USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 60
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The architecture and the buildings of the county, while they compare favorably with the other counties of the State that are not older in organization, are not what they should be, when we consider the comfortable situations and wealth of the owners of the soil. It is true the log cabins have sunk to decay; that the wing-less, bay-window-less, piazza-less habitations of an interme- diate period are disappearing, but they are far from being succeeded by models of refined taste, good design, or any manifest expres- sion of art. Many of our barns are as good, commodious and constructed with as much breadth of plan and convenience as could be desired, but there is great room for improvement here. They are better than our houses. The architecture, with a few
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exceptions, in Wooster and the villages of the county is no better. The furniture of the dwelling is often in contrast with the dwelling itself-frequently superior in value to it. Our churches, as a rule, are intended for our best edifices, but they are too generally com- binations of copied beauties and borrowed styles, which become mere incongruities in the midst of their surroundings. Emerson says of the English that "Their architecture still glows with faith in immortality."
Our School-houses .- Our school-houses, and they are as good, probably, as can be found in any county in Ohio, are built to con- venience, but are almost invariably destitute of taste. Outside, they have a sort of dock-yard, heavy, warehouse-like look, while the inside is uninviting and cheerless. Badly indeed are they cal- culated to inspire any idea of design or impression of beauty, or gratify the slightest desire for art; and yet in these very school- houses the eyes which are to drink of nature's beauties, and the tender minds which are to receive the inspiration of a future life, are expected to obtain their earliest impressions and most fervent impulsions. A fair share of this culpability attaches to architects and artists themselves. They must go to France and England, visit Rome, and pace all Italy, spurred by an ambition that most of them are incompetent to gratify. Hence art at home is neglected, for in a country where architecture is slighted, painting and sculp- ture will have but a slender footing. The cultivation of art must begin with our own buildings, and first of all with our dwelling- houses and school edifices. If they are small, let them be of good design, tasteful and picturesque; if large and imposing, let the same care, thought and painstaking prevail. Every stone, brick, panel, niche and column may be made a delight. Money is well spent when moderately used to beautify a home, for it is said that the character of a man can be told by seeing the house he lives in. A nation defines its individuality by its architecture.
We do not want bigger houses, but their plans and appoint- ments should be in higher consonance with art. We want ventila- tion, warmth and more light. "Let there be more light" is the first recorded fiat of God. In the dark gorges of the Swiss valleys, where direct sunlight never reaches, the awful presence of idiocy appalls the traveler. We want more sunshine in the dwelling, more lighted houses and fewer dungeons.
Number of Acres in the County-Size of Farms, etc .- In Wayne
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county there are 346,491 acres of land, valued, by the Board of Equalization, at $11, 106, 514, at its session of 1870-71 in Colum- bus, Ohio, with an average value per acre of $32.06. The build- ings of the county were estimated at $1,205,552, making an aggre- gate value of lands and buildings, $12,312,066, which would in- crease the average value of lands, buildings inclusive, per acre, to $35.53.
There were then 219,770 acres of arable or plow lands in the county ; 31,788 acres of meadow or pasture land, and 94,933 acres of uncultivated or wood-land. The aggregate value of all lots, lands and buildings in the county, as equalized by the State Board, was $14, 652,256.
In 1872 there were in Wayne county 3, 153 farms of all sizes, which, by division into the number of acres in the county, would make an average size of farms to be a trifle over 109 each. But the distribution of the lands is not so uniform or generous. In the great ocean we have the seasoning anchovy as well as "the sea- shouldering whale ;" on the great earth we have the elephant as well as the plowing mole. The statistics of the year 1872 exhibit I20 farms of 3 and less than 10 acres; 180 of 10 and under 20; 554 of 20 and under 50; 1, 320 of 50 and under 100; 978 of 100 and under 500 acres. In the county, including the city of Wooster, is $774,746 worth of real estate exempt from taxation. By the census of 1870 the assessed valuation of real and personal estate was $17, 269, 399, and its true value $28, 213,234. Well improved lands, under good cultivation, are worth from $75 to $125 per acre. Quality, location and improvements govern prices.
