History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 56

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 56

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Sheep, whole number, 7,704. Grape vines in bearing, 766.

These statistics furnish a fair idea of the agri- cultural resources of the county, for although the county is well settled, but little more than one half is actually under cultivation.

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE CEREALS .- As showing the number of acres in wheat in the county as compared with former years it may be interesting to state that in 1879, 167,198 acres were sown in wheat, and in 1880, the number of acres was re- duced to 149,885, or a falling off in a single year of 17,313. The yield was only 1,491,937 or 8.92 bushels to the acre, but notwithstanding this fall- ing off in acreage and productiveness, Fillmore county was the second wheat producing county in the State, Goodhue county being the first. The other counties producing over a million bushels were Olmsted, Wabasha, Freeborn, Winona, and Dakota.

The counties in which the production of wheat has decreased are, Brown, Fillmore, Houston, Jackson, Nobles, Rock, Watonwan, and Winona. The production in the State, as a rule, is increas- ing from year to year, in 1868, the total yield was 15,382,022 and in 1875 this had got up to 30,079,- 300, the next year, however, was a bad one for this

cereal, and it fell off to 17,964,632. In 1879, the yield was 31,218,634, or an average of 11.30 per acre. The highest average was in 1868, 17.91, and lowest in that off year, 1876, when the average fell to 9.61.

OATS-Fillmore county is the largest oat-pro- ducing county in the State, putting up over one million bushels, the average yield being over thirty-five bushels to the acre.

CORN .-- This county is one of the nine principal corn producing counties of Minnesota. In 1879, the number of acres in corn was 24,420, and the yield 909,729, or 37.29 per acre.

In the year 1869, the number of bushels raised in the State was 4,194,965. Ten years afterwards, in 1879, the yield was 12,939,901 which may be characterized as a healthy increase.

BARLEY .- Fillmore is one of the seven counties of the State that furnishes over 100,000 bushels a year, and in 1879, 6,180 acres were sown and 140,002 bushels, or 22.65 per acre raised. The whole crop in the State was 2,423,932 bushels.

RYE .- Not much attention has been paid to this crop.

BUCKWHEAT .-- This crop is on the decrease, as the yield is very uncertain and uneven in differ- ent localities.

SEED TIME IN FILLMORE COUNTY .- There may be some curiosity to learn the seed time in the county, and from a memorandum kept by a care- ful farmer, we gather the following facts spread over a little more than ten years time.

1857. Along the fences, on the 25th of April. the snow was six inches deep.

1864. On the 12th of May snow was twenty- one inches deep; on the 21st, it was six inches deep. The crops that year were good.

1865. On the first of May the ground was white with snow, and the seed was put in after that. Frost appeared on the 15th of September, but the corn crop was quite good.

1867. Sleighing disappeared in February, and during that month there was considerable thunder and lightning, good sleighing in March, snow on the ground on the 21st of April, no seeding was done until well into May. Corn was planted on the 24th. It was a cold and backward spring and a wet summer, but good crops.

1868. . Some seeding was done the last of March. Early in April there was snow that kept

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up till the 16th. Harvesting began on the 25th of July.

1869. Snow on the ground up to the 15th of April, began seeding, but there was more snow on the 20th. This year there were good crops.

1870. The snow lasted until the 12th of April, and there was more on the 17th, with very good crops.

1871. Began seeding on the 5th of April, on the 21st it froze hard and snowed. The seeding was finished about the 28th. Early in the season it was wet, later it was dry, and there was a light crop.

1872. Cold through March and well into April; got in seed on the 18th, and corn on the 5th of May.

1873. Began seeding on the 18th of April, and finished on the 1st of May. Planted corn on the 12th and 13th of May.

1874. Commenced seeding on the 9th of April, but it froze every night until the 18th, and there was snow on the 20th and 27th. The seeding was not finished till the 5th of May.

1875. The month of March was cold, and on the 1st of April there was snow. Began to sow on th 19th, but the ground froze up and so remained for a week. On the 2d of May it again froze up hard. It can thus be seen that there is no fixity as to seed time or harvest here.

AMBER SUGAR CANE.

