USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 48
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The export trade in food scarcely had ceased, as Rhode Island lost access to West Indian markets, when the factory population furnished a home market for all that and more than Rhode Island farms could produce. The grain brought in from the Middle West via the Erie Canal, and later by railroad, arrived at first in quantities no more than sufficient to meet increasing necessity, as factories were built and Rhode Island had thousands to feed who did not participate in the production of food. Even when the volume of grain from the West had reached the proportions of a flood, and Western hay and grain were formidable com- petitors in the market, Rhode Island still retained its interest in animal husbandry. The West- ern grain was bought by Rhode Island farmers and fed to Rhode Island stock. Instead of horses for export, draught horses for factory wagons, and roadsters for stagecoaches were needed. Beef, mutton, pork, poultry, milk, butter, cheese, neat oil, tallow, lard, wool, hair, hides and leather, all were marketable in Rhode Island. Almost half a century elapsed after the West shipped hay and grain in quantities to supply Eastern markets before the practice of refrigerating dressed beef and other meat had been perfected, and carloads of beef, mutton and pork arrived from Western slaughterhouses. The West had discovered that it was more economical to condense and concentrate grain before shipment than to pay freight rates for bulk; and meat animals, particularly hogs and steers, were found to have no superiors as converters. Corn fed to hogs or steers, besides improving the quality of the meat, increases the weight and value of the animal when marketed as food so much as to assure a profit larger
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than may be earned by shipping and selling corn. Thus the West found a way to dispose of its most abundant crop, and Rhode Island farmers met a new competition which promised to deprive them of a market for animals raised for slaughtering. Rhode Island farmers could not compete on the basis of corn-fattening steers and hogs at home, because the West had advan- tage in producing forage corn, although it never has raised corn to equal the white flint Rhode Island corn that made the Johnnycake Trail famous. Thus the production of beef and pork was gradually abandoned.
Out of the West also came horses. and another Rhode Island market was threatened even before electric tramway and automobile had begun to banish horses from streets and roads, and gasoline-driven tractors had begun to replace horses and oxen as farm draught animals. Rhode Island farmers survived; there were still markets for eggs and poultry, milk and dairy products, fresh vegetables, fruits and berries in season, and the population was increasing at a rate that demanded increased production in all lines. Besides that, the state was prosperous, and living conditions had improved. Among other things that changed were foods. The old monotony of salted and smoked provisions, meal and winter vegetables had given away to recognition of variety as desirable, and increasing emphasis on fresh, green vegetables and fresh meat as preferable for health to salted, smoked or dried meat. The Rhode Island farmer's opportunity lay in truck gardening, fresh eggs and poultry, and a herd maintained for dairy purposes. Because of the new demand for fruits and berries, orchards and shrubbery were cultivated.
RHODE ISLAND'S AGRICULTURAL FAME-Rhode Island's reputation for wealth, number and variety of manufactured products scarcely exceeds, even if it equals, the widespread pub- licity given to the name of the state by distinctive agricultural products-notably, among others, Rhode Island cornmeal, Rhode Island Greening apples, and Rhode Island Reds. To these might be added, for seasonal local excellence nowhere else equalled, Rhode Island aspara- gus, Rhode Island strawberries, and Rhode Island sweet corn. Rhode Island corn meal means only and exclusively the white, hard flint corn produced in the broad belt of rich alluvial soil in the southern counties, dried and ground by waterpower between slowly moving heavy grindstones in almost the most primitive fashion known short of mortar-and-pestle stamping or hand grinding between stones in the Indian method. In the latter respect the white man's grindstones moved ponderously by waterpower reproduce mechanically the slow grinding process learned from Narragansett Indian squaws. The secret involved in slow grinding is avoidance of heat. The raw material is Rhode sweet corn dewed and occasionally watered as it grows by the humid breath of the Gulf Stream cooled to precipitation by steady gales sweeping in from the North Atlantic Ocean. This Rhode Island corn is neither hybrid nor alien; it luxuriates in the native habitat in which it was cultivated by Indians for centuries before Miguel Cortereal came to the Narragansett Bay country. Corn and beans, dried for preserving and ground before cooking, were the staple vegetable foods of the Indians through long months of winter. The white settlers learned from Indian teachers not only the methods of preserving and cooking corn, but also how to plant and fertilize it. Even in the nineteenth century the Indian practice of burying menhaden between cornhills was followed by Rhode Island farmers. After overland travel developed in the colonial period the road across the South County from Westerly through Usquepaugh and South Kingstown was known as the Johnnycake Trail, because of the reputation attained by innkeepers and housewives for cook- ing Rhode Island cornmeal in such delectable fashion that travelers told the tale abroad. Done in traditional Rhode Island style, according to any one of several recipes that have withstood the ravages of time, Rhode Island Johnnycakes have been acclaimed ambrosial food for the Olympian train.
