USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th > Part 3
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
this course it derives its chlorides from the limestones which, being old sea bottom de- posits, probably still contain a part of the salt water with which they were saturated at the time of their formation; while the hydrogen sulphide was derived from the decomposition of organic matter buried in the limestones and subject to slow decay.
SOILS.
The soils of the county are derived from the mantle rock, either glacial till or stream- laid gravels. As this difference between gla- cial till and stream-laid gravels corresponds in general to the difference between uplands and bottom lands, we may speak of upland soils and bottom land soils. As the valley sides which run from the upland to the back edge of the lowland are underlaid by glacial till, their soils belong with the upland soils.
Upland Soils .- Almost everywhere under the upland is found the brownish yellow gla- cial bowlder-clay. The scattered bowlders are ordinarily inconspicuous in the soil layer. As a result of a number of mechanical and chemical processes the upper foot or so of this clay has been changed to soil, to a layer ca- pable of supporting plant life. Two kinds of upland soils have been distinguished by the United States Bureau of Soils in its survey of the southern part of the county-the Miami Clay Loam and the Miami Black Clay Loam.
The Miami Clay Loam is the common soil of the county, making up nine-tenths of its surface. This soil is light yellowish brown at the surface, passing below into a compact brownish yellow silty clay sub-soil. The clayey character of the soil is due to its deri- vation from the glacial bowlder clay. Its silty character is due to the fact that that clay is made up of finely ground rock which is not properly speaking clay and which gives a different feel to the glacial clay when it is moistened and rubbed between the fingers, from the feel of true clay. The Miami Clay Loam is uniform over wide areas. It is es- sentially a grain and hay soil and is well adapted to general farming purposes. Back from the streams where the surface is level
or only gently rolling the natural drainage is defective and ditching and tile draining is . necessary.
Two varieties of the upland clay loam are to be distinguished. The first is the some- what poorer soil which underlies the valley sides. These areas are better drained and drier than the uplands and hence the soils con- tain less humus. They are exposed to rain wash and so lose much of their finer and richer portions. For both reasons they are poorer and the yield is from ten to thirty per cent. less than on the uplands. The second variety of upland soil is the Miami Black Clay Loam, found in the depressions of the upland surface, either at the heads of shallow streams or in low basins without outlet. Here the surface has been moister, vegetation ranker and hence a larger portion of vegetable matter has be- come incorporated with the soil. The mineral content of the soil is not unlike the common upland soil.
Bottom Land Soils .- The streams which flowed away from the ice front as it retreated north across the county were heavily loaded with gravel and sand which they laid down in the valleys. Since that time the rivers have been cutting into these gravels and into the underlying rock, so that flood stages of the present rivers cover a part of the bottom de- posits but not all. The higher portions are covered with a soil called by the Bureau of Soils the Miami Gravelly Loam. It is open. usually contains considerable rock fragments. and is, on account of its position, nearly al- ways adequately drained. It is admirably adapted for corn, when the drainage is not too free and the soil in consequence droughty.
Another type of soil covers the lower parts of the bottoms which are now subject to over- flow. Here the annual additions of clay by the flooded streams and the abundant growth of vegetation have combined to produce a dark soil more clayey than any other of the region, the Miami Loam. It covers the flat first bottoms and makes an excellent soil,
though subject to the danger of floods.
LEWIS G. WESTGATE, Professor of Geology in Ohio Wesleyan University.
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TOPOGRAPHY.
Delaware County is located near the geo- graphical center of Ohio, and is bounded on the north by Marion and Morrow Counties; on the east, by Licking and Knox; on the south, by Franklin, and on the west, by Union County. It comprises 283,289 acres, of which, according to the 1907 agricultural statistics, 237.966 acres are farm lands, divided as fol- lows: Cultivated, 72,903 acres ; pasture, 142,- 205 acres; woodland, 21, 168 acres; lying waste. 1,690 acres. The principal rivers are the Scioto and Olentangy, which flow nearly parallel across the county from north to south. The former, which is the larger stream, enters the county between Thompson and Radnor Townships and forms their boundary-line ; thence it crosses Scioto Township in a south- easterly direction, leaving the county as a part of the boundary line between Concord and Liberty townships. The Olentangy enters the county about midway of the northern bound- ary of Marlborough township, and courses in a southerly direction through the tier of town- ships south of Marlborough. These streams with their many tributaries give the county an excellent drainage system. Since the forests which held back the water have been cut off, the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers suddenly in- crease to great volume after long and heavy rains, or when the snow melts rapidly in the warm days of spring. The water-power fur- nished by these streams is described in the chapter on manufactures.