Fences and Timber .- A great investment in this county and an expensive production of human industry is the common fences which separate the fields and divide them from the highways and roads. No man has any correct idea of their costliness-not even the remotest dream-unless he has investigated the subject. The wealth of our villages and cities is scarcely to be compared with it. It was asserted by a practical writer of Baltimore, some years ago, that the fences of this country have cost more than twenty times the specie there is in it; and that in some of the counties of the Northern States the fences have actually cost more than the farms and fences are worth. It constitutes a burden to the farmer, and interferes, to some extent, with the agricultural interest of the country. In the north of Europe, with a worse climate and an in-
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different system of cultivation, they are able to undersell us in the English markets, and there fences are almost unknown. The fields and flocks are under the care of herdsmen, and thus an untold ex- pense is economized, aside from the loss of land which the fences occupy. A farmer has eighty acres of land, 80x160 rods. To en- close that simply requires 480 rods, or 11/2 miles of what we call "worm fence." To make that the customary hight, including riders, requires 16 rails to the rod, and each rod requires 4 stakes, which are nearly equivalent to rails, and which we will call such, making 20 rails to the rod. It will thus require 20 times 480, or 9,600 rails simply to enclose his 80 acres. We will leave him with 20 acres of timber land enclosed, but with the remaining 60 acres divided in 6 fields of 10 acres each. These will require 360 rods of additional fence, or 7,200 more rails, making a total for enclos- ing his 80 acres of 16,800 rails, which are worth, at the lowest esti- mate, $20.00 per thousand. At this rate the rails for 80 acres are worth $336.00. He has 840 rods of fence, which would employ one man 20 days to build, at an additional expense of $20.00, making a total of over $350.00 to simply fence his farm. To sim- ilarly improve a section would cost $2,800.00, and therefore a like distribution of fences throughout the country would swell the sum to over $ 1, 500,000.
And this old time, old-fashioned "wiring in and wiring out" Virginia rail fence has the supremacy throughout the county. Post and rail and board fences are used in the suburbs of villages, around private dwellings in the county, and frequently along the pub- lic roads, but have not fallen into any general use. There are some hedge-rows in the county, but the question of their growth or adaptability to this region is question for future experiment. Originally the county was well-timbered. The uplands that pro- duced it most luxuriantly are denominated by J. H. Caldwell in his Atlas of Wayne County, in a wholesale plagiarism from Knapp's History of Ashland County, "the refused lands" of the county. Hickory, walnut, beech, oak, chestnut, ash, elm, maple, butternut, poplar, sycamore, linn, wild cherry, locust, buckeye, ironwood, dog-wood, constitute the chief varieties. As in the last few years many portable saw-mills have occasioned severe assaults upon the forests, it is probable that but a little more than one-fourth of the area of the county can be classed with the wood or uncultivated lands.
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Our Forests. - If the rate of destruction which for the last tw decades has been practiced is continued upon our forests, it wi interfere with our material prosperity. A certain proportion b tween the timbered and cleared lands must be maintained in ord to preserve a good degree of productiveness in the soil. If som of our farmers had observed this fact, or had removed the forest with more judicious regard to a protection of the spaces clearer their lands would have been more fertile and their sources of prof greatly multiplied. It is, moreover, the injunction of a soun wisdom for farmers to husband well their forests. There is n greater necessity than wood, not simply for fuel or as a means warmth, but as a source of employment and industry.
This makes it both the duty of patriotism and the promptings of self-intere to promote the production of. timber. This is the opportune time for the unde taking. It is none too soon to make a beginning; it is not too late if the work commenced in earnest. The decrease of consumption of wood for fuel in all of cities and towns, and on our railroads and steamboats, will aid not a little in tl preservation of our forests. It is important that trees which are under size fo making lumber should be suffered to grow on. There is now less temptation to c1 down forests promiscuously than formerly, when wood for fuel was so much in d mand. Where the best trees have been cut out for sawing into lumber, and th growth is thinned, something should be done to replace those trees which have bee removed.
Planting of trees is recommended and practiced in many place: It is a niggard, contemptible and selfish argument that runs, "] takes too long for them to mature; I will be dead before they ar trees."
