USA > North Carolina > Chowan County > Economic and social history of Chowan County, North Carolina, 1880-1915 > Part 4
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1 Calculated from tables 6 and 12, pp. 269, 275.
2 Cf. table II, p. 274.
3 Cf. infra, p. 74.
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sewage was dumped.' A few made " lots " (enclosures) for their cattle, hauled in dirt, and secured twenty or thirty loads of manure in this way.
Woods Mold, Swamp-Mud, Fence-lock Dirt and Ashes. -During the interval between the time when crops were laid by in the summer and the time they were housed in the fall, some went into the woods and dug up and hauled out dirt. Part of this was dumped in single loads on the ground that was "lying out" (not being cultivated that year), and later spread either broadcast or down be- tween the old rows, and part was hauled up into banks to stay till the spring, when the stables (these were cleaned out only in spring) were cleaned out and their contents composted with this dirt. A few went into the swamps, which became fairly dry in the late summer and early fall, and hauled out great banks of swamp mud. Others raked out their fence-locks and hauled this into the fields. Occasionally in winter some would go into the woods, cut down the undergrowth, and burn it for ashes, which were valuable as a fertilizer chiefly because of the potash they contained. The commercial value of what ashes one man could thus produce in a day would probably not exceed twenty-five cents.
Burnt Dirt, Fish-offal, and Marle .- About this time there came in the custom of burning or smoking dirt. The method of doing this was to make a pile of two or three turns of wood, or old rails, fire it, and when it got to burning well, smother it with leaves or pine straw, and then throw on a load or two of dirt. After it was all thoroughly covered up, two or three holes were poked thru it to give it just enough air to keep the fire going till the wood was all consumed. These heaps
1 Cf. infra, p. 216.
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would sometimes burn for a week or ten days. The aim was to keep them burning, or smoking, as long as pos- sible, for the longer they burned the better the dirt was thought to be. It was the passing of the smoke thru the dirt, rather than any burning it received, that was supposed to enrich it. Whether or not this burning or smoking which the dirt received was of any value, I have never learned. By many, smoked dirt was highly praised; nevertheless, the effort to make manure by this process has been practically discontinued for years. Along the Chowan River and Albemarle Sound was a strip of territory from two to five miles wide in which was used most of the offal from the fisheries. This fish- offal is splendid manure. A few farmers also hauled out some marle.
Crop Rotation .- Except a few peas (locally known as " corn-field peas "), which were planted' in the corn at the time of hilling? it, the planting of leguminous or special nitrogen-producing crops for the purpose of en- riching the soil was rarely practiced. Even the peas sowed in the corn were more for hog-feed than for fer- tilization. Not only did few, if any at all, practice any sort of a systematic crop rotation 3 designed to increase, or even to maintain, the soil fertility, but it was a com- mon thing for one crop to be planted on the same piece of ground fifteen or twenty years in succession. The idea that more could not be taken off the land than was put on it without leaving it to just that extent depleted, seems never to have dawned upon them. Many farmers
1 Sometimes they were planted in hills between the hills of corn, but the more usual method was to sow them broadcast.
2 Cf. infra, foot-note p. 59.
3 There was crop rotation, to be sure, but usually the object was to more thoroughly "skin" the land, rather than to increase its productivity.
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let a portion of their fields lie out each year to " rest." They seemed to think that land got tired much like human beings, and similarly, needed a vacation. The land lying out grew a coat of vegetation, which if plowed in (it was often burned) added to the soil some much- needed humus. This was the prime good of the "rest- ing." Most land, after a few years' cultivation without manuring, ceased to bring enough to pay for the labor expended in working it. Much was tilled long after this point had been reached. Often land was tended that did not yield an annual average of three bushels of corn to the acre. The remark often heard, "That man won't get seed corn," not infrequently proved to be true prophecy.
CROP PLANTING
All seed, except cotton, were planted by hand, and even cotton seed, by some farmers were still being rolled in wet dirt and sowed in the primitive way. This was quite generally the case when only a small piece of cotton was planted.