It is a thoroughly established fact that syrup and sugar can be successfully made in Minnesota from the early amber cane which grows to perfec- tion in all parts of the State. It is reasonable to believe that this industry is in its earliest infancy, and that at no distant time, the great bulk of the sugar now imported in such enormous quantities will be made at home, and, although such argu- ments have little effect upon individual action, yet it may not be devoid of general interest to know that the amount of sugar imported requires an equivalent in gold of more than $100,000,000, or one-sixth of all the circulating medium in the country.

Without doubt, the cultivation of the early amber cane in the northern States can supply a large part of this demand, and Minnesota could supply the home demand and leave a surplus for exportation. Such a change would certainly lessen the liability for hard times, and if commer- cial panics must come, the intervals between their

coming would be lengthened, as, with this grent draft upon us, the difficulties of keeping the bal- ance of trade on our side would be very materially decreased.

The great reason, however, why the farmers of Minnesota should make amber cane a part of every crop, is because it is in their pecuniary interest; if properly cultivated, and the business conducted with the skill usually displayed by the average farmer of the State, it will certainly be remu- nerative.

In Louisiana, and other sugar making commu- nities, the old methods effectually excluded the small farmers from entering into the business at all, even in a small way, for every planter had to have his own sugar houses, with costly machinery, and expenses of engineer and of operating on a large scale. But even there this system is giving way to the modern idea of a subdivision of labor, and the result is that common mills are being es- tablished, with all the facilities for the manufac- ture of the juice of the cane for the whole neigh- borhood, so that the planter can cultivate his crop without the trouble and expense of procuring machinery and buildings, with skilled labor to work it up.

This is evidently the course for the farmers of Minnesota, and every neighborhood should have its sugar mill, with grinding facilities, and evapo- rating pans sufficient to do the work before the frost arrives.

HISTORY OF THE EARLY AMBER .- In 1859, when Minnesota, as a State, was only a year old, at the time when the cultivation of the Chinese sugar cane, Imphee, or Sorghum as it was called, was exciting attention throughout the country, Mr. E. Y. Teas, of In- diana, being in Paris, bought a few pounds of the seed, of a well known firm, merely asking for the best. This was taken home and planted in the county where he lived, on a fourth of an acre, and there was a single stalk, nnlike the others, which ripened its seed by the time the rest were in bloom. The seed from this exceptional plant was carefully preserved, and the product the next year also ripened earlier than any other. The syrup was found to be far superior, and on account of the color, it being unlike the dark product of other known varieties, it was called Amber Cane.

At this time a Mr. Lindley, from North Carolina, seeing the value of the new variety, took home a

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fine lot of seed. There it was found to flourish, and was subsequently brought back to Wayre county, Indiana, and carefully grown by Mr. Conley, who widely disseminated the seed. It is not known whether this stray seed was an acci- dental one from some known variety in the old world, or a new kind just springing into existence; but, at all events, its history, since Mr. Teas had the genius to preserve it, is certainly a happy ex- emplification of the survival of the fittest.

METHOD OF CULTIVATION .- Although many of our readers are well acquainted with the whole business of making syrup and sugar from the amber cane, from the seed to the moment of leaving the granulating process, yet, for the benefit of those who have not given the subject deserved attention, a few observations will be made in this regard.

Minnesota soil, by its every appearance, is well adapted to the raising of any sugar plant. The only question, then, regards the climate, and that is overcome by the introduction of the early am- ber cane. This seed should be planted as early as possible, not allowing one day of needless delay. This will ripen the cane in the latter part of Au- gust, before danger of frost. However slightly frost touches the cane, it will be damaged, espe- cially in its crystallizing properties.

When cut, the cane should be piled in sheds for protection which sheds should be built near the mill. The cane piles should not be more than six feet high, to insure against heating. Space around and between the piles should be left for a free circulation of the air. Small quantities of cane could be covered with straw, always remov- ing the straw during the day. The planting of cane is of no more expense than that of corn, and only a small additional expense in cultivation may be taken into account.

An acre of land will readily produce eleven tons of cane, and a ton of cane will give from eighty- five to ninety-five gallons of juice, by the use of a six-horse power mill.

The juice contains 16 per cent solid matter, thirteen parts of which are crystallizable sugar, the remaining three parts being invert sugar and organic matter. An acre of cane will safely pro- duce from 130 to 150 gallons of syrup of 80 per cent. density.

