pace with other branches of the business of the farm, and has always proved remunerative. The increase in the number of cattle and horses has been more rapid during the present century than previously, amount- ing in 1879 to quite a quarter of a million of dollars. The average area of the individual farms in this county is small, but in various towns and during all the past generations records and tradition point to the growing of profitable crops. Fertilizers of various kinds are used, but in the use of the refuse of the salt marshes and the fish, this county possesses advantages over those inland; still, phosphates and fertilizers are imported, the cost in 1880 being $4,523.
Fruit growing has received much attention, and not only have many farms well-set, thrifty orchards of varied fruits, but nearly every home spot has its variety. The many orchards of one hundred years ago still exist here and there over the county, and there are cases of still greater longevity. The pear tree planted by Governor Prince in Eastham, where he settled in 1644, lived two centuries, and has passed away within the remembrance of middle-aged residents.
The last government statistics placed the number of Barnstable county farms at 979, of which some are small and some are dairy farms; but in the general products of field culture, when relatively con- sidered with other New England counties, this is far from the bottom of the column. The interest in the industry is evinced by the annual
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147
INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES.
fairs, and the important society for the advancement of agriculture in its various branches, of which particulars may be found in Chapter V.
The branch of this industry now receiving the most attention and from which the largest revenue is derived, is cranberry culture. To the product of this berry a vast number of bogs and lowlands have been transformed from a condition of seeming worthlessness to the most valuable land of the county. These bogs for generations have quietly rested on every farm of the Cape, there receiving the richness of the surrounding higher lands, while in themselves they were accumulations of the most fertile vegetable mould -- but useless to the owner. The cranberry grew in these in a wild state, and until half a century ago the fruit was carelessly passed as of no utility. Its present appreciation by the civilized nations of both hemispheres is another attesting circumstance of the change in tastes and customs which so revolutionizes the industries of a people.
Much speculation and many conflicting statements are at hand re- garding the time, place, and circumstance in which this great industry had its beginning on the Cape. At North Dennis, about 1816, one Henry Hall owned a piece of low land on which wild cranberries grew. Adjoining this were beach knolls, from which, after the cut- ting of some small timber, the sand was blown upon the vines. This, instead of injuring the berries of which he had made some use, was found to greatly improve them as they sprang up through the lighter parts of the sand covering; and thus is believed to have originated the idea so fundamental in their successful cultivation. So little was this fruit prized, even at its best, that it was many years before any considerable use was made of this accidental discovery. In the mean- time William Sears, now living, and his father Elkanah, set, at East Dennis, some vines for their own use, and others in those vicinities soon after followed the example; but no one thought of making any commercial use of the berry. Benjamin F. Bee, of Harwich, says that Isaiah Baker set a few square rods to cranberries, at West Harwich, before 1840; but this experiment, whatever its date, shared the fate of all that were made prior to 1847. In 1844 and 1845 Alvan Cahoon, then sailing a vessel from North Dennis, saw the Henry Hall vines and how they were improved by the sand covering, and in 1846 he set eight rods to berries at Pleasant lake, in Harwich; and in 1847, the now venerable Cyrus Cahoon prepared and set, at Pleasant lake, one- fourth of an acre. These dates are fully authenticated, and mark the period from which may be dated cranberry culture in Barnstable county.
Several years elapsed before the business yielded anything like profit to anyone. About the time the experiments were being made at Pleasant lake, Zebina H. Small set a little plot at Grassy pond,
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148
HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.
where he lost the four hundred dollars which he invested. Later, he adopted a different system from any then in use, and became a suc- cessful grower, probably among the very first, in point of time, to make the business profitable. In his biography, in the chapter on Harwich, his early beginning in the culture of cranberries is noticed, and diligent search among his accounts and records has not revealed a more definite date than is there given. During his lifetime Mr. Small was regarded by some as the original cranberry man of his town, and unquestionably, was among the very first to experiment. We have noticed with exact dates those early experiments at Pleasant lake. A work on cranberry culture, written by Joseph J. White, pub- lished in 1870 by Orange Judd & Co., contains a letter over Mr. Small's name, under date of February, 1870, in which he says that his first experiments were made in Harwich " twenty-five years ago." On the site of these first experiments in the rear of Benjamin F. Bee's factory, near Harwich Center, his son Emulous Small, now a prominent grower, has a productive, bog.
