USA > Missouri > Pettis County > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches > Part 10
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
the same time Missouri had a population of 1,721,295, and there were during that year 27,982 deaths from all causes. A mortality rate equiva- lent to 1.63 per cent. of the population. It thus appears, if the calculation is made and the relative proportion between the populations and the death rates of the two states maintained, that vital security is greater in Mis- souri, as compared with Massachusetts, to an extent represented by the annual saving of 2,474 lives. But this is not all. The authorities on vital statistics estimate that two persons are constantly sick for every one that dies; and Dr. Jarvis shows, from the experience of health-assurance companies in this country, that on an average each person loses from 19 to 20 days per year by sickness. Then we have this result: Two persons sick to one death, equal 4,948, multiplied by 20, gives 98,960 days per year less of sickness in Missouri than in Massachusetts, in proportion to population. Then reckon the amount of care and anxiety and suffering and the loss of time, and cost for nursing and medicines and doctor's bills- and you will begin to get some idea of what these figures really mean, in favor of our state, with its dry, salubrious climate, in comparison with Massachusetts, the only other state for which the figures were at hand to make the comparison.
AGRICULTURE.
The Missouri state board of agriculture was created a body corporate by statute, in 1877, and it was provided that the governor, the state sup- erintendent of schools, the president of the state university and the dean of the state agricultural college, should be ex-officio members of the board. The officers of the secretary and treasurer are required to be at the agricultural college, at Columbia, in Boone county; and the annual meetings are to be held there, on the first Wednesday of November in each year. The presidents or duly authorized delegates of county agricultural societies, are rightful members of the state board, "for delib- eration and consultation as to the wants, prospects and condition of the agricultural interests of the state, to receive the reports of district and county societies, and to fill by elections all vacancies in the board."
The law further provides that, " It shall be the duty of all agricultural and horticultural societies, organized and established in accordance with the laws of this state, to make a full report of their transactions to the Missouri state board of agriculture, at each annual meeting thereof."
The state board is required " to make an annual report to the general assembly of the state, embracing the proceedings of the board for the past year, and an abstract of the reports and proceedings of the several agricultural and horticultural societies, as well as a general view of the condition of agriculture and horticulture throughout the state, accom- panied by such recommendations, including especially such a system of
91
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
public instruction upon those subjects as may be deemed interesting and useful." Provision is then made for printing fourteen thousand copies (two thousand in the German language), for distribution to all who will use them.
OUR STAPLE CROPS.
First of all the crops grown in the state, in amount and value, is Indian corn. There is not a county in the state in which it is not successfully and profitably grown. The broad alluvial bottoms along our great rivers yield immense crops of this valuable cereal, and our fertile prairies are but little, if any, behind them in their yield.
Next in importance among the cereals is wheat, which grows and yields well in every part of the state. Except in a few northern counties, spring wheat is but little grown, the main attention being bestowed upon the winter varieties, which are especially a favorite crop upon the loess and clay loams, and upon the oak uplands of the state. The well known fact that the best flour to stand transportation and exposure in hot and humid climates, is made from wheat grown toward the southern border of the wheat zone, has made Missouri flour a favorite for shipment to South American markets. Flour made in Missouri, from Missouri wheat, won the Medal of Merit at the World's Exposition, at Vienna, in 1873. The average yield and the certainty of the wheat crop in Missouri, give the state a high rank among the states producing this cereal.
Oats grow and yield well in the state, producing heavy straw, plump and heavy grains; but the crop does not figure very largely in our markets, being mainly grown for home consumption.
Tobacco, of two or three varieties, grows well, and Missouri tobacco enjoys a fine reputation for excellence. The state embraces some of the best tobacco lands in the country. It is a staple in nearly every county in the state, and some of the counties make it a leading crop. Missouri ranks sixth in its production.
Cotton, except in small patches for home use, is raised only in the southern counties of the state. Stoddard, Scott, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin, Mississippi and Lawrence, all raise more or less for shipment, and, in some of the counties named, it is an important crop.
Potatoes grow well, and on most of our soils yield large crops. They are of fine quality generally.
Sweet Potatoes grow upon our sandy soils to great size and excellence, and our farmers raise a great abundance for home use, and the city markets are always well supplied.