The suckers should be removed to give the main stalk greater vigor. The cane grows from

ten to eleven feet tall, and each stalk, stripped and headed, weighs from two to three pounds. A man can with ease cut two acres a day. Two boys, using each a common lath, can strip an acre per day. A team can haul it up at the same time.

The cane should be cut before any frost touches it, although a slight frost affecting the leaves only will not injure the juice, provided the cane is then promptly cut.

The best way to harvest it is to place it in win- rows. Let two men start in, taking two rows each; make a winrow in the middle of the four rows, by laying down each hill as it is cut, with the butts in front, and the tops pointing back, laying each hill like shingles on a roof. Keep right on in this way, and you will have the cane in a condition to withstand rain and an ordinary early frost. The cane can be cut from the time of the immature to the ripe seed, but the riper it be- comes the sweeter the juice.

When you are ready to haul to the mill, begin, at the butt end of the row, and cut off the seed heads, throwing two rows together, then drive be- tween the empty rows and load up by taking ont both end boards, laying a tier at both ends with the butts outside.

Without doubt, in the cultivation and handling of this crop there will be many improvements, and new machinery, which, of course, will succeed or be rejected on its merits.

THE MANUFACTURE .- For a mill grinding two acres in twenty-four hours, will be required three men and a horse, besides two or three boilers.

From the mill the juice should pass into lurge settling vats, where impurities are taken from it. From here the juice passes into the large clas- sification pans, where the necessary chemicals for purifying can be applied. When well heated and skimmed, the juice passes into the evaporating pan, from which, if it is desirable to make sugar, it is turned into wooden coolers for crystallization. When crystallized, the sugar can be separated from the syrup, either with a centrifugal machine, or by drainage.

The outfit for a six horse power mill, grinding about three acres per day, is two or three classifi- cation pans, about 12x4 feet, and eight inches deep, and one evaporator for finishing. Another filtering of the juice, as it passes from the classifi- cation pans to the finishing evaporator, is of great advantage. Skimmings can be made use of

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in fattening hogs. The skimmings of the finish- ing evaporator produce a fine quality of vinegar.

Out of the 140 to 150 gallons of syrup per acre, there can be made, by using proper machinery, 1,000 pounds of sugar, and what is left, about sixty gallons, will be a fine article of molasses.

The manufacture is, however, recommended to be in the hands of experts, as it can be made at so much a gallon or pound with satisfactory results. As to the amount of syrup to the acre, some of the men who have developed this industry, claim that 160 gallons an acre can be readily secured The syrup weighs about twelve pounds to the gal- lon, and from this seven pounds of sugar ought to be made, and from these figures the value of the crop can be estimated, the worth of syrup and sugar being known. It should be remembered that after the sugar granulates, there are still sev- eral pounds of syrup to each gallon, whis is good molasses.

The early history of the successful cultivation of amber cane in Minnesota is most interesting. Soon after the war of 1861, Seth H. Kenny, of Morristown, and Charlos F. Miller, of Dundas, Rice county, who were at the time strangers to each other, twenty miles apart, began experiment- ing and wrestling with the problem, as to whether molasses could be made from the Chinese sugar cane. Their efforts, although at first exciting the mournful pity of their neighbors, were at last crowned with success. One of them chanced upon the seed of the early amber, already mentioned, and sending some of it to a careful friend in Mis- souri, had a crop of seed raised from it there, and and from this beginning has resulted a new in- dustry for the state of Minnesota.

The St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, in the spring of 1877, invited these gentlemen to exhibit their specimens to that body, and from that hour, the attention of the people of the Northwest hav- ing been called to the subject, the success of sugar making in this northern latitude was assured.

For the benefit of those who are chemically in- clined, an analysis or two of the amber juice is here given:

Juice-

Density (solid matter) 12.8

Pure saccharine. 9.5

Invert sugar (glucose) . 2.2

Foreign matter. 1.0

The presence of foreign matter is explained by

the use of unripe cane, lacking from two to three weeks of having obtained maturity.

ANOTHER ANALYSIS .- Sugar manufactured by M. D. Bowen gave as results:

Crystallizable sugar 89.46

Invert sugar 4.52

Moisture

5.80

Foreign matters .22

100.00

The analyses above given were made on the grounds, and under some unfavorable circum- stances, but show to a dead certainty the enormous value of the cultivation of early amber sugar cane in Minnesota.