Washington planted a Republic upon the virgin soil of a new continent with no hope of beholding its consummation. Posterit has a claim upon all true men that can not be ignored. "Stick i a tree now and then, Jack," said the Scotch laird, "it will be grow ing while ye are sleeping." The author of Waverly, when rid culed for his supposed weakness in this regard, replied, "No mat ter, posterity will thank me for it." An old legend has it tha "Abraham planted a cyprus and pine, and a cedar ; and that thes three incorporated into one tree, which was cut down for the build ing of the temple of Solomon." The necessary consumption c the trees will speedily enough produce scarcity, and then they ar subject to the devastating commotions of the elements, which fre quently disfigure and destroy great numbers of them. Worm riot upon them, frosts scorch them, fires coil around them, storm ride them down, ice crushes them, nor are they even spared o
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Jove. The destruction occasioned to forests in January, 1874, by the ice amounted to tens of thousands of dollars to the land own- ers of Wayne county alone. The 6th and 7th of January, 1874, will be as memorable as the frost morning of June 5, 1859.
Protect the groves-they were "God's first temples"-spare the tree; God breathes upon it and it grows ; from its acorn cups will spring the masts of admirals, the ribs of navies and mighty ships. Plant the oak, and then the tulip, the cedar and walnut, and then the rose and lily. Plant them in the church-yard, by the school-house, in the open fields, and in the cemetery; and with the evergreens of your mansion lawn; one for your birth, and one for your bridal.
GRAINS.
Wheat .- This grain, once stigmatized by the inhabitants of India as barbarian food, is the most important cereal of the county, and, for all that, of the continent, both as a basis of prosperity and an element of commerce. We have no very positive knowledge of its origin, or where it was first cultivated, or its chronological order in the history of grains. That it was produced extensively and in immense quantities in Egypt at an early period we have assuring and convincing proofs. But a few years prior to the birth of Christ, when Augustus had reduced the country to a Ro- man province, Rollin asserts that there came regularly from Egypt every year twenty million bushels of wheat. The wheat-bearing regions of Mesopotamia, an ancient name of the country between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, are eulogized by Herodotus, and their yield of the grain is extravagant, if not fabulous. No other cereal has been discovered possessing so many qualities combined to render it suitable and salubrious for food. The spring and winter wheats are nothing less than different conditions of the same species, producing each by proper treatment in the times of sow- ing ; and varieties indicated by the color of the chaff or of the seeds are traceable to contrasts of soil, or, perhaps, to circum- stances of a chemical nature, like the distinctions of color in the husks and grains of our Indian corn. The soil best suited to wheat seems to be one of an argillaceous nature, but not too stiff and rich in alkalies and salts. Light, spongy and porous soils, whether silicious or calcareous, are the least suitable, and those representing a variety of constituents are, perhaps, the more pref- erable. It has been the principal crop of the county since its first
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settlement, and one of its most reliable sources of revenue. The pioneers found it ready to grow and produce on their half-cleared, half-plowed enclosures, though fields of what was called "sick wheat" was no uncommon occurrence. Of late years farmers find it necessary to more carefully guard its cultivation and adopt more systematic principles in its production. Different varieties are an- nually tested, but the Mediterranean wheat, for the last twenty years, has proven in the end to be the most profitable. It yields a white, excellent flour, is a hardy cereal, and resists the assaults of fly, weevil and other insidious foes, combining withal the desirable vitality to endure our bitter winters. The methods of preparing the soil for its reception are as numerous as the caprices of the farmers themselves, and since modern agriculture has taken on tone, each prince of the manor is his own authority. In 1875 Wayne county was the second wheat-yielding county in Ohio, pro- ducing from 44,043 acres 682,445 bushels of wheat, or an average of less than sixteen bushels to the acre.
Corn .- " Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard ! Heap high the golden corn ; No richer gift hath Autumn poured From out her lavish horn." - Whittier.