In 1852 or 1853, Nathaniel Robbins set a few, and afterward became an extensive grower. His bogs in Harwich were not especially profit- able, but he made a fair property as owner in other bogs. Jonathan Small sanded a bog quite early at South Harwich near the shore, where now is Deep Hole bog. Deacon Braley Jenkins of West Barn- stable was the first to cultivate the berry in that part of the Cape, having his bog on Sandy Neck outside the ancient Cummaquid harbor.
While these primitive experiments were proving the wisdom of some theories and the folly of others, the supply of berries was upon the whole rapidly increasing, for in almost every portion of the Cape were swamps available for no other known purpose.
Probably the men who brought the berry to the attention of the public outside of the districts to which it was indigenous and created a demand for it, were potent factors in the development of this in- dustry. That change of taste which we have noticed as continually going on, has brought this little waif of the swamp lands into notice, and made it a favorite with the epicures of every country. Writers who called attention to it also promoted the general interest. Rev. Eastwood, of North Dennis, published a book on the cranberry and its cultivation, which attracted the attention of the New Jersey men, where the conditions for raising them were similar. In the book the . author informed his readers that William Crowell, now of North Den- nis, then of Baker & Crowell, at 23 South street, New York, would answer inquiries from any who intended to start in this enterprise. From this and other causes their firm handled large quantities of the cuttings of the vines which were sent to New Jersey to start the in- dustry there.
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149
INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES.
The preparation of the bogs is in most instances a tedious and ex. pensive process, costing, by the time the vines are started, from two hundred to five hundred dollars per acre, and in some instances even more. The usual method is to clear the land of bushes and stumps, make the surface as level as practicable, and then cover with a layer of sand to the depth of from three to eight inches. The vines are then set out in rows, and soon cover the whole acreage uniformly. As with all other crops, cranberries require constant care and atten- tion to keep out undesirable growth. Ivy must be pulled out as soon as it makes its appearance, as it spreads very rapidly when once started. The same is true of grass and fern. After a few years the vines become thick, making the berries ripen too slowly and difficult to pick; this is remedied by putting on a layer of sand an inch or two thick every few years. One method of resanding is to sand on the ice when the bog is flowed in winter.
Every known variety is indigenous to the soil of the Cape, from which the fruit receives an excellence so peculiarly marked as to render the Cape Cod berries the most valuable in market. This native fruit has been cultivated to its present perfection by trans- planting and carefully cultivating the best-producing vines. No new varieties, other than existed in their native beds, have been added to the list; but the selection of the most perfect vines and their develop- ment under more favorable circumstances, has improved the pleasing and profitable varieties which bear the names of those who prosecuted the work. The Early Blacks, a standard variety, originated on lands in Harwich belonging to Nathaniel Robbins, from whom all the men who are said to have developed it obtained, directly or indirectly, their first plants. The Howes vine originated in Dennis and was first propagated by James Howes, who has sold hundreds of barrels of cut- tings. The Sears vine, and the Smalley are other well-known varie- ties. There are kinds that ripen sufficiently to pick during the last week in August, but not until the first week of the following month is the picking general, and this work gives lucrative employment to men, women and children during a period of several weeks. To hasten the tedious work of picking has been the study of inventive minds and several hand machines have been introduced; but the per- fection of the device and its introduction to general use has not yet been accomplished.
The success of this industrial pursuit was scarcely assured when natural enemies of the crop began to appear. The fire worm is the most dangerous of the insect foes, and various means have been ap- plied for his extermination. Flowing the bogs at the proper time was first found to be a remedy, but this retarded the growth of the berries and left them more liable to injury by early frosts in autumn.
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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.
Again, some bogs could not be quickly submerged and a delay of eighteen hours in checking the work of the worm at a critical time decides the fate of the crop. Tobacco decoctions as a spray on the vines have been used with good results. In 1889, Eleazer K. Crowell of Dennis Port, an extensive grower, made experiments covering sev- eral acres to which he applied as much as eighteen barrels of tobacco decoction in a single day with a satisfactory result.