SURFACE FEATURES.
The eastern portion of the county is rolling, particularly in the sandstone districts. The whole limestone district, which embraces all that part of the county west of the Olentangy River, except that underlaid by the water- lime, is moderately undulating, the surface be- ing worn by erosion into shallow depressions, which, near their junction with larger streams. become ravines bounded by steep bluffs. The district of the waterlime is flat, especially in the townships of Radnor, Thompson and Scioto.
The deeply eroded valleys of the Scioto and Olentangy constitute the most marked topo- graphical features of the county. In the south- ern part of the county, these valleys are deeply cut in the underlying rock. The divide be- tween them, at a point west of Powell, is 125 feet above the Scioto. The descent of the Olentangy is usually very gentle, occupying sometimes a space of a mile or more on either side : while the valley of the Scioto is narrower. and its banks more frequently rocky and pre- cipitous. In the northwestern part of the county, the valley of the Scioto is strikingly different from the southern part ; the bluffs are never rocky, and the general level of the coun- try is little above the level of the water in the river. The following table of altitudes, which was prepared by the Big Four railroad, is interesting :
Ft. Above Ft. Above Lake Erie Ocean
Morrow County Line.
405
970
Ashley
412
977
Eden
405
970
Delaware
378
943
Berlin
381
946
Lewis Center
387
952
The soil generally is dependent on the na- ture of the northern drift. In this the various essentials (State geological survey), such as iron, lime, phosphorous, silica, magnesia, alu- mina and soda, are so thoroughly mixed and in such favorable proportions that the strength and fertility of the soil are very great. Its depth has the same limit as the drift itself, which is, on an average, about twenty-five feet. The soil is more gravelly and stony in the roll- ing tracts. The stones come partly from the underlying rock, but mainly from the drift. They are common along the valleys of all streams and creeks and in shallow ravines. The northwestern part of the county has a heavy, clayey soil, with some exceptions. This clayey flat land is comparatively free from su- perficial bowlders. Very little gravel can be found, except in the line of gravel knolls that passes northwestwardly through Radnor Township. The valleys of the streams, how-
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
ever, show a great many northern bowlders, as in other parts of the county. Besides these general characteristics of the soil, a great many modifications due to local causes will be seen in passing over the county. There are some marshy accumulations which, when duly drained, are found to possess a soil of remark- able ammoniacal qualities, due to decaying vegetation. The alluvial river margins possess a characteristic soil, strongly contrasting with the general clayey lands of the county ; they are lighter and warmer, while they are usually re- newed, like the countries of Lower Egypt. by the muddy waters of spring freshets, and are hence of exhaustless fertility. One of the chief obstacles which the pioneer farmer had to overcome was the immense quantities of sur- face-water which covered a large part of the arable lands of the county. At first, open drains were dug, but in the black lands these filled up rapidly, and to avoid this, drains, in some parts of the county, ten to twenty feet wide were plowed. Later, in some of the best flat lands, oak planks were set up at the sides of the ditches, and the tops covered over with staves of the same material, placed just low enough not to interfere with the plowing. This method drained off the surface-water, and at the same time permitted the cultivation of crops. By this method some of the white- elm swamp lands were made to produce corn as well as the best bottoms. Drains were also constructed of poles and broken stone. As soon as the method of underdraining by means of tile was demonstrated to be a success, tile factories sprang up all over the county, and thousands of acres have been reclaimed to bring forth bountiful crops, and the work of tiling is still going on, year after year.
TIMBER.
The entire county was originally wooded, and in certain localities the timber was heavy. The prevailing varieties are those common to this part of the State, and consist of many of the different kinds of oak, hickory. black and white walnut, ash, birch, sugar and other kinds of maple, and many other species. Many
of the more common shrubs, such as hazel, willow, sumac, etc., are also to be found in profusion. The work of clearing the land of its timber has been going steadily on since the arrival of the first pioneer. In those days it was necessary to clear land in order to raise the necessary crops, and the value today of the timber that the early settlers were com- pelled to destroy would in many instances be more than the present value of the land. It is to be deplored, however, that while the work of cutting off the timber still continues, little, if any, effort is being made by the farmers of Delaware County to replace the forests. The shortsightedness of this policy from an eco- nomic point of view receives so much atten- tion in the many agricultural journals, one or more of which nearly every farmer reads, to say nothing of the valuable pamphlets on this subject distributed freely by the federal gov- ernment, that it is unnecessary for us to dwell at length upon it in .these pages, much as we would like to do so.
FRUIT CULTURE.
Wild grapes and plums were found here in abundance by those who left the comforts of civilization to make their homes in this wilderness, and for some time, these with ma- ple syrup and sugar sufficed as dessert. It was not long after the first settlers arrived here before small apple orchards were set out in different parts of the county; but it is impos- sible at this late day to say when, where or by whom this was done.
For many years Delaware County has been kept before the eyes of the horticulturalists of the country: latterly, through Mr. F. P. Vergon, one of our oldest citizens, who is recognized as one of the great orchardists of the country and the "Father of the Grass Mulch System," which is explained in these pages. In an earlier day, Delaware County was advertised far and wide as the home of the Delaware grape, the finest of all American grapes. Yet. notwithstanding this promi- nence, fruit-growing has never reached large proportions as an industry here, and this, no
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doubt, is due, largely, to climatic conditions. The variableness of temperature, especially in the winter season, when the thermometer fre- quently drops from a point above freezing to one registering the extremes of cold, the early frosts in the fall and the late frosts in spring. give this county a climate which can hardly be called ideal for fruit-raising. It has been demonstrated, however, that with proper care and attention, hardy fruits can be grown here with profit. Probably every farmer in the county grows some fruit for his personal use. and in these family orchards will be found apples, pears, plums, peaches and cherries : small fruits are also grown to some extent, with a constantly increasing acreage, as the towns grow in population, affording better markets.
About 1837. B. J. Heath and his family settled in Concord Township, bringing with them from New Jersey a grape vine, which they planted and nurtured with care. In 1853. Mr. Heath brought a basket of grapes from this vine to Mr. Abram Thomson, the editor of the Delaware Gasette, and Mr. Thomson, who was an enthusiastic horticulturalist, recog- nized immediately that here was a grape of unusual merit, and to him belongs the credit of naming the grape and of bringing it into public notice. He sent specimens of the fruit to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which presented Mr. Thomson with a vase and a sil- ver medal. A Dr. Grant, of Iona Island, in the Hudson River, became the largest individual propagator of the grape, and had Mr. Thom- son's portrait painted in oil, presenting it to him as a mark of his appreciation. At one time Mr. Thomson lost nearly 20,000 young vines in a greenhouse which was destroyed by fire. Mr. Thomson also brought the grape to the atten- tion of Maj. P. Barry, who was at that time editor of the Horticulturalist. Its superior qualities were instantly recognized. and brought to the attention of the public by the Major. A big excitement in the horticultural world resulted from the introduction of this grape. and a furor in grape culture was de- veloped. which has been often referred to as the "grape fever."
The wildest ideas prevailed, and the most extravagant anticipations and expectations were entertained as to the profits of grape growing, and thousands of persons embarked in this pursuit without either the skill or the knowledge requisite for success ; and the result, so far as the great mass of inexperienced culti- vators was concerned, was just what might have been expected-failure. During this time, the demand for vines became so great, that they were sold in immense quantities at prices ranging from $1 to $5 each, and even then, the propagators of the vines were taxed to the utmost to keep up with the demand. Thousands of horticulturalists went to New Jersey in the hope of finding more vines like the original. Mr. Heath had secured it from an old Frenchman named Paul H. Provost. and this gave rise to the story that his vine had been sent from France with a lot of other vines, about the beginning of the nineteenth century ; but the most careful and thorough searching never brought to light a similar vine. either here or. in foreign lands, and it is now the opinion of those best able to judge, that the original vine was a chance seedling which sprang up in Mr. Provost's garden from some native grape.
Among the early and most successful prop- agators of the Delaware grape in this county. we may mention the late George W. Campbell and F. P. Vergon. As secretary of the Ohio State Horticultural Society for many years. Mr. Campbell was widely known, and his efforts helped to make the Delaware grape a success from a commercial standpoint. In this con- nection it is not out of place to mention that in 1857. Mr. Campbell established a grape and small fruit nursery with greenhouses in Dela- ware. from which he shipped all over this country, and to nearly every quarter of the civilized world, as many as seventy varieties of grape vines, including the Delaware. This nursery was maintained for many years, and small-fruit plants of all kinds as well as green- house and bedding and flowering plants were propagated here, supplying not only the local demand, but going to all parts of the country. Mr. Campbell induced Mr. Heath to take up
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
the propagation of the Delaware vine by the "layering" process. Some years before the "grape fever" broke out, the elder Vergon had received a vine from Mr. Heath, and planted it beside his house. Mr. Campbell suggested to the youthful F. P. Vergon that he "layer" his vine. This was done, and young Vergon, upon selling the vines to Mr. Campbell, found himself in possession of $37, which, as he says. "was quite a bunch of money for a young man in that day." He realized at once, how- ever, that he had made a mistake in disposing of his vines, and the next morning, heading off Mr. Campbell, he was at Mr. Heath's place and purchased all the young vines he had for sale. Beginning in this way, Mr. Vergon continued the propagation of these vines for eighteen years, dating from 1855, on an ex- tensive scale, selling them mostly to Mr. Campbell, and always at wholesale. It is de- plorable that in the county where the Dela- ware grape originated, there is not a grape vineyard of any importance.
At an early day, Titus Knox had an apple orchard of twelve acres in Trenton Township. It was a good-bearing orchard in 1845, and is now owned by his grandson, Alonzo Knox. Amzi Swallow, of the same township, also had a twelve-acre apple orchard. William Little and Rev. VanDeman, whose names are SO prominently identified with the early history of the county, set out apple orchards. Horace P. McMasters of Brown Township, at a later (late, had an orchard yielding from one to two thousand bushels of apples annually, and this was considered quite an orchard in those days. About 1860, John Veley, of Troy Town- ship, set out an apple orchard of seven acres, and about twenty years ago he set out twenty acres more in trees. Quite a number of good- sized orchards, many of them quite young, are now to be found in the county. The excep- tional success of F. P. Vergon, as an orchard- ist, no doubt has had much to do with stimulat- ing the interest in this branch of horticulture. In another part of this chapter will be found a paper by Mr. Vergon, in which he sets forth the methods to which he attributes his success. Mr. Vergon's orchard covers between fifty and
sixty acres. Three or four acres of this was set out fifty years ago, and about three acres thirty years ago; the balance was planted in 1888. Reuben L. Hudson, a neighbor of Mr. Vergon's, has a fifty-acre orchard, thirty acres of which are nineteen years old, and twenty acres are ten years old. "Cobb" Gavitt, as he is familiarly known, and who resides near Ashley, has an orchard of from twenty-five to thirty acres, which is twenty-five years old. Samuel Willey & Sons have a sixty-acre or- chard in Troy Township, which is in its seventh year. They also have 600 pear trees and 100 cherry trees. James Ousey has twenty acres of apple trees in Delaware Township, which are seven years old. William H. Fisher, of Liberty Township, has an apple and peach or- chard of about four acres, and a number of others in this township are starting similar orchards. Among others in the county who have orchards, we may mention Ezra W. Koeple, Thomas A. Kennedy, Walter M. Glenn, of Delaware Township, who has forty acres of trees two years old, and Dr. J. H. Miller, who has a three-year-old orchard of sixty-five acres, on what is known as the Hana- walt place. A reference to the statistics which we include in these pages will show that other fruits are not grown extensively enough to warrant extended notice here.
Delaware is fortunate in having as one of its citizens the most successful apple grower in the State of Ohio, a man who is known and looked up to as an authority in all the apple producing regions of this country. We refer to Mr. F. P. Vergon, who has been called by the Ohio Experiment Station, "The Father of the Grass Mulch System." The following article, which has appeared in substance in a number of the most widely circulated publica- tions devoted to such subjects as agriculture and fruit growing, has been furnished for use in this chapter by Mr. Vergon :
"I have said so much on the system of grass mulch for fruit-in which I am a pio- neer-that it may seem monotonous for me to say any more, so I will take the short cut across the field and be as brief as possible.
"What may be used for mulch ? Anything
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that grows out of the ground, if sufficiently decomposed so as not to be in the way about the orchard, will answer a good purpose. Grass mulch means not to plow or cultivate the or- chard. After you once commence this system, leave it continually in grass. Timothy is not desirable.
"How the work is done. Mow the orchard once or twice a year, as the case may require; rake and drop opposite the trees; place it around the trees out to or beyond the drip of the branches: put on sufficient so that grass or weeds will not grow through it, say eight or ten inches thick, evenly spread. If very dry and fluffy, put it on heavier ; it will soon settle down. If the ground is improverished, coarse manure is very much better. In this case, let the grass lie where the machine drops it. It is surprising how trees will grow if not permitted to suffer for want of moisture; water is a wonderful factor.
"Perhaps one of the greatest objections to this system is, to the minds of many, that they cannot realize from the crops in the early his- tory of the orchard; but I believe there is no other way so successful to get the land back to its primitive condition-rich, porous, and full of humus.
"It should be remembered, if the location is a good one, good orchard land, rich, you are laying the foundation for an orchard that will last for generations, if this system is ad- hered to. It is true that trees can be grown quite successfully by the system of cultivation up to ten or twelve years old. By this time the land is impoverished ; the last fiber burned out of the ground ; humus entirely exhausted ; something else must be done.
"The mulch system is quite easily managed, and not expensive until the trees are ten or twelve years old. After this the problem, or expense, increases with the growth of the trees. Fortunately the revenue increases as well. This is easily understood. As the trees grow larger, the territory to mow decreases, and the territory to mulch increases; conse- quently, a large portion of the mulch must come from some other source than the orchard. The greater part of my orchard is nineteen
years old this spring, planted thirty-five feet each way, on rolling tablelands; frost drain- age good.
"This territory was a beautiful blue grass pasture. I had grazed it with short-horn cat- tle thirty-five or forty years. I am glad to say this same grass grows in the orchard, was never plowed up, and we are out of the mud and dirt, year in and year out, in doing all the orchard work, which is a very great item in comfort and pleasure. With this system, the trees have made uniformly strong growth each year from the time they were planted. In some of the varieties that grow fastest and spread most. the branches in many places have locked horns, and this means a spread of thirty-five feet on trees nineteen years old ,this spring. I believe this to be a remarkable growth. Of course many of the slower growing varieties will not shake hands for many years.
"To supply the necessary mulch, we seeded twenty acres of bottom land to mammoth clover, which yielded at least three tons per acre, and was all used for mulch. In addition I bought the straw of nearly one hundred acres of heavy grain for the same purpose, and com- pleted the mulch business where most needed, just before winter set in.
"This is somewhat expensive ; but the work on the ground, except clipping and letting the grass lie where it is cut, is done for years. After all, it is certainly cheaper than to culti- vate every season ; plow, cultivate and harrow all summer; in the fall seed with some catch crop, that very often does not catch, and have the orchard washing away all winter and spring. In fact, it would be impossible to carry on this system with our low-headed trees. I never believed mutilating the roots and mil- lions of fibers is the right thing to do: I know it is not with all other plants that grow out of the ground, large or small, and I do not think apple trees are the exception.
"To keep the mice from the trees, we use fine cinders that come from slack coal (no clinkers), a bushel to one and one-half per tree, according to size: Lay it up in cone style at the base of the trees. It is not a ferti- lizer, nothing grows in it. It is always clean
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