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Of Rhode Island apples a Rhode Island poet has sung :
"Just beyond the fodder cornfield, where the brook winds slowly through, Stands an ancient apple orchard, with its fruit of varied hue. There's the juicy early Sapson, with its brilliant scarlet skin, And the yellow, mellow Porter, which you want to taste again. Next the Pippin, variegated, turns to sun a crimson cheek, And the brown and ruddy Russet, fit for winter cold and bleak. There's the pound Sweet, large and honeyed, weighing down the branches low, And the hardy winter Baldwin, 'mid the green leaves all aglow.
There the luscious, swelling Greening spreads its limbs to form a bower ; No Rhode Island orchard ever is without a Gilliflower. Some for summer, some for autumn, more are for the winter night When the children gather gaily round the cheerful glowing light ; Some for eating as you pluck them, ripe and sweet, from leaving trees, More for storage for the winter, when the snow drifts on the lees. Crowned with untold range of color, rainbow hues and shades between, Flaming scarlet, blushing crimson, yellow gold and tones of green, Stands the bounteous bowl of apples, always full and always sure Hungry boys and girls and grown-ups to its pleasures to allure. Apple charms were made by nature to attract man's roving eyes And he finds them most delicious, eaten ripe or cooked in pies, Stewed as sauce, or spread as butter. Of what sweeter can you dream Than a baked Rhode Island Greening swimming in a dish of cream?"
Rhode Island Greening apples, mellow solace of the quiet of winter evening by the roar- ing hearth fire, snappy skin over luscious white flesh yielding acid sweetness to crunching teeth, fruit fit for princes royal of the self-governing republic rounding out three centuries of democracy, it is almost sacrilege to submit you to culinary arts or to suggest the possibility of improvement. Yet there is no baking apple that approaches Rhode Island Greening in perfec- tion; no applesauce with flavor so piquant as that made with Rhode Island Greening apples ; and no other pie apple that yields to perfect cooking at the exact moment in which the pastry cover streaks with golden glow. God could create an apple superior to Rhode Island Green- ing, no doubt ; but He was satisfied with the Rhode Island Greening apple and never tried to improve upon it.
Rhode Island Red poultry is another distinctive Rhode Island agricultural product, the origin of which goes back to days in which Rhode Island sailormen went down to the deep seas in ships and on long voyages to remote countries and to strange lands, from which they brought back curios as souvenirs. Vessels in those days, long before the era of refrigeration and cold storage, carried live animals, including poultry, for slaughter as fresh meat was wanted. Occasionally an unusual bird escaped the merciless martinet in charge of the galley, and completed the voyage. Thus there came to Rhode Island fowl from. distant places, some of which were crossed with descendants of earlier immigrants, European fowl imported by the pioneer farmers of Rhode Island. The origin of Rhode Island Reds is credited principally to Captain William Tripp of Little Compton, who was assisted in the early stages of experiment by John Macomber of Westport, a small strip of territory that never will be satisfied until it achieves its ambition to become part of Rhode Island. Captain Tripp and Mr. Macomber undertook, in 1854, by selective breeding to produce fowl that were better layers and that would dress for the poultry market with attractive yellow flesh. They crossed Chiteong (Malay or Java) cocks with Cochin China hens. Later crossing with Light Brahmas pro- duced chicks with pea combs; with Plymouth Rocks, mixed plumage; and with Brown Leg- horns, a smaller bird with enamel on the ear lobes. Captain Tripp carried forward the project after Mr. Macomber had died; the Captain was a thorough poultry breeder, and the project was successful almost from the beginning. He discarded ill-shaped and poorly colored birds, and bred carefully selected stock to develop standard types and fix characters that were con- sidered desirable. The pea comb fowl was discarded at first, but developed subsequently as a