In 1621 the Pilgrims, at Plymouth, found this grain flourishing as the field-vegetable of the Indian tribes, and raised by them for food. It has a remarkable inclination to adapt itself to circum- stances of climate, in that it produces great and distinct varieties ; and therefore it is a most valuable and priceless agricultural plant. It has the stately aristocratic port of tropical vegetation and is one of the tallest of our growing annuals. Its foliage is large, leaves dark green, with clean bright stems and joints well-defined. We are not certain but that this grain takes precedence over the other cereals in point of value and general utility. With the farmers the failure of this crop is regarded as a calamity, A cornless or half-filled crib suggests an imperative economy, short rations to the stock and general curtailment to the tenantry of the farm. Not only the grain but the bladed stems constitute a most valuable feed for cattle. In case of a failure of the wheat it is a most im- portant substitute, when its multifold value is appreciated.
" Then richer than the fabled gift, Apollo showered of old, Fair hands the broken grains shall sift, And knead its meal of gold."
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
It requires a rich, stimulating soil, and one that will only laugh to the tickle of the plow when the conditions of its own nature are complied with. Corn planters, corn cultivators, and various other devisements are employed by the farmers in the production of it, all of which are useful or otherwise, according to the preparation of the soil. The nutritive qualities of the diversified varieties of this grain are quite similar, as chemical analysis has determined. There was raised, in the year 1875, in Wayne county, from 33, 398 acres, 1,466,553 bushels of the cereal, or less than 44 bushels to the acre.
Oats .- Mesopotamia is probably the native country of oats. It grows in incongenial localities and where other grains do not. It flourishes best in the colder latitudes and degenerates in the warm. Oatmeal formed of this grain is a very valuable food for man. In Scotland, Ireland, Sweden and Norway it is a great source of maintenance. It is a desirable staple in agriculture; can be drilled or sown broad-cast to equal advantage, and is dependent wholly upon the season for its prosperity. Wayne county in 1875, from 26,317 acres, produced 951,464 bushels, averaging over thirty- six bushels to the acre.
Rye .- The native region of this agricultural cereal is undeter- mined. At a very remote period it was cultivated in Britain, and the practice obtained of sowing it mixed with the wheat. In sec- tions of Europe it is exalted in domestic economy and by the peasantry. "Rye bread" occupies pre-eminence as a promoter of strength and physical soundness. Its culture is much neglected, and when sown it is given to second-rate lands late in the season. It is frequently sown in mid summer for winter and early pasture in the spring, when calves and sheep can be seen "Comin' through the rye." In 1875 the acreage was 758 in the county, and the yield 12,503 bushels, an average of less than seventeen bushels to the acre.
Barley .- This cereal grows wild in Sicily and Asia, but its orig- inal country is unknown. Pliny speaks of it as "the first grain cultivated for nourishment." It flourishes in hot as well as cold climates. It makes a coarse, heavy bread, and is excellent food for cattle. In the materia medica it is presented as possessing emol- lient, diluent and expectorant qualities, and since the time of Hip- pocrates and Galen it has been in good repute in febrile and inflam- matory complaints. It requires the best land, shortly depleting it,
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and hence not a popular grain with land owners. But 340 acres were cultivated in 1875, yielding 7,917 bushels.
Buckwheat is supposed to be indigenous to Asia. The Moors introduced it into Spain. It is emphatically a flowering plant, and it blooms a long time. Its growth is destructive to weeds and other pestiferous intruders of the farm. Its flowers secrete honey, and until they fade are swarming with bees intent on im- proving "each shining hour." In some localities it is cultivated exclusively for bee-food. The flour of the grain furnishes a bread highly valued, and a breakfast cake of continental popularity. Its culture has grown into comparative disuse, as the cutting and threshing of it is disagreeable and unpleasant. Two hundred and one acres were sown in 1875, yielding 2,508 bushels.
Flax is claimed to be a native of Egypt, or possibly the ele- vated plains of Central Asia. It seems to be most prosperous in the warm latitudes. Its fibre is said to obtain its best firmness in the temperate regions. In the United States in 1853 there were produced 8,000,000 pounds. At an exceedingly early date it was raised in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Belgium and Holland pro- duce it extensively. The filaments or threads taken from the fibrous casing of its hollow stems have been used from the remot- est periods in the manufacture of linen thread. Its fibers may be so separated as to be spun into threads as fine as silk. Cambric, lawn and lace are made from them. The coverings of the ancient mummies witness that the linen mentioned by the ancient writers was produced from the fibres of the flax plant. Its seed furnishes linseed-oil, and the residue, after its expression, is made into the oil-cake, so healthful for feeding and so valuable for fattening cat- tle. On account of its mucilaginous character, physicians use it for its soothing effects in certain inflammations. Good land is re- quired to produce it, and it greatly debilitates and exhausts the soil. The acreage in Wayne county in 1875 was 654; bushels, 6,800 ; pounds of fibre, 295,900.
Meadow and Clover Lands .- In 1875 there were 31,759 acres of meadow in Wayne county, yielding 36,334 tons of hay, 1,954 acres of clover, producing 2,098 tons of hay and 1,601 bushels of seed.
Timothy .- This is a hay-plant much in use in New England, where it is known as Herd's grass, so named from a Mr. Herd, who, it is claimed, found it in a swamp near Piscataqua.
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Authorities, however, conflict in regard to its origin, some as- serting it to be an American, and others a European growth. In old England it is called the meadow's cat's tail. Among horse- raisers and turf-men it is esteemed the most valuable fodder. Many of our best farmers cultivate it.
Hungarian grass and millet have each their random votaries in the county.
FRUITS.
No portion of Ohio produces superior fruit to that of Wayne county. Every farmer has his orchard of fine, select trees, so that an absolute failure of the fruit crop is almost an impossibility. The productions of the Ohio orchards have achieved deserved popularity in the Eastern markets.
The Apple .- The origin of the apple is not definitely known. Insomuch as mention is made of it in the Scriptures, it may have been a native of Palestine. If the ancestral tree was the one which stood "in the midst of the garden," and which "the wo- man " believed "was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be de- sired to make one wise," then we are justified in defining its origin in "regretted Eden." Pomologists, however, incline to the belief that the wild crab tree of Europe is the parent of all our apples. Pliny mentions it as "a wilding, which had many a foul and shrewd curse given it," on account of its sourness. We have not the space in this survey to enumerate the many varieties produced in this county, but nearly every species known to fruit-growers is found in the orchards of the county, which cover about 7,000 acres of the surface.
The Peach .- This delicious fruit originated in Persia. It was cultivated in Britain in 1550, but not in this country till 1680. It flourishes best under cultivation between latitudes 30 and 40, but attains a rich maturity farther north in the United States. The first fruit raised in Wayne county was peaches, and it is the most easily propagated of all our domestic varieties and well adapted to our soil. Our orchards embrace nearly every species worth culti- vating.
The Pear .- A native of Europe, it is traced from Sweden to the Mediterranean, and as far east in Asia as China and Japan. It is the favorite fruit of modern times. The Greeks, Syrians, Ro- mans and Egyptians cultivated it, but its juicy, aromatic delicious- ness was not developed until the seventeenth century. In Cali-
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fornia it attains the highest perfection. In some localities the tree grows to an enormous size and is remarkable, in some instances, for its longevity, reaching the great age of four hundred years. One of these trees, still growing in England, is said to cover a quarter of an acre of ground. Another is growing in Illinois, ten miles north of Vincennes, that measures ten feet around the trunk, its branches extending over an area of sixty nine feet in diameter. The Stuyvesant pear tree, planted by the doughty Governor of the Dutch Colony of New York, over two centuries and a half ago, in the city of New York, is still thrifty and vigorous and bearing fruit. The cultivation of the pear is receiving more attention throughout the county than formerly, and standard trees are almost exclusively planted.
The Quince is claimed to be a native of Crete, although it grows spontaneously in the south of France and on the banks of the Dan- ube. The ancients held it in veneration and regarded it as em- blematic of happiness and love. Rabbinical writers invested it with numerous myths, some even having thought it might have been "the forbidden fruit." It is a popular fruit, does moderately well, yet its culture is neglected.
Plums, Apricots and Nectarines are nearly stung out of existence by the curculio, and as yet no successful resistance has been made to its insidious invasions. The delicious wild plum, ever growing in such abundance at the time of the first settlement of the county, has substantially disappeared.
Cherries. - This fruit we have in great abundance, and all the varieties congenial to this climate are cultivated; and currants, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, in inde- scribable varieties are the precious gods of every house-keeper and command their legion of worshipers.
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