The distinguishing feature of this business is the large percentage of the gross market price which comes to the people whose labor produces them. From the laborers who prepare the bogs to the many men, women and children who pick the berries, all classes find profit- able employment and, except the freights and selling commissions, the whole price of the fruit in market finds its way into the pockets of the Cape people. The screening, sorting and cleaning the berries for the market is no small amount of labor. Making the barrels and boxes necessary for their shipment to market is another considerable indus- try. Many growers make their own shipping cases, purchasing the mate- rial from factories where it is prepared ready to put up, and there are several shops in the county where these barrels and boxes are pre- pared ready for sale.
Very handsome returns have generally been realized from invest- ments here in the cranberry business. Several verified statements are at hand showing a profit of over a hundred per cent. on the in- vestment in a single year, and some of these reach 134 per cent. Cyrus Cahoon of Pleasant Lake, whose age and observation fit him to judge, fairly expresses the belief that the total investments in this industry in Barnstable county since 1850 have yielded an average an- nual return of thirty per cent., although this average includes some recent years wherein some growers have made total failures.
In the census year 1855 there were 197 acres in the county, of which Dennis had 50; Barnstable, 33; Falmouth, 26; Provincetown, 25; Brew- ster, 21; Harwich, 17; Orleans, 8; Eastham, Sandwich and Yarmouth, 5 acres each, and Wellfleet, 2 acres. The next census by the state, in 1865, showed the total acreage for the county to be 1,074. Harwich had become the leading town, having 209 acres; Dennis, 194; Brew- ster, 136; Barnstable, 126; Provincetown, 110; Sandwich, 70; Falmouth, 68; Yarmouth, 40; Orleans, 38; Chatham, 27; Wellfleet and Eastham, each 22; and Truro, 12 acres.
The state bureau of labor statistics records the production of cran- berries in the county for the census year 1865 at 13,324 bushels, the value of which was $35,815. The same authority places the crop of 1874 for the county at 44,031 bushels, of which Barnstable produced 10,019 bushels; Dennis, 8,637; Brewster, 6,198; Harwich, 5,600; Sand- wich, 4,673; Falmouth, 4,438; Orleans, 1,128; Yarmouth, 845; Province-
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INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. 151
town, 750; Eastham, 533; Wellfleet, 375; Chatham, 322; and Truro, 114 bushels. Since then the amount of the production has been stated in barrels. The totals for the county, as determined from the shipment records of the Old Colony Railroad Company, were 34,733 barrels for 1877, and 37,883 barrels for 1879. In 1880 they shipped 39,625 bar- rels, and 26,500 barrels in 1883. In 1884 the crop was 27.245 barrels. For 1885 the bureau of labor statistics furnishes the details by towns, showing that each town in the county was producing this fruit, of which Harwich, in the lead, marketed 12,180 barrels, and Wellfleet, at the foot of the list, produced 143 barrels. The other towns in order were: Barnstable, producing 8,509 barrels; Bourne, 8,094 barrels; Den- nis, 6,030 barrels; Yarmouth, 5,000; Falmouth, 3,234; Brewster, 3,000; Mashpee, 2,740; Sandwich, 2,389; Provincetown, 1,472; Orleans, 1,067; Chatham, 1,000; Truro, 479; and Eastham, 471 barrels-a total for the county of 55,898 barrels. These figures are from the producers' state- ments, while the shipment records of the railroad company make the total for the county 991 barrels less, a difference of less than two per cent. The Old Colony figures for 1886 show the crop to have been 60,803 barrels; for 1887 to have been 63,476 barrels; for 1SSS the crop was 54,316, and for 1889 the gross shipments-the largest ever made -reached 66,750 barrels.
The table shows the number of barrels or their equivalents shipped in 1889 from the several stations, and gives an approximate idea of the amount produced in the several towns. The West Barnstable and Sandwich shipments include chiefly the crop of Mashpee.