To show the most discouraging side of the amber cane question, an article from a Wisconsin paper is here printed, which, notwithstanding its facetiousness, contains valuable hints.

The Cadott, Chippewa county, Record, says: "The amber cane fever, which has been raging for some years further south, has at last reached this way-up north region. It is a fever that has its intermittent features, and may be profitable or not, according to circumstances. If the soil is just right it will grow and thrive, but if too cold, heavy, or wet, it will fail. If the seed is perfectly fresh and good, it will come up if planted a half inch deep, but if covered up an inch or more, the crop will be a hill here and a hill there, and the same will be the case if the weather is unfavorable. Then, when up four inches, it is the most discour- aging crop known, for it won't grow an inch in four or six weeks -it is just getting ready to grow; but the weeds are not getting ready, or waiting, they are attending to business, and so must the farmer, or he is gone again. When it does get started growing, the celebrated beanstalk is nowhere, it "shoots" for a fact. When it has attained its growth, the farmer waits with the greatest impatience for it to ripen, and puts off the cutting from day to day to give it all the chance he can, until some morning he finds the whole of it frozen, and gone to the shades. If he succeeds in getting it cut, and down to the mill, then if it does not sour, and the manufacturer gets just the right boil on it, accidentally, he will have good syrup-good enough for a congressman. If any one of all these conditions fail, then this crop is a dead loss. The light lands of this county are just the thing for the crop if quality is what is wanted.

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HISTORY OF FILLMORE COUNTY.

But the growers better try a half acre first, and after they have succeeded in growing that amount successfully it will be sensible to try more, but the man who tries ten acres or forty acres is beside himself. There are just about ten chances in a hundred that the beginner in this section will grow a crop successfully. Try it, but go slow. No better syrup is made than from the amber cane, when well made from good cane."

SUGAR CANE IN FILLMORE COUNTY.

This is one of the prominent counties that pro- duces syrup, and the last statistical report gave 216 as the number of acres planted, and 25,757 gallons of sprup, an average of 119.24 per acre. In 1880, 473 acres were put in.

LEGAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES IN MINNESOTA.

Wheat.

60 pounds per bushel

Corn, shelled.

Corn, in ears

Corn meal .

Rye.

Oats

Barley

Potatoes

Beans

Bran

Hungarian seed.

Clover

Timothy

Hemp

Flax

Red Top

Buckwheat

Onions .

Top onions, sets.

Peas. .

Malt ..

Salt.

Turnips

Cranberries

Coal

Lime.

200

per barrel

Flour. .

196

Pork

200

Butter

LAND MEASURE.

43,560 square feet make one acre.

To measure an acre: 198 feet by 200 feet make one acre. 209 feet on each side will make one square acre within a small fraction.

A square mile contains 640 acres.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

VARIOUS EVENTS OF INTEREST CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.

The object of this collection of facts is to give an idea of life in this part of the world, from a period not remote from the early advent of white settlers; to show the things in which they were interested aside from their daily vocations, the ac- cidents and vicisitudes to which they were sub- jected, with some of their pleasures and pastimes. Of course many events of absorbing interest, to those who participated in them, must have escaped our recording scribe, but enough have been se- cured to fill the allotted space, and to give a good idea of life and its prevailing vast concerns, as de- veloped in Fillmore county.

Any one coming into one of these villages to- day, from the old world, or even from the eastern States, can hardly realize that only a little over thirty years ago this whole section was visited every summer by immense herds of buffalo; that not a white man was here except an occasional trapper, and that during this time all this vast re- gion has been reclaimed from a state of nature.

In this chapter also quite a number of Fillmore county's dead are mentioned, with a word as to their lives, and what they may have done for hu- manity's sake.

THE YEAR 1854.

LAND OFFICE .- The land office was first opened in Brownsville an the first of August, 1854, and removed to Chatfield and reopened on the 12th of June, 1856. Maj. John H. Bennett was Register, and Captain John McKenny, Receiver, The amount of business done from the very start was enormous, some figures on this point appear else- where.

THE YEAR 1856.