All crops were planted on high beds. In the case of sweet potatoes, the bed could not be plowed up high enough to suit some people, so they actually raked it into a ridge from one end of the row to the other with a hoe. Having the crop on a high ridge both increased the difficulty of tillage and hastened the drying out of the ground, thus lessening the crop yield. It also rad- ically influenced the method of cultivation, being one of the causes of the slow introduction of such modern farm tools as the various types of weeders and cultivators, since these, in order to be very effective, must have crops planted comparatively level.
Planting Corn .- In order that the tediousness of the
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process of planting may be to some extent realized, let us look at the details of planting corn, which will serve as a fair illustration. After the bed was ready, a man with a horse and either a " streaker " or a plow, " streaked it out" (ran a light drill on the top of the bed), another person followed with a gauge1 and dropped the corn, while a third person followed him with a hoe, and cov- ered it. If the ground was at all rough it took four men to follow one horse and plow-one to streak, and three to drop and cover. If it was in good condition so that the grain could be covered with one's foot, and if the distance was guessed at instead of being marked off with a gauge, five men, and occasionally four, could keep two horses going.
CROP CULTIVATION
Crude Methods .- With only the few simple tools pre- viously described,2 cultivation was of necessity very crude and laborious. But after making all due allowance for poor tools, the methods followed were far more ineffi- cient than they might have been. To begin with, the ground was commonly broken up only from three to six inches deep on a level. This usually started in March, but many did not' finish till late in May. Of course, there was some planting done in the meantime, much of the ground being planted very soon after breaking, Most ground was plowed but once before being planted. The harrow was little used by any, and by many not at all, consequently the ground, especially stiff-land soil
1 A corn gauge was a forked stick with the prongs held at the distance desired by a cross piece. It was turned with one hand, while the corn was dropped with the other. Gauges were always used by children since they were not able to accurately judge distances ; they were used by some grown-ups.
2 Cf. supra, pp. 46-50.
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(Portsmouth series type), was nearly always rough and cloddy.
Tillage was done according to custom rather than ac- cording to either science or common sense. There was a definite way in which each crop should be tended, and a definite number of times it should be gone over with the hoe and plow. The customary routine was followed almost religiously, regardless of seasons or peculiar con- ditions. For instance, sweet potatoes were worked twice with hoe and plow; corn and cotton, three times. The one all-dominating, immediate purpose of the farmer was to kill grass. The idea of stirring the soil to stimu- late the growth of crops, or to prevent the coming of grass, seems not to have occurred to him. His policy of never touching stuff until after it had come up and grown to a fair size, the fewness of the times he worked it, his crude, antiquated methods of tillage, and the fact that in summer grass grows very rapidly, meant that his crops were generally "right" grassy before each working. This was especially true in wet weather. Even if the season was dry and he had worked his crop clean of grass, he seldom started back over it until the grass had again largely taken possession. Why should he work when the thing-grass-he was working to kill was not there? At least this seemed to be his attitude.
In order to see the progress that has been made since the beginning of the period under discussion, and as a record for future reference, it may be well to outline the methods of cultivating the principal crops.
Manner of Working the Chief Crops .- Cotton was "barred off "I on one side, chopped out, then "dirted "
1 " Barring off" was throwing the dirt from, rather than to, the growing plant, with a turn plow. This process put some dirt down between the rows, ready to be worked back to the plants at the next cultivation. It also covered up the grass in the middle, and so killed it.
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(a little dirt thrown up around the plants) on one side with a cotton plow in small casting. In a few days, sometimes the same day, the other side was barred off and dirted. Since the cotton was never worked until it was large enough to be "blocked out," 1 at its first work- ing it was frequently full of grass, the getting out of which nearly uprooted the plants. When in this condi- tion, the process of cutting it out was far more slow and tedious than it would have been had the grass been kept down. Since no effort was made to cut it to a stand, the next task was to thin it out-a back-breaking job which usually fell to the lot of the small children. In two or three weeks it was "grassed " (all grass either pulled up with the fingers, or cut out with the weed hoe), the middles split out (the ridges, which were made between the rows when dirting, plowed up) with a cotton plow in big casting, and the cotton again dirted. The next and final plowing was four furrows to the row with the turn-plow. The plow was immediately followed by hoe hands who were supposed to cut out or cover up any grass left uncovered, and pull the dirt up around the plant where the plow had failed to lap it. Many made hills around the plants even where the dirt was lapped. This last working was known as "hilling," or "laying by."
1 The seed were drilled, from eight to twenty times as many being put as there were plants wanted. This seeming wastefulness was simply a precaution to secure a stand. When the cotton got about six inches high it was gone over with a hoe and cut into hills the desired distance apart. This process was known by several terms, such as "chopping," " cutting out," and " blocking out."
2 Both these terms are descriptive, one expressing the method of working, the other the fact that it was the final working. In the final working of all crops the dirt was literally hilled up around the stalk, many even raking up from the middle of the row most of the soil that happened to be left by the plow.
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Corn was barred off, leaving a balk of some twelve inches wide (it was left wide for fear of injuring the plant), which had to be "wed"' off. In two or three weeks it was grassed and two furrows thrown to it with the turn-plow. This was known as "half-hilling." From two to four weeks later it got the four hilling furrows with the turn-plow, and a working with the hoe. Corn had even a larger hill made around the stalk with the hoes than did cotton.
After the sweet potato ridge became covered with grass from one to three inches long (sometimes it was as long as a man's hand), it was wed off from top to bottom on both sides. This ridge was so large that there was a space from ten to fifteen inches wide on each side that had to be cut with the hoe. After weed- ing they were barred off, if this had not been done before the weeding. In a few weeks the vines were turned out of every other middle, and the middles plowed four fur- rows to the row. The vines were next turned out of the unplowed middles, and these run out. The hoe followed, completing the piling up of dirt around the sprout, in other words, completing the hilling process.
Hilling .- In hilling all crops the ground usually was plowed deeper than when it was broken in the spring. As a rule the plow was put down to the hard-pan, a bit of which frequently was turned up. When only every other middle was hilled out at first, and the remaining ones a few days later, crops did not appear to suffer much, if the ground was in proper order and rain fol- lowed soon. But many plowed out every middle as they went, and did it when the ground was very wet-fre-
1 To "weed " was to shave off the grass and weeds very lightly with a weed hoe. "Wed " rather than " weeded " was used as the past tense.
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quently turning up in long, slick rolls from one end of the row to the other. In case this working was followed by several days of hot sunshine and no rain, the stuff nearly died. This was especially the case with corn. It would "fire up" (the leaves turn permanently yellow, and many of the lower ones dry up completely) and never reach its former possibilities.
SUMMARY
If the object had been to exhaust the land as quickly as possible, the method of cultivation followed by many could have been little improved upon. As previously stated, when the land was cleared much of the vegetable matter was raked up and burned instead of being allowed to lie and rot for two or three years and open up and enrich the soil. In the second place, land was scratched rather than plowed, hence was far more subject to wash- ing than if it had been broken deep, and also suffered far more severely from both wet weather and dry. Third, much of the land was poorly drained and frequently be- came so water-sobbed that it produced hardly anything at all. Fourth, the principal crops-corn and cotton -were crops that were cultivated so late in the season that there was time for but little vegetation, which might act as a winter cover-crop, to spring up after their final working. Fifth, the legumes, except peas, were almost never planted, and the peas were largely for hog-feed rather than for the improvement of the soil. Sixth, in the spring of the year the corn stalks were cut down and burned, and the fields that had vegetation heavy enough to burn, were generally fired over in order to get the grass and weeds out of the way for plowing. Seventh, comparatively little commercial fertilizer or manure of any kind was used, and it was no uncommon occurrence
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for land to be cultivated year after year without any manure whatsoever. The result of such methods was that much land which produced well when first cleared, at the expiration of four or five years fell to half, and even less, of its original productivity. This fact in turn caused a continual abandoning of land to grow up again into forest.
Not only did the method of cultivation exhaust the soil, but it was of the kind that gave small return for the labor spent. Breaking the land shallow caused crops to be far easier damaged by both wet and dry weather than if it had been broken deep; plowing the growing crops comparatively deep, especially when hilling, plow- ing when it was too wet, waiting for grass before work- ing-all greatly lessened the crop yield. Not a year passed but that much stuff was seriously injured by every one of these causes. Grass hurt in two ways : first, it fed on the food that would otherwise have nour- ished the cultivated crop; second, when the crop got "right" grassy, before being worked, it was so nearly uprooted in getting out the grass, that it never became what it would have been, had it been worked in time. There was enough work done, but it was not rightly di- rected. For instance, in the case of corn (the other crops were tilled in a similarly wasteful and inefficient manner) the total work after planting was eight times to the row with a man and horse, and three times with a man and hoe-the expenditure of enough energy, if properly ap- plied with the right sort of tools and machinery, to have kept in a better state of cultivation three times the acre- age that was cultivated by the method in vogue.
CHAPTER IV
THE CHIEF FARM PRODUCTS IN THE EIGHTIES
QUANTITY AND DISPOSITION OF CROPS
THE principal crops 1 in order of their acreage, were corn, cotton, oats, sweet potatoes, wheat, peas, and Irish potatoes. The farmers were each producing largely for the consump- tion of their immediate families. While a small portion of all the various crops raised in the county was sold, prob- ably more than ninety-eight per cent of the total produc- tion, with the exception of cotton, was consumed within less than thirty miles of the site of its origin, the greater part being consumed on the farm which produced it.
Cotton-the one crop planted especially for market-oc- cupied, according to calculations based upon the 1880 census, slightly more than one-fourth of the entire acreage in actual cultivation. The average production of lint cotton per farm (including all farms) in 1879 was about 1400 pounds, or something less than three bales. Per capita of the entire population of the county, the lint cotton production was about 130 pounds.2 Thus it is seen that the crop which
1 Cf. table 8, p. 271.
2 The figures given here are calculations based on data found in tables 5, 6, and 8, pp. 261, 265, 271, respectively.
The bale has not always been the same. In the Tenth Census 453 lbs. of lint, and in the IIth census 477 1bs. of lint, respectively, were recorded as a bale. For many years, however, the bale has been standardized at 500 lbs., and wherever referred to in this treatise, unless otherwise in- dicated, it is this standard bale that is meant. The actual bale varies within certain limits. More than 99 per cent of the bales, however, will be included within the limits, 450 1bs. and 600 1bs. At many gins it is 63
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was depended upon to furnish most of the ready cash, was comparatively small, and that if each person had received the proceeds 1 of his proportional share, it would have been only a small sum. But many raised only a little cotton and others none at all. Probably more than three-fourths of the entire crop was produced on fewer than one-third of the farms, the majority of the farmers having only a " cotton patch." There were not a few who produced less than a bale, and so sold their crop in the seed to the local merchants.
A small number of farmers raised more than enough corn to serve them, but this went to their neighbors who had failed to raise what they needed. The county as a whole did not supply itself. The wheat produced was not suffi- cient to make the county's flour, notwithstanding the fact that there was comparatively little used.2 The oats pro- duced by each farmer were largely fed to his own stock.
Some land was given over entirely to peas, but the major portion was raised in the corn, being either planted in hills, between the hills of corn, or else sowed broadcast at the last plowing of the corn. The census for 1880 does not give the acreage devoted to this crop. If it were any other
customary to charge a flat rate (say $2.50 or $3) for ginning and baling, regardless of the size of the bale. At other gins the charge is so much for baling, and so much per hundred pounds of lint for ginning. Where the former practice obtains, obviously it is to the farmer's inter- est to make the bales large, and a good size bale is preferred in any case. Hence in the early part of the season when the cotton is heavy and packs well, the bales are large, ranging from 550 lbs. to 600 1bs. The largest ginner in the county told me that when he was charging a flat rate, he put up one bale weighing over 900 1bs. Three pounds of seed cotton is reckoned to one of lint. Good cotton, however, makes more than one to three: not infrequently 1400 lbs. of seed cotton will make a. 500 1b. bale of lint.
1 In 1880 " upland middling" was selling for about 12 cents a pound.
2 Many families had flour only once or twice a week, and not a few went for weeks at a time with none whatever.
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crop, knowing the usual production per acre and presuming the number of bushels given 1 to be correct (it most likely is too large), a close approximation could be made. Owing to the conditions of their cultivation, however, this cannot be done. In calculating the acreage for all crops, 200 acres have been allowed for peas. A few found their way to out- side markets, but they were mostly consumed at home, hogs and people both coming in for a share.
Sweet potatoes, like peas, were produced both for the hogs and for the table. Irish potatoes were more of a gar- den vegetable than a field crop. Most families planted just enough to have a few to eat during the growing season. Comparatively few were eaten after they matured.
As for hay, it was not made. Less than seventy-five tons were mowed in 1879,2 and this little was mowed with an ordinary scythe or hand grass-blade. So far as I have been able to ascertain, in 1880 there was not a mowing ma- chine in the county. For forage the farmers "pulled fodder " (stripped the corn leaves from the stalk). This is a hot, nasty job, besides being a slow, wasteful, un- economic method of getting forage. To save three hun- dred pounds a day in fair weather is good average work per man. During the fodder-pulling season (the most of it is stripped in August), the weather is frequently rainy. As a consequence, probably from a third to a half of the fodder is more or less damaged (some of it to such an ex- tent that it is worth scarcely anything) before it is taken in. Much of it is taken up before it is well cured, in order to escape probable rains. The following day this must be thrown out, sunned, and put up again that night. In many cases this process has to be gone through with for two or three days, especially if the fodder is rather green and there
1 Cf. table 8, p. 271. 2 Ibid.
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is little sunshine. Again, at this time of year thunder storms frequently come up very quickly in the afternoon. If one has fodder down, at the first indication of a rising storm he musters all hands into the field, where they work as if fighting fire till the fodder is gotten up or the threatened storm has either blown over or driven them to cover.
FRUIT
Most farm owners had at least one or two grape-vines and a few fruit trees. These latter were principally apple,. but there were some peach and pear. The grape was usually the scuppernong, a variety claimed to be indigenous to the. eastern section of the state. Both as to flavor and juiciness. this grape is probably unsurpassed, but its shipping qualities are poor. The fruit trees were mostly hardy seedlings. While the varieties were few, there were some very good. ones, which for home use have been little improved upon. Of apples, there were the "piney woods seedling," the. " horse apple," the " matamuskeet," and the " green Jona- than;" of peaches, the "red June " and the "yellow press." 1 These were all favorites. Neither the grape- vines nor the fruit trees received much attention after once being set out, and yet they seemed to thrive well. Not a. few that had been in bearing for more than a generation were still good producers in 1880.
While many a farmer had not over ten or twelve trees, and from ten to twenty square yards of grape-vines, there were some who had from fifty to a hundred trees, and some who had from one- to two-thousand square yards of vines. No fruit was shipped away. A few peaches, pears, apples, and grapes were hauled to the near-by towns, and a con- siderable quantity of grapes was hauled to Norfolk. There
1 Local names.
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was some wine made from the grapes and some brandy from the apples. Both of these beverages were largely consumed in the immediate localities of their production.
LIVE STOCK AND LIVE-STOCK PRODUCTS
Free Range .- In 1880 only about one-third of the land area of Chowan was under fence, or " improved." 1 The other two-thirds was free range, that is, anybody's stock was at liberty to graze on all unfenced land without let or hindrance. Whether the owner of stock owned thousands of acres of unfenced land, or owned none at all, made no difference in the privileges accorded his stock. Much of the free range was most excellent for cattle, sheep, and hogs, and yet there was comparatively little stock raised.2 Except a few hogs and some barnyard poultry, many farm- ers bred no stock at all.
Mules and Horses .- The Tenth Census does not report the immature mules and horses separately from the mature. Judging, however, from the figures of the following cen- suses,3 and from my own knowledge of general conditions, I think it a liberal estimate to place the annual average num- ber of colts foaled as one to every thirty or forty farms. The probable cause of the lack of horse breeding was the lack of pastures, not more than one farm in twenty having either a permanent or temporary pasture of any sort. Gen- erally speaking, where colts and their mothers have to be fed from the barn entirely there is little or no profit in breeding horses. But why the lack of pastures? Since the possibili- ties were by no means poor, the only answer I can suggest is the lack of knowledge of the possibilities for pastures and of the means of developing them, coupled with a failure to realize their value.
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