Buzzards Bay
201
South Dennis 5,993
Monument Beach
141
North Harwich 3,930
Wenaumet
95
Harwich. 9,479
Cataumet
558
South Harwich 405
North Falmouth
735
South Chatham. 186
.
West Falmouth
52
Chatham 580
Falmouth
4,420
Pleasant Lake. 491
Woods Holl Bourne
773
Orleans 1,224
Bournedale
1,681
Eastham. 189
Sagamore. Sandwich .
3,371
North Eastham
33
West Barnstable Barnstable
353
South Truro
58
Yarmouth 4,735
Truro
13
Hyannis. 3,349
North Truro
10
South Yarmouth 2,968
Provincetown
66
The area devoted to their culture in the several towns as recorded by the local assessors for 1889, shows a total of 3,0062 acres in the county, valued at $589,639.00 as the basis of taxation. This area is doubtless very nearly correct, but this valuation is not more than
1
170
Brewster 5,285
South Wellfleet 55
5,800
9,585
Wellfleet 132
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152
HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.
two-fifths of the commercial value of these lands. The detail by towns are :
1981 acres in Bourne, valued at
$35,684 00
1311
Falmouth,
37,097 00
2033
Mashpee,
66,160 00
135折
Sandwich,
32,400 00
5494
Barnstable,
116,550 00
165}
Yarmouth, ..
25,680 00
35917 .. Dennis, ..
71,870 00
5003
6. Harwich,
114,S10 00
933
66 Chatham,
12,144 00
2041
.
Brewster, ..
47,990 00
1233
Orleans,
10,008 00
56
.6 Eastham,
66
4,979 00
135
Wellfleet,
..
995 00
595
66
Truro,
66
3,754 00
and 212}
Provincetown, ..
9,518 00
This total for the county does not include the larger areas in course of preparation, but not yet set with vines. Several individuals and companies in the lower Cape are preparing to increase the acre- age in those towns where, thus far, less of the fruit has been grown.
The biographical sketches of Abel D. Makepeace, of West Barn- stable, generally known as the cranberry king: of Cyrus Cahoon and Zebnia H. Small, of Harwich, and of E. K. Crowell, William Crowell and Capt. Howes Baker, of Dennis, as they appear in the subsequent chapters of this volume, and the personal mention of the other grow- ers in the several towns, will throw more light upon their relation to the origin and progress of this great industrial resource of South East- ham, Mass.
- The terms in which this county is generally referred to, and the distinctive titles applied to the residents of it, have gradually given those who have not known the territory or its inhabitants, the idea that Cape Codders, the Cape and Cape Cod people were terms refer- ring to a community different from the rest of New England, and especially distinguished from the rest of the world. This idea is not correct, even in general respects, because the residents of the county have always, by land and sea, maintained business and social relations as extensive with others as have any people. If, however, there be one trait which, more than another, distinguish these families from others of the East, it is that love of home which more or less characterizes the dwellers of all islands and insular localities. This love of their native place, and that reverence and respect for the character that has been developed in it, seems to increase the longer they remain
153
INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES.
away from it; and now that communication is so easy between the East and West, each season witnesses the return to the Cape of those who from it have gone to make their home in almost every state of the Union. They find here something which, somehow, they forgot, or failed to take with them when they went West; and so year after year they come back to the scenes and circumstances of the old home, " which father's grandfather built in 17- and something."
That sensible practice, happily increasing among city people, of checking themselves each year in the rush and hurry of business, to take a vacation at the seaside, has already modified, to a great extent, the resources and prospects of Cape Cod. Available building sites for summer cottages are rapidly being occupied by those who build more or less elaborately and spend the larger portion of the year here. This is especially true of Falmouth, where several people of large means claiin their residence. More than one-half of all the taxes of this town are paid by four such families. These elegant residences have been erected by the summer people almost through- out the Buzzards bay side of the county, and down the Cape on either shore; and on the higher lands as well, handsome residences beautify the landscape. The most elaborate and expensive of all residences in Barnstable county is Tawasentha, the new residence of Albert Crosby, in Brewster, which is the subject of an illustration in the his- tory of that town.
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