Sorghum, and other varieties of the Chinese sugar cane, are exten- sively grown, and many thousands of gallons of syrup are annually made for home use. Recent improvements in manufacturing sugar from these
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
syrups bid fair to increase the value and importance of this branch of husbandry.
Broom Corn is extensively grown in Missouri, and the brush being longer and finer than that grown in the eastern states, commands a much better price in market.
Buckwheat, Castor Beans, White Beans, Peas and Hops, are all success- fully grown and made profitable crops.
Garden Vegetables are produced in great profusion and variety, and the more arid regions of western Kansas and New Mexico, and the mining districts of Colorado, afford an ever-increasing market for these and other agricultural products from our state. Watermelons, musk- melons, etc., grow to great perfection, and are shipped in large quantities from some portions of the state to cities farther north.
The U. S. forestry statistics of 1875, give Missouri 21,707,220 acres of land in farms; 20,116,786 acres not in farms; of wood land in farms there were 8,965,229 acres, and the total woodlands in the state was reported as 19,623,619 acres.
There is a curious bit of agricultural history which illustrates the rapid development of the western country, and at the same time shows, by the inevitable logic of events already transpired, the magnificent position of Missouri as the greatest wheat center on the globe. In 1849 the cen- ter of the wheat product of the United States was the meridian of 81 º west of Greenwich, passing north and south through the eastern border counties of Ohio. In 1859 that line had moved westward a little more than two degrees of longitude, and passed through the eastern border counties of Indiana, the city of Fort Wayne being on the line. In 1869 the wheat center had moved not quite two degrees further west, and was that year a few miles west of Chicago and Milwaukee; and the center of our National corn crop was on the same line at this time. In 1877 this line had moved still further west, and was now represented by a line drawn on a map of the United States from Marquette, on Lake Superior, down through Janesville, Wisconsin, and through Mendota, LaSalle, Vandalia and Cairo, in Illinois. The corn center will not move much if any further west; but the wheat center, by reason of the rapid development of this crop in Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, is now, in 1881, as far west as St. Louis; and it will not be likely to migrate further than Jeffer- son City at any time in the future, because there is no important wheat- growing territory further west still unoccupied. The new settlements westward must be chiefly by mining and manufacturing peoples, hence, consumers rather than producers of the great cereal crops.
The conclusion of the whole matter, then, is that St. Louis is now, and will for several decades continue to be, practically on the center line of the aggregate product of wheat and corn in the United States, propor-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
tioned from east to west limits of the national domain. And this fact assures Missouri of pre-eminent commercial rank among the grand sister- hood of states.
The following table shows the number of pounds weight which con- stitute a lawful bushel in Missouri, of the different articles named, as established in 1879:
No. 1bs.
No. 1bs.
Articles.
per bu.
Articles.
per bu.
Wheat
60
Orchard Grass
14
Corn, shelled
56
Buckwheat. 52
Corn in ear .
70
Onions. . 57
Corn Meal
50
Top Onion Sets. 28
Rye.
56
Peas, whole, dry
60
Oats.
32
Split Peas.
60
Barley.
48
Dried Apples 24
33
Sweet Potatoes
56
Malt.
3S
Beans, White.
60
Salt
50
Castor Beans
46
Coal.
80
Bran .
20
Peanuts, dry Southern
22
Clover Seed.
60
Cotton Seed.
33
Timothy Seed.
45
Parsnips.
44
Hungarian Seed
48
Common Turnips 42
Hemp Seed
44
Carrots. 50
Flaxseed .
56
Rutabagas. 50
Millet Seed.
50
Green Peas, unshelled
56
Red-top Seed or Herd's Grass 14
Green Beans, unshelled
56
Osage Orange Seed.
36
Green Apples
48
Sorghum Seed.
42
Green Peaches 48
Kentucky Blue Grass Seed ...
14
Green Pears
4S
Irish Potatoes
60
Dried Peaches
The standard bushel for coke and charcoal is to contain 2,680 cubic inches; apple barrels, length, 282 inches; chines, & of an inch at ends; diameter of head, 174 inches; inside diameter at the center of the barrel, 20% inches.
HORTICULTURE.