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separate breed known as Buckeyes. Captain Tripp's flocks achieved reputation, and his eggs were sought by other farmers, not only in Little Compton, but widely over a continually expanding area. The world had found out that he had produced a general purpose fowl-a prolific egg producer in the laying period, and a fleshy bird unexcelled as poultry for market- ing. As egg producers Rhode Island Reds have won many laying contests against other breeds. The eggs are large and uniform in color and shape, qualities which are important in assuring ready sale. The meat of the Rhode Island Reds as poultry is rich in color, an attrac- tion that gives it preference over other fowl; and excellent both in flavor and abundance. The Rhode Island Red is a profitable fowl, because of all the qualities of egg and meat pro- duction, and also because of quick maturity, providing good-sized broilers and heavy roasting fowl in time shorter than any other breed. Isaac C. Wilbur of Little Compton, is credited with naming the new breed "Rhode Island Reds." Dr. N. D. Aldrich exhibited Rhode Island Reds as "miscellaneous fowl not otherwise classified" at New York in 1892, and won several prizes. Rhode Island Reds were entered as a recognized breed in the Providence poultry show of 1895. The Rhode Island Red Club of America had been organized in 1893 and established a standard for the breed ; the club is the largest poultry specialist club in the world, and the Rhode Island Red has become a favorite fowl with egg and poultry producers in all parts of the earth. Single Comb Rhode Island Reds were recognized as standard in 1904; in 1905 Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds were admitted under the name "American Reds" at a meeting of the American Poultry Assocation held at Minneapolis. Objection to the name was pro- nounced and effective ; at a special meeting the name "Rhode Island" was restored. Another attempt to drop "Rhode Island" as part of the name was frustrated in 1915. Rhode Island Reds were too excellent to remain local to Rhode Island; it is asserted by enthusiastic breed- ers that the habitat of Rhode Island Reds extends from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle, and that a flock of Rhode Island Reds will thrive anywhere, if only food and water are plentiful and a place to roost has been provided. A monument to the Rhode Island Red at Little Compton commemorates the origin of the breed in one of Rhode Island's most dis- tinctly agricultural towns.
The Rhode Island White-another Rhode Island breed not yet so well known-is not a relative of the Rhode Island Red with color variation similar to that by which Luther Bur- bank produced a white blackberry; it is a distinctive variety established by crossing White Wyandottes and Partridge Cochins. It is newer than Rhode Island Red and has yet to achieve a world-wide reputation. Rhode Island asparagus is distinctive in the method of marketing fresh stalks cut before the green-flowering stage has been reached; the fineness of texture and and flavor are unexcelled. Rhode Island strawberries in size and flavor are not surpassed ; few are shipped from Rhode Island because the product is too precious to be shared with others, and no strawberry maintains excellence in long shipment. Rhode Island sweet corn- a table rather than a forage corn -- in succulent sweetness has no rival. And these are only a few of the fine things produced in Rhode Island gardens and on Rhode Island farms.
CHANGING MARKETS-The history of Rhode Island manufacturing industries, while noteworthy because of the extraordinary and long-continued prosperity in woolen and worsted textiles, in cotton textiles, in iron and steel machinery and tools, in jewelry and silversmithing, and in rubber goods, and because of the rising importance of silk and rayon, lace, pile fabrics, knitted goods and miscellaneous textiles, emphasizes the effects of changing fashions and epoch- making inventions upon particular establishments. The latter have been subject to vicissitudes of favoring and unfavoring fortune even while the course of the industry has been consistent and relatively steady. Thus the electric motor replaced the steam engine and destroyed so much of the iron and steel industry in Rhode Island as was related to the building of station- ary engines, the construction of mechanical shafting and gears as parts of power transmission systems, and the manufacture of pulleys and hanging devices for carrying belts; but the iron
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and steel industry persisted in other lines and is larger in the twentieth century than ever before in the history of Rhode Island. Trolley car and gasoline-driven automobile displaced horses, and destroyed a prosperous horseshoe industry. Changes in fashion sounded the death knell one by one of crinoline and haircloth, and shoe button fasteners; a new style in jewelry may precipitate a race to produce for a new market, or a scramble to dispose of old stock at almost any sacrifice. The manufacturing entrepreneur must watch vigilantly, and be prepared to select his line or change it with reference to the conditions of markets.