At the county election in the fall, one Democrat and one Republican were elected as representa- tives, the other officers were Republican, except the Surveyor and Coroner, who were Democrats.

FIRE .- On the 29th of October, the land agency office of Weiser, Filbert & Edwards, at Chatfield, was destroyed by fire.

THE YEAR 1857.

The land grant to the Southern Minnesota rail- road was passed on the 3d of March, and in May following was confirmed by the action of the ter- ritorial legislature.

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EVENTS OF INTEREST.

GLARE SNOW .- On the 3d of December. 1856, there was a very deep snow that remained on the ground. On the 27th of December there was a rain which froze as it fell, leaving a glassy crust which would bear up an ordinary man, but it proved most disastrious to the deer, whose sharp hoofs, when the animal was on the run, would cut through at every jump, and the settlers, with whom fresh meat had been an almost unobtainable luxury, were quick to avail themselves of this ad- vantage to procure vension. A dog that could run without inconvenience, would soon overtake a deer and bring him to bay, and he would soon be floundering helplessly in the crust broken snow, when he would be dispatched with any convenient weapon. The numbers thus slain seem most in- credible. Incidents relating to this slaughter ap- pear in the town histories. It is a fact that this winter well nigh exterminated the deer throughout the wide region where this icy condition prevailed.

In April, Mr. C. Wilson, of Chatfield, under- took to bore an artesian well.

In May, the Root River Valley railroad engi- neers reached Chatfield, laying out a road that has been laying around unbuilt ever since.

In consequence of the hard times the proprietor of the old water saw-mill, one mile from Chatfield, in the winter agreed to saw lumber at $5.00 per thousand feet.

The first issue of the "Chatfield Democrat," on the 11th of September, says that "Forty acres of land adjoining the Chatfield town plat, sold for $90 per acre."

TKE YEAR 1858.

A MISHAP .- Quite a serious accident happened to one of Mr. A. M. Walker's stages as it neared Fillmore village, in this county, on the 3d of Feb- rnary. In attempting to cross a small stream or creek, the wheel of the stage came in contact with a large boulder, and the stage was instantly thrown upon its side, forcing one of the wheel horses down with it. The horse being held down by the tongue and fore part of the stage, und hampered with the harness, was drowned. There were three passengers in the coach at the time, who luckily escaped without further injury than an "unsought wash" and good ducking. Mr. J. S. Weider, clerk in the office of the Receiver of the U. S. Land Office in Chatfield, en route for Dubuque, was one of the three.

SERIOUS ACCIDENT .- On the 10th of February. a party of gentlemen left Chatfield for the purpose of slaughtering the game that should cross their path. At that day game of every species abounded in Fillmore county, and especially may this be said of the country immediately surround- ing the village of Chatfield. The gunning party was having good luck, and the indications were that they would be bountifully repaid for their labor, when, by the accidental discharge of one of the guns, Mr. Nathan P. Langdon, of Chatfield, was shot in the leg below the knee, breaking both bones and otherwise mangling his limb in a hor- rible manner. He was immediately taken to Chatfield and placed under the treatment of Dr. Cole, of that place, but in spite of the best of care it became necessary to amputate the limb.

A TRAVESTY .- In March, Mr. "William Higgins, of Higginsville," sent a memorial to the Legisla- ture asking a loan of $500, on 160 acres of land he expected to own when he had paid the govern- ment $200 for it. He proposed to spend the money he received in improvements, as he intended to lay out a city and give the State part of the profits on the sale of house lots, and to show that he intended to pursue a liberal policy, and in humble imitation of his railroad friends, he pro- posed to give each of the members of the Legisla- ture the deed of a lot, not, of course, to influence their action, but that they might realize that there was nothing small in his free-handed and compre- hensive scheme. It was a rich burlesque on the whole government subsidy business, and must have had considerable influence at the time.

The winter was so mild that wheat was sown on the 25th of February, and in 1860, it was sown on the 7th of March.

LAND OFFICE BUSINESS .- In June, the amount of land sold for cash was 440,384 acres, and for land warrants 941,433 acres. The total number of acres disposed of for cash and in land warrants was 1,381,817. Total number of acres surveyed 3,- 500,000. Unsurveyed 1,500,000. Total, 5,000,000.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 56

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: