USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 42
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CHANGES TIME HAS WROUGHT.
And the story which is true of the farmer and his plow may be dupli- cated in a dozen other implements. From the days of the sickle to the days of the scythe and cradle, from the days of the cradle to the day when McCor- mick invented a machine that would cut and bind the wheat at the same time-through all these days has the farmer of Greene county passed since 1803. His trusty old flail has given way to the threshing-machine; his corn- knife and shucking-peg have given way to the corn-harvester. and shredder; and he may turn on his gasoline engine and shell his corn and even grind it; the same engine will pump his water and force it over the barn or over his farm; it will saw his wood, shear his sheep, clip his horses, milk his cows, churn his butter, manufacture his electric light and do a multitude of other things. And such an engine may be purchased for considerably less than a hundred dollars-about the price of a good, fat hog at the present market price. It is not necessary to go into detail to follow the successive changes which have come about in all branches of farming since the first farmer in Greene county made his appearance. There are more inventions for the use of the farmer being brought into use every year than could possibly have been dreamed of a hundred years ago. One is left to wonder what the next century will bring to the farmer; but it is safe to predict that the historian of 2018 will have to say that the farmer of 1918 must have had a hard time to make a living, considering the poor equipment he had. But this is a matter for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to contemplate; few of the present generation will then be living.
Another interesting point to consider when discussing the farmer of a hundred years ago is concerned with the crops he raised. There are many grains, fruits, vegetables, and forage and ensilage plants which are now grown by the farmer that were totally unknown a century ago. The word alfalfa would have been as mysterious to a farmer of even fifty years ago as
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the word hangar; a navy bean would have been as much a curiosity as a submersible; egg plant would have been regarded with as much suspicion as a powder plant. Our grandmother raised a few tomatoes because they were nice to look at, but they would as soon have eaten a handful of buckeyes as a dish of sliced tomatoes. In those days tomatoes were con- sidered poisonous and were raised solely for ornament, being, for some unexplainable reason, affectionately known as "love apples"-maybe this name follows because of their supposed toxic qualities. There is not a man or woman in Greene county fifty years of age who does not remember when celery was regarded as something to be eaten very cautiously. And the story might be continued indefinitely. By actual count there are as many as forty-six different vegetables grown in the gardens of Greene county in 1918, whereas there was not one-fourth that number grown a century ago.
CORN.
If a sample of the corn and wheat and other farm products raised by the farmer in the ante-bellum days could be exhibited at the county fair in the fall of 1918, it would make an interesting display. Most of the corn was then known as Harness corn, a name of uncertain etymology. There was also a dent corn, eight rows, to the ear, as was the Harness variety, which bore the distinctive name of "Hackleberry," or just "Hackberry," the name being roughly suggestive of the exterior of the grains. Still a third variety of corn was distinguished by its color, being sort of a rainbow mix- ture of white, yellow, red and blue, and appropriately known as "Calico" corn. The problem of cross pollination was not very well understood in the early days.
The best evidence points to crops of corn in the ante-bellum days of from fifty to seventy-five bushels to the acre, but the average was consider- ably less. In 1840 there was reported a total of 659,296 bushels, with a value of $115,376-about seventeen cents a bushel. The acreage is not given in the census report from which these figures are taken, so it cannot be ascertained what was the yield per acre. Ten years later the corn crop had nearly doubled, the census report of 1850 returning a total of 1,219,944 bushels for the county, acreage and value not being given."
The corn crop has just doubled since 1850. The assessors' returns for May, 1917, giving the crop statistics for Greene county for 1916, report a grand total of 2,406,050 bushels of shelled corn for the year 1916. This does not include ensilage-corn or sugar-corn. There were 249 acres of ensilage-corn produced in 1916, practically all of which found its way into the 256 silos of the county with their total capacity of 6,810 tons. The sugar- corn yield is returned in tons, the year 1916 producing 461 tons from 145
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acres. Practically all of the sugar-corn crop was for human consumption, a large portion of the yield being used for canning purposes.
WHEAT.
The story of wheat for the past hundred years in Greene county is even more interesting than that of corn. From the days when it was all sown broadcast, cut with a scythe and cradle, threshed with a flail, cleaned on the top of a hill by being winnowed with a bed sheet, ground in a crude water-power buhr-mill and made into lard biscuit-from that time down to the present may be traced one of the agricultural miracles of the century. It is a long step from the wheat cradle of a hundred years ago to the complicated machine used in the West which not only cuts the wheat, but also threshes it and rolls the sacks off on the ground just as the binder rolls off the sheaves of wheat.
The first wheat in Greene county was sown broadcast and then covered by dragging a well-arranged pile of brush over the field. The wheat usually grown in those days was known as "red chaff." The wheat acreage in the county has varied considerably, but the acreage sown does not by any means bear a uniform proportion to the amount actually harvested. The soil is not as fertile now as it was seventy-five years ago; that is; unless it is heavily fertilized. But on the whole there has been an increase in the yield per acre due to improvement by careful breeding, new varieties being produced by cross fertilization. By careful cultivation these hybrid varieties have been standardized, thereby enabling farmers to produce. larger crops. The earliest wheat statistics seen for Greene county were in 1840, in which year there were 257,465 bushels produced, with a value of $102,980, or about fifty cents per bushel. The acreage is not reported for the year. In 1850 the census reported 241,794 bushels of wheat, neither value nor acreage being given.
The wheat yield shows considerable variation from year to year, but for a quarter of a century it has not varied far from half a million bushels each year. In 1916 the county produced 646,722 bushels, but the 1917. crop reached nearer the million mark. If farmers were formerly glad to get one dollar a bushel for wheat, and ready to plant all they could if they thought they could get that much, there was every reason to plant as heavily as possible in the fall of 1917 when they were assured of at least twice that amount for every bushel they raised.
OATS, RYE, BARLEY AND BUCKWHEAT.
Oats has been raised practically from the beginning of the county's history. As early as 1840 the county produced 157,668 bushels, which, according to the census figures for that year, had a gross value of $23,864,
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or about fifteen cents a bushel. In 1850 the government census returned the oat and rye crop together, giving the county credit for 123,772 bushels.
Oats has been a stable crop from the earliest days, and is still grown by practically every farmer in the county. It is a grain which responds readily to commercial fertilizer and for this reason has enjoyed a good yield with little increase in the acreage sown. In 1916 the county reported 275,574 bushels, Ross township, with a yield of 53,914 bushels, leading in the amount raised.
Rye has never been extensively grown in the county for its grain, although many farmers have raised it as a .forage crop. The first definite report on rye was in 1840, when 12,006 bushels with a value of $5,000 was . produced. The farmers have apparently grown about as much rye year after year as their forefathers did, if the agricultural statistics of the county are to be believed. In 1916 there were only 15,720 bushels reported, and this was above the average. Beavercreek township, with its 4,31I bushels, raised three times as much rye as any other township in the county, Xenia with 1,412 bushels ranking second in yield.
Barley has been grown even less than rye. The census report of 1840 makes no return of barley at all, while in 1850 there were only 1,373 bushels reported. For several years the farmers of the county have been growing both winter and spring barley, with the former having the largest acreage. In 1916 the winter crop produced 2,350 bushels, and the spring crop only I,153 bushels. Xenia is the banner barley township, leading with a yield of 814 bushels.
Buckwheat was formerly grown by most of the farmers of the county, although most of them had only a small patch of it. In the early days of the county it was grown for the pancake value of the grain, but in these later days home-grown pancake flour is practically a thing of the past. In 1850 there were 2,735 bushels of buckwheat reported for the county, but this very evidently did not include the small yield of hundreds of the small patches in the county which the farmers did not think it necessary to return to the assessor. In 1916 only two townships reported buckwheat crops : Beavercreek had 62 bushels and Ross had 18 bushels. This grain is prac- tically a thing of the past as far as the farmers of Greene county are con- cerned.
OTHER FARM AND GARDEN CROPS.
The Irish potato has been one of the most important food products in Greene county from the beginning of its history. Potatoes are a peculiar crop, some years they seem to flourish like the bay tree and bear as prolifically as the wild crabapple; other years the bugs, rot, blight, dry or wet weather, or a combination of these potato foes, will practically ruin the crop. A study
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of the potato record in the county will substantiate this statement. In 1840 the yield was 19,016 bushels, with a value of $2,300, or about twelve cents a bushel-quite a contrast with the two-dollar-a-bushel potato of 1917. In 1850 the yield amounted to 48,029 bushels, although the sweet potato was included in this total. These figures for 1840 and 1850 undoubtedly do not include all the potatoes grown in the county, since the average farmer in many cases would not return the few bushels he might raise in his garden.
It seems strange that there were fewer potatoes raised in 1916 than in 1850, but the statistics for 1916 reported only 40,022 bushels for the county. This crop was grown on 427 acres. The assessors' report in May, 1917, showed that the demand of the government for more potatoes resulted in a promised planting of 541 acres for the year 1917.
There are a few things which were grown by our forefathers in Greene county that are now rarely found. The passing of the buckwheat patch has been mentioned, but along with it has gone flax, sorghum, broom-corn and tobacco. There is no one crop of the pioneer which illustrates the march of civilization more sharply than that of flax. Until the '50s a patch of flax was just as essential to the farmer as his potato patch; in fact, in the '20S and '3os he could have better missed a potato crop than a flax crop. But now this is all changed; there is probably not a single flax seed sown in the county at the present time. Formerly there were oil-mills in the county which did a thriving business in making linseed oil, but they have all pressed their last seed. While no statistics are available to determine the amount of flax raised in the first few decades of the county, yet as late as 1850 there was reported 9,445 bushels of flax seed. There was no return of flax in 1917.
SORGHUM AND MAPLE PRODUCTS.
Fifty years ago the succulent sorghum was grown by the majority of the farmers of the county, but today this saccharine plant has practically dis- appeared. In other and earlier days there were sorghum-mills scattered over the county, but they have gradually given way to the march of civilization. The discussion of sorghum naturally recalls the product of the hard maple tree-its molasses and sugar, and so-called sugar-water "beer." In the first few decades of the county's development maple sugar was the only sweeten- ing the pioneer had, and many families not only made enough molasses (also known as syrup or tree molasses) for their own use throughout the year, but sold sufficient quantities to make substantial additions of other neces- sary commodities for the family welfare. The census figures do not by any means tell the whole story of the part the maple tree played in the county's development. When the 1850 census reports only 3,245 gallons of molasses
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and 53,622 pounds-more than twenty-six tons-of sugar, the tale is not all told. Much of the product of the humble maple never found its way into the census reports. Gradually, year by year, the industry has decreased in value, and while there is still some molasses and sugar produced, the pro- duction is not on anything like the scale it was in former years. The maple products of 1916 as returned to the county auditor evidently do not include all that were produced in the county. Seven of the townships reported maple trees-Cæsarscreek, 1,710; Cedarville, 421; New Jasper, 1,200; Ross, 140; Spring Valley, 1,240; Sugarcreek, 4, III ; Xenia, 1,600-but only 4,801 gallons of syrup found their way into the assessors' returns, along with 114 pounds of maple sugar.
And along with the maple tree and its important part in the life of the pioneer should be mentioned the honey bee. Not to be classed exactly as a farm product, nor yet a garden product, yet the busy bee was also a no incon- siderable factor in ante-bellum days. The bee .product was sufficiently important in 1850 to find a place in the government census of the county, and there is no doubt that the 9,420 pounds of honey and beeswax reported in that year was a most welcome addition to the farmer. Bee-tree hunting was one of the sports of early days, and hundreds, probably thousands, of trees have been cut down for the honey stowed away in their boles. The bee industry is not by any means gone. Ten of the twelve townships .(all save Jefferson and Miami) reported stands of bees for 1916. There were a total of 166 hives, yielding a total of 269 pounds of honey. Here again it seems that all of the honey in the county was not reported.
TOBACCO.
Tobacco may not properly be classed as a food product, despite the fact that it has been assiduously "chewed" by a portion of the population since the first pioneer located in the county. It is said that the Indian never chewed the weed until the white man taught him, but, be that as it may, the first settlers were nearly all chewers as well as smokers of the weed. And it may be remarked in passing that hundreds of our good grandmothers whiled away the long winter evenings by the old fireplace and dozed over a corn- cob or clay pipe. Hence, as may be expected, the great majority of the pio- neers had a tobacco patch for their own use; few, if any of them, raising any of it for the market: Statistics are not available to show the aggregate amount grown in the early years of the county. That the tobacco industry is not entirely gone is evidenced by the crop reports for 1916. Four town- ships reported as follow: Bath, 4 acres and 4,160 pounds; Beavercreek, 3 acres and 2,710 pounds; Spring Valley, 9 acres and 7,460 pounds; Sugar- creek, 46 acres and 53,910 pounds; total acreage, 62; total pounds, 68,240.
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DISTILLERIES.
Any mention of the agricultural life of the county must refer to an industry which, in former years, drew heavily on some of the crops grown in the county. Future generations will know of this particular industry only as they read about it, and for this reason a word may be said about it in this connection. One row of figures in the page of agricultural statistics of Greene county published after the federal census of 1850 is thus labeled- distilleries. This row of figures sets forth the fact that the county actually had in operation in 1850 no fewer than twenty-one distilleries, which in the course of the previous year, had produced 324,800 gallons of spirits with a market value of $69,960. There were distilleries from the days when the first settlers located in the county, and their product furnished much of the available "hard" money then in circulation-as well as most of the cases for the local courts. The distillery as a local industry received its death blow during the Civil War, when the government put such a high tax on spirituous liquors that most of the smaller distilleries throughout the nation were com- pelled to discontinue. However, it did not close all of the plants in Greene county, and it was not until 1910 that the last distillery in the county ceased operations. There was also considerable beer brewed in the earlier days of the county's history, and as early as 1805 William Gordon opened a small brewery in Xenia. It is also interesting to note that the census of 1850 returned fifteen gallons of wine, but the vintner never reached the prominence that the distiller and brewer did.
FORAGE CROPS.
The forage crops of Greene county are now a more important part of its agricultural life than ever before. There was a time when the farmer turned his hogs, and all of his live stock for that matter, loose in the woods to find their own food supply as best they could. And they could usually find plenty of it; especially did the patient pig thrive on the mast in the fall. But with the cutting off of the forests, and the gradual increase in the value of land, it was not profitable to let live stock run wild in the woods. Hundred- acre wooded tracts have disappeared, nor is it profitable to have so much untilled land when it is worth from one to two hundred dollars an acre. It is not even profitable to graze sheep extensively on land worth two hundred dollars an acre. Undoubtedly this is one reason why there were 29,529 sheep in 1850 and only 13,650 in 1917.
Hence, and for reasons above stated, there have come into use many different kinds of forage crops, as well as new ways of preparing farm prod- ucts for animal food. Ingenuity has devised methods of grinding corn and wheat in order to separate the parts fit for man and beast. The mast-fed
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porker of our grandfathers is now replaced by the porker fattened on "shorts." The silo has made its appearance within the past few years, a food-conserver which has proved to be an inestimable boon to the farmer. The last report for Greene county gives 256 silos in the county, and an ever increasing num- ber are being built each year. Cedarville township leads the county in silos with a total of 61, with Miami bringing up the rear with 6. The number in each township as reported on April 1, 1917, is as follows: Bath, 9; Beaver- creek, 13; Caesarscreek, 26; Cedarville, 61 ; Jefferson, 32; Miami, 6; New Jasper, 21; Ross, 29; Silvercreek, 14; Spring Valley, II; Sugarcreek, 8; Xenia, 26. These 256 silos had a total capacity of 6,810 tons. As has been stated the farmers of the county in 1916 had 249 acres of ensilage corn, all of which was raised as the direct result of the introduction of the silo.
A number of forage crops are used for ensilage. Many of the farmers of Greene county are now raising what is called ensilage corn, which is nothing more than the ordinary "field" corn sown broadcast. Sweet corn is also used to fill silos, as is alfalfa, soy beans, pea vines, English clover and rye. In fact, any kind of green forage crops may be used as ensilage. Alfalfa is a crop of the past few years, but it has already proved its value as a forage crop. In 1916 there were 2,157 acres planted to alfalfa, which produced 5,588 tons, but this tonnage does not represent the total of the three cuttings which most of the alfalfa in this latitude will stand.
FOOD FOR THE SOIL, .
The use of soy beans is increasing and this legume should be more extensively cultivated. It not only furnishes a valuable stock food, but, what is also very useful to the farmer, it is one of the best crops to improve the soil. No soy beans were reported for the county in 1916. Beets, turnips, rape and rye are grown to a limited extent for stock food. Hay, both clover and timothy, has been grown in the country for nearly a century. As early as 1840 the hay product was returned in the government agricultural census, Greene county in that year reporting 9,382 tons with a total value of $57,328. In 1850 there were 15,704 tons reported, the return not indicating whether it was timothy or clover, or both combined. Timothy hay in 1916 totaled 19,026 tons ; clover, 8,406 tons. The clovers, together with peas and beans, and alfalfa, of course, are being grown more each year for the beneficial effect they have on the soil. Farmers are beginning to realize more than ever before the value of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the legumes. In 1916 there were 3,466 acres of clover plowed under in the county.
The question of artificial fertilizers has come to the front within the past few years. The farmer has learned by sad experience that his land has to be "fed" as regularly as he feeds his cattle and hogs. The old manure
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pile behind the barn is not sufficient to keep the soil in condition to produce satisfactory returns. Crop rotation partially solves the difficulty, but it will not keep all kinds of soil in shape to produce good crops. The legumes are a big factor in soil conservation, but they need assistance. For this reason, there has been developed so-called commercial fertilizers, soil foods which can be "fed" to the soil to increase its fertility. In 1916 the farmers of Greene county used 5,403,740 pounds of commercial fertilizer, and also 26 tons of lime, the total cost of which amounted to $50,121. The liming of wet and sour soil is not a new thing, having been used by some farmers in the county since the days of the Civil War. Lime is being used to an increasing extent each year.
ORCHARD AND GARDEN FRUITS.
The most important crops raised by the farmers of Greene county have been treated in the foregoing paragraphs, but before taking up an analysis of the live-stock industry there are -a few other crops of general interest to the farmers. Small fruits, such as berries of all kinds-raspberries, black- berries, strawberries, gooseberries, whortleberries and currants-are found in most of the gardens of the county, but there have been very few farmers who have grown more than they could use themselves. Grapes of various varieties are also found on most of the farms of the county, but, like the berries, they are for home consumption. Reference has been made to wine produced in 1850, which would indicate that there was some attention paid to the grape at that time.
Every farm has its assortment of apples, peaches, pears, cherries and plums. The apple was formerly grown in larger quantities than it is now, and the same may be said of the peach. Many of the first settlers brought apple and peach trees, or the seeds, with them when they first came to the county, and there were very few families that did not start an orchard as soon as they got settled. It is probable that the famous "Johnnie Appleseed," of Ohio and Indiana fame, passed through Greene county on some of his peregrinations, and if he did, it is safe to say that he was responsible for some. of the early apple trees. Orchard products are listed in the 1850 census of the county to the value of $25,344, although it is not known what these con- sisted of. Apples found their way into cider (hence into vinegar, apple-butter and "hard" cider) and also into a famous drink of our forefathers known as "applejack." In 1916 Greene county reported 47,530 bushels of apples grown on 747 acres. The chief varieties grown at the present time are the Rambo, Rhode Island Greening, Bellflower, Fall Pippin, Ben Davis, Baldwin, Northern Spy, Grimes Golden, Yellow June, Astrakan, Maiden Blush, Jonathan, Russet, Smith Cider, Winesap and Tulpehocken.
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Apples are subject to many diseases and there are many insect enemies of the apple in 1918 which were totally unknown in ante-bellum days. In the early days, and until forty years ago, thousands of gallons of cider were made every year, and a number of cider-mills were found scattered over the county. Today there are few left to tell the story. In those days apple-butter was found on every table-and it was home-made-but now, if found at all, it is a feeble imitation of the brand made by our grand- mothers. Many a kitchen was decorated in the olden days with festoons of dried apples and peaches, but all this is changed, very few housewives drying apples at the present time. Of course, that was before. the days when our modern canned fruit had made its appearance. It might be mentioned in this connection that our grandmothers also dried corn, pumpkin, raspberries, blackberries-and even beef.
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