Although changes in agriculture are less precipitate usually, they are no less certain in progress and effect, and the same general formula that applies to manufacturing-the vigilant watching of markets-is relevant to agriculture and is of primary importance in determining success or failure. The farmer who produces without regard for the market is worse than a gambler ; he is a wilful waster destined to fail if no market for his product exists. In its general aspects, broadly considered, the record of the past in Rhode Island with reference to agriculture shows ( I) the development of trade with the West Indies with the purpose of finding a market for surplus products of Rhode Island farms; (2) stimulation of production in favorable lines as these were disclosed through the agency of trade; (3) substitution of home markets for foreign markets for agricultural produce, as the introduction of manufac- turing by the factory plan replaced emphasis on trade beyond the borders; (4) with a large increase in population detached from the soil, in the sense of being domiciled in compact towns and cities and factory villages, search for new sources of food supply for people exceed- ing the number who could be fed from the products of Rhode Island farms; (5) for a time utilization of western forage crops and grain by Rhode Island farmers to feed home livestock raised to supply home markets with milk and meat; (6) loss of the market for horses because of western competition and the substitution of mechanical and electrical devices for horses ; (7) loss of the home market for livestock when the West perfected the process of refrigerating beef, pork and mutton; (8) western competition established in eggs and poultry, and western control (to the practical elimination of Rhode Island production) in secondary dairy products, that is, butter and cheese.
While the ruins of Pompeii have revealed proof that the process of preserving food by excluding air was known and practiced thousands of years ago on a factual if not a scientific basis, some who are living in 1930 recall that scarcely half a century has elapsed since the perfection of American canning. Their memory antedates the invention of the can-opener and revives the period in which the introduction of canned food made slow progress because of the inconvenience of melting solder on inset caps by heated iron or by piling hot coals on top of the can. Then came the can-opener and the beginning of a revolution in American food and cooking. Cold storage in completely equipped warehouses is even more recent; it followed a long time after ice refrigeration on a limited scale. The ready market which the Rhode Island farmer found close to his farm for practically all the produce that he could raise, a condition favored by the continued extension of manufacturing and the segregation of population, tended to inhibit the development of a canning industry in Rhode Island; can- neries rise only where the production of a surplus suggests methods of preserving for disposi- tion over a longer period of time or of preserving for shipment to remote markets. Eventually both canning and cold storage tended to affect Rhode Island farming adversely, particularly as progress in canning tended to improve the quality of tinned food and to increase the variety of partly or completely cooked meats and of vegetables wanting only heating to be made avail- able for table use. The essential elements in the equipment of a modern kitchen are a can- opener and a gas or electric range; the can-opener is to be chosen in preferment to the range as almost the sine qua non.
The regimen of housekeeping has been almost completely changed by the introduction of canned foods, delicatessen and public bakeries, all tending to eliminate domestic culinary
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accomplishment, to say nothing more than merely to mention mechanical and electrical devices that reduce drudgery, vacuum cleaners, public laundries and other modern services that trans- fer from the list of housewife's duties one after another of time-honored types of domestic activities. The Rhode Island farmer has witnessed, with the introduction of new devices and modern methods, the disappearance of many sources of income with the departure of markets for one or another of the staple products of his farm. The range of canned goods, excluding preserved meats, but including peas, beans of all sorts and conditions, corn, succotash, toma- toes, squash, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, mixed vegetables, and soups of every conceivable flavor and consistency, indicates changes that have taken place, since the contents are foods brought from distant places to supply those who would continue to be his customers-could the hands of the clock be turned back. The varied array of package cereals marks the dis- placement of cornmeal mush, and home-ground oatmeal as breakfast foods. Canned fruits and glassed jams, jellies and preserves have usurped the market for his fruits and berries, and almost terminated home preserving. The Rhode Island farmer contributes little to the twen- tieth century Rhode Island breakfast, dinner and supper. The Rhode Islander who thrived on mush and milk for breakfast; on milk and mush for supper ; on salt pork and Johnnycake or clam chowder, or succotash for dinner, with baked beans for Saturday and a boiled dinner for Sunday, has been extinct for many years. The golden age of Rhode Island truck farming waxed with the elimination of the primitive and simple diet of food produced on neighboring farms, and waned as the change progressed with the introduction of foods made convenient and cheap also, by canning and cold storage.
The twentieth century witnesses yet another invasion of a market once belonging exclu- sively to the Rhode Island farmer. The South and Southwest are making startling inroads in the production and marketing of fresh vegetables, which threaten to destroy market gar- dening in Rhode Island-once a most profitable source of income. The new competition rests upon a combination of (1) thoroughly organized, fast, direct express and freight service between southern farms and northern markets, and (2) the 900-mile projection of Florida and the long extension of Texas toward the tropics. The southern and southwestern farmers have organized cooperative shipping and marketing agencies. The long growing season in both Florida and Texas, and, in some instances, the use of northern short-season seed, permits repeated cropping, while the mildness of winters favors production under glass of vegetables "out of season." Florida and Texas farmers are well on the way toward farming all the year around. Produce merchants supplying markets, restaurants and hotels with vegetables prefer the relatively uninterrupted consignments from Southern gardens to the short season glutting of markets that is characteristic of northern farming. As one enterprising produce merchant summarized "the situation": (1) he felt reasonably certain of being able to fill almost any order for vegetables in any season so long as he maintained a commission agency for dispos- ing of consignments of Southern produce, and (2) while Rhode Island vegetables in season could not be surpassed for quality or flavor, the fineness of the taste of good customers usually had been spoiled long before Rhode Island truck was ready for market, by reason of the con- sumption of early shipments from the South. There is a vast difference in the zest of eating fresh garden peas after a long winter without peas or with only canned peas, and the indif- ference with which Rhode Island garden peas may be approached after an uninterrupted sup- ply of fresh peas through most of the winter and all of the spring.
The array of vegetables, both in season and out of season, in modern markets tells the story plainly ; not only are potatoes, onions, turnips, carrots, cabbages and others of hardy winter storage vegetables available at all times, but one may have at any time, if he can afford to and will pay, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, peas, beans, mushrooms, radishes, spinach, rhubarb and other vegetables, as well as strawberries. Of fruits, besides the citrus varieties from Florida and California, and tropical pinapples, bananas and plantains, are peaches, pears,
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plums, apricots, grapes and melons continuously through all the seasons as shipments are received, in some instances, from the south temperate zone, which is bathed in summer heat while Rhode Islanders are shoveling winter snow. What is to become of the Rhode Island farmer? The answer to this question is the same as the similar question related to the manu- facturer ; the latter has continued to prosper so long as he has been able to find something to make which he can make better and cheaper than any competitor, or something that can be made in Rhode Island better than anywhere else in the world. The salvation of agriculture lies in adaptation to the changing environment, selection of production with reference to advantages of soil, climate and markets, and intensive specialization, as in industry, along with alertness to perceive and understand the significance of changes.
IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING-Marketing is one of the most essential factors in success- ful agriculture ; the principle involved may be stated positively in the form, "production should be selected with reference to the market," and negatively in the form, "no production should be undertaken unless the farmer knows with reasonable certainty what disposition can be made of the result of his investment and labor." The general principle affects farming everywhere ; it is. universal and not peculiar to Rhode Island. Wisely applied, the principle contemplates cooperation by farmers almost unbelievable in staunchly individualistic New England. Yet to assure unfailing returns the farmer must have information so complete as to be almost beyond collection by one farmer. The cooperation in final form suggests cooperative buying of fer- tilizers, tools, machinery, seed, feed for cattle, etc .; expert study of markets; and selling through a cooperative agency. Rhode Island farmers, through the extension service of Rhode Island State College, have been finding the value of cooperation. There are certain lines of farming that promise reasonable returns upon the basis of normal experience.
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