The state horticultural society was organized in January, 1859, and has kept up its annual meetings in spite of all difficulties. Each congres- sional district of the state is classed as a separate horticultural district, and is represented in the society by a vice-president, who is expected to keep himself posted on the interests of this industry in his district, and make report (or procure some one to do it), at the annual meeting. The officers of this society for 1880, were: President, Hon. Norman J. Colman, St. Louis; Vice Presidents: 1st congressional district, H. Michel, St. Louis; 2d, Dr. C. W. Spaulding, Cliff Cave; 3d, J. Rhodes, Bridgeton; 4th, H. D. Wilson, Cape Girardeau; 5th, W. S. Jewett, Crystal City; 6th, M.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
S. Roundtree, Springfield; 7th, E. Brown, Sedalia; 8th, Z. S. Ragan, Independence; 9th, J. Madinger, St. Joseph; 10th, W. H. Miller, Chili- cothe; 11th, G. Husmann, Columbia; 12th, J. Hawkins, Hannibal; 13th, W. Stark, Louisiana.
APPLES .- All the standard varieties of the temperate zone are raised in their highest perfection in the state of Missouri; but in such a large area of country as our state comprises, and with such a great variety of soils, and other conditions, each different kind has its locality of best suc- cess. It is therefore not possible to indicate what varieties are best for the state; each district will have its favorites. At the national exhibit, in 1878, Missouri showed one hundred and forty plates of apples. Distin- guished pomologists assert that ten counties in north Missouri can show apples in as great variety and perfection as any ten other states in the Union.
Perhaps no better proof can be given of the general excellence of Missouri fruits than the fact that at the meeting of the American pomo- logical society, in September, 1878, medals were awarded to Missouri for the best displays of apples, pears and wines, and also one for the best general display of fruits. These honors were gained in competition with every state in the union, represented by their choicest fruits, and at an exhibition held at Rochester, New York, which had long been regarded as the very center of the fruit growing interests of the country. The fruits exhibited on that occasion were from different parts of the state. St. Joseph, Independence, Morrison, Columbia, Hermann, St. Louis county, Boone county, and other districts were represented, and shared the hon- ors of our great victory.
The varieties that appear to have received most favor at the meeting of our state agricultural society, in 1880, were Ben Davis, Winesap, Jonathan, Dominie, Rawle's Janet, Milam, Northern Spy, Carthouse, Newtown Pippin, Summer Pippin, Red June, Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, Late Summer, Dutchess of Oldenburg, Early Pennock, St. Lawrence, Maiden Blush, Rambo, Grimes' Golden, Limber Twig, Little Romanite.
PEACHES .- The southeastern portion of the state, along the line of the Iron Mountain railroad, and the western portion, where the marly deposits are so rich and extensive, are pre-eminently the peach districts, and in these regions the peach seems almost indigenous, never failing to produce abundant crops; and yet fruit-growers in these districts say that they are never able to supply the demand, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado taking all from the western region, and St. Louis having to draw upon other states for her supplies. Peaches may be relied upon as a profitable crop in all that part of the state south of the Missouri river, and, indeed, are largely grown much further north, St. Joseph exporting large amounts.
95
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
In some localities the trees have occasionally been winter-killed, when not in suitable soil or not sheltered; but, on the whole, Missouri may fairly be set down as a peach-growing state. Mr. R. Lynn, of Rockport, in the northwest part of the state, says he has raised three good paying crops of peaches in seven years, the first crop being the third year from plant- ing; his best crop was in 1878.
PEARS .- Pears do well throughout the state, especially in the region of Clay, Jackson and Cass counties. The trees attain a great size and age-a diameter of from twelve to fifteen inches is common; and there are trees a short distance south of St. Louis over two hundred years old, and still bearing full crops. The pear, although the most luscious fruit grown in northern latitudes, is also one of the most difficult to raise suc- cessfully-hence it is a matter of reasonable pride and gratification that this fruit has done so well in our state. At the national pomological exhibition, of 1878, there were from this state: From the Missouri Val- ley horticultural society, Kansas City, twenty varieties of pears; from Jacob Rhodes, Bridgeton, nine varieties; from J. Madinger, St. Joseph, six varieties; from W. Stark, Louisiana, two varieties. Some of the finest specimens at the exhibition were grown near St. Louis, on atocks of the white thorn.
GRAPES .- For several years the chief fruit-growing interest . on se seemed to center on the grape-at least, it was more discussed and advo- cated in fashionable circles, than all the other fruits put together. The anti-prohibition sentiment rallied around the grape-growing industry for the manufacture of native wines, as the great panacea for all the ills and horrors of intemperance. But aside from any matter of sentiment in the case, it does seem as though we excel all other states of the Union in the variety and richness of our grapes, both of native and cultivated varieties.
From Prof. Swallow's report on the country along the lines of the. southwestern branch of the Missouri Pacific railroad, published in 1859, we learn that seven different native grapes have been found in Missouri. 1. Vitis Labrusca, commonly called "fox grape." The Isabella, Catawba, Schuylkill and Bland's seedling, are cultivated and popular varieties derived from this wild grape. 2. Vitis Aestivalis, or " summer grape." This is found in all parts of the state. 3. Vitis Cordifolia; winter grape, or " frost grape " as it is more commonly called. 4. Vitis Riparia, or "river grape," grows along streams and is quite large. 5. Vitis Vulpina; called also Muscadine. It grows mostly in the south part of the state, and is a large fine fruit. The cultivated grape called Scuppernong is derived from this wild variety. 6. Vitis Bipinnata; found in Cape Girardeau and Pemiscot counties. 7. Vitis Indivisa; found in central and western counties.
96
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
GRASSES.
There are few or no grasses that are peculiar to Missouri; and fortu- nately so, for there is no permanent advantage in being adapted to pecu- liar crops any more than in being a peculiar people. The great blessings of life are universal and widespread. It results that all the valuable members of this great and beneficial family of plants are adapted to and capable of being introduced and cultivated in this state. Flint, in his standard work on grasses, says: "Whoever has blue grass has the basis of all agricultural prosperity, and that man, if he have not the finest horses, cattle and sheep, has no one to blame but himself. Others, in other circumstances, may do well. He can hardly avoid doing well if he will try."
Blue grass is indigenous in Missouri. When the timber is removed it springs up spontaneously on the land, and, when the prairie is reclaimed, it soon takes possession and supersedes all other grasses. This famous grass isthe foundation on which the mighty stock industry of Kentucky* · has been built, and has given a world-renowned reputation to its fine blood horses, cattle and sheep. The combing-wool sheep and the fine mutton breeds have obtained a national reputation for wool and mutton in that state, and their usefulness has but begun. What blue grass has done for Kentucky, it is now doing for Missouri. An acre of this grass is worth an acre of corn.
Recent experience has proved that alfalfa or lucerne, that most fatten- ing of all grasses, grows luxuriantly in this region, yielding each year three or four good crops of hay.
THE "GRASSHOPPER" IN MISSOURI.
As early as 1867, our state board of agriculture reported destruction by grasshoppers (the Rocky Mountain locust,) in the western part of the state the previous fall; and also, that there had been visitations more or less injurious in former years. But their greatest and most grievous invasion occurred in the fall of 1874, when 33 counties of western Mis- souri suffered from their ruthless ravages. Our state entomologist, Prof. C. V. Riley, made such a thorough, diligent and masterful study of their origin and habits, and the causes, methods and consequences of their migra- tions, that he became the standard authority on grasshoppers all over the civilized world. In 1876 the government appointed a special commission of entomologists to investigate the character and movements of these pests, and report for the benefit of the whole infested region, which com- prised the country west of St. Paul, Minnesota, Jefferson City, Missouri, and Galveston, Texas, ranging from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to
* "Kentucky blue grass," (so-called), is not native to that state: it is the same as the En- glish spear grass, the New England June grass, or meadow grass-or, in botanical lan- guage, poa pratensis.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
Lake Winnipeg and Manitoba in the British possessions northward, and as far west as the headquarters of the Columbia river. The most prom- inent scientists on this commission were our own Prof. Riley, and Prof. Samuel Aughey, of the state university of Nebraska.
The results of this United States commission were little if anything more than a tedious elaboration of what Prof. Riley had presented in three annual reports as state entomologist of Missouri. No new points of any special importance were discovered concerning them. The devel- opment of this subject, therefore, belongs to the history of what Missouri has done for science, for agriculture and for the public weal. In his seventh annual report to our state board of agriculture, 1875, Prof. Riley says:
" There is some difference of opinion as to the precise natural habitat and breeding places of these insects, but the facts all indicate that it is by nature a denizen of high altitudes, breeding in the valleys, parks and plateaus of the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, and especially of Montana, Wyoming and British America. Prof. Cyrus Thomas, who has had an excellent opportunity of studying it, through his connection with Hayden's geological survey of the territories, reports it as occurring from Texas to British America, and from the Mississippi westward to the Sierra Nevada range. But in all this vast extent of country, and espe- cially in the more southern latitudes, there is every reason to believe that it breeds only on the higher mountain elevations, and where the atmos- phere is very dry and attenuated, and the soil, seldom, if ever, gets soaked with moisture. Prof. Thomas found it most numerous in all stages of growth, along the higher valleys and canyons of Colorado, tracing it up above the perennial snows, where the insects must have hatched, as it was found in the adolescent stage. In crossing the mountains in Col- orado, it often gets chilled in passing snows, and thus perishes in immense numbers, where bears delight to feast upon it. My own belief is that the insect is at home in the higher altitudes of Utah, Idaho, Col- orado, Wyoming, Montana, northwest Dakota, and British America. It breeds in all this region, but particularly on the vast hot and dry plains and plateaus of the last named territories, and on the plains west of the mountains; its range being bounded, perhaps, on the east by that of the buffalo grass.
" Mr. Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, Colorado, shows that they hatch in immense quantities in the valleys of the three forks of the Missouri river and along the Yellowstone, and how they move on from there, when fledged, in a southeast direction, at about ten miles a day. The swarms of 1867 were traced, as he states, from their hatching grounds in west Dakota, and Montana, along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains, in the valleys and plains of the Black Hills, and between them and the main Rocky Mountain range. It all this immense stretch of country, as is well known, there are immense tracts of barren, almost desert land, while other tracts for hundreds of miles bear only a scanty vegetation, the short buffalo grass of the more fertile prairies giving way now to a more luxu- riant vegetation along the water courses, now to the sage bush and a few cacti. Another physical peculiarity is found in the fact that while the
7
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
spring on these immense plains often opens as early, even away up into British America, as it does with us in the latitude of St. Louis, yet the veg- etation is often dried and actually burned out before the first of July, so that not a green thing is to be found. Our Rocky Mountain locust, therefore, hatching out in untold myriads in the hot sandy plains, five or six thousand feet above the level of the sea, will often perish in immense numbers if the scant vegetation of its native home dries up before it acquires wings; but if the season is propitious, and the insect becomes fledged before its food supplies is exhausted, the newly acquired wings prove its salvation. It may also become periodically so prodigiously mul- tiplied in its native breeding place, that, even in favorable seasons, every- thing green is devoured by the time it becomes winged.
" In either case, prompted by that most exigent law of hunger-spurred on for very life-it rises in immense clouds in the air to seek for fresh pastures where it may stay its ravenous appetite. Borne along by pre- vailing winds that sweep over these immense treeless plains from the north- west, often at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an hour, the darkening locust clouds are soon carried into the more moist and fertile country to the southeast, where, with sharpened appetites, they fall upon the crops like a plague and a blight.
" Many of the more feeble or of the more recently fledged perish, no doubt, on he way, but the main army succeeds, with favorable wind, in bridging over the parched country which offers no nourishment. The hotter and dryer the season, and the greater the extent of the drouth, the earlier will they be prompted to migrate, and the farther will they push on to the east and south.
"The comparatively sudden change from the attenuated and dry atmos- phere of five to eight thousand feet or more above the sea level, to the more humid and dense atmosphere of one thousand feet below that level, does not agree with them. The first generation hatched in this low coun- try is unhealthy, and the few that attain maturity do not breed, but become intestate and go to the dogs. At least such is the case in our own state and the whole of the Mississippi valley proper. As we go west or northwest and approach nearer and nearer the insect's native home, the power to propagateitself and become localized, becomes, of course, greater and greater, until at last we reach the country where it is found per- petually. Thus in the western parts of Kansas and Nebraska the pro- geny from the mountain swarms may multiply to the second or even third generation, and wing their way in more local and feeble bevies to the country east and south. Yet eventually they vanish from off the face of the earth, unless fortunate enough to be carried back by favorable winds to the high and dry country where they flourish.
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