USA > Vermont > Addison County > History of Addison county Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 27
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By the introduction of mowers, reapers, self-binders, sulky plows and spring-tooth harrows, and a great variety of other implements, combined with the age of the cropped soil, and the necessity of going deeper and bringing to the surface more of the tenacious but fertile sub-soil, has caused a growing de- mand for heavy team work, a class of heavier draft horses; such horses are also being more and more called for in the cities for heavy work, causing a large demand for such animals. So there seemed a call for some enterprising man in our county to supply the required team horse. By the energy and foresight of F. A. Woodbridge, of Vergennes, this necessity has been met by the importation in March, 1884, at great expense, several mares and stallions of the world-famed Percheron horses. These are all thorough-bred animals. The stallion "Romulus" is No. 1976, Percheron Stud Book of France, No. 3191 Percheron Stud Book of America ; is a beautiful dapple gray, stands sev - enteen hands high, and weighs 1700 pounds. "Favori," No. 1974 Percheron Stud Book of France, No. 3971 Percheron Stud Book of America, is also dapple gray, sixteen and one-half hands high, and weighs 1650 pounds. In making the necessary inquiry about these horses we have, in the absence of F. A. Woodbridge, obtained the above information, with many other valuable points and incidents, from the Hon. F. E. Woodbridge, father of the owner, and from him received a circular which says: "The success which has followed the importation of my Percheron stallions has been far beyond my expecta- tions." To show the estimation this valuable race of horses is held in at large we quote from Forest K. Moreland, a great admirer of the Percheron horse, and an enthusiastic writer, who says, in an article to the Breeder's Gazette, of Chicago, about these horses : "Since 185 1 the Percheron horse has crossed the Alleghenies, the Ohio, the Wabash, the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rockies, and everywhere thrives, grows in favor, and maintains his imperishable individ- uality ; and now in closing we remark that this great horse, which has grandly survived the dark ages; this great horse, which by the Norman French chivalry was ridden to glory on every European battlefield of medieval times ; this great horse, before whose thundering charge in the first crusade the Moslem cavalry was driven like chaff before a hurricane; this great horse, on whose back the warriors of Normandy conquered England, controlled France, and long held the whole of Europe in awe ; this great horse, whose composition is the epitome of the three most puissant races of his genus, and whose proud name has for
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ages been recognized by all the standard literati and by all English-speaking nations and provinces, as an historic commemoration of the all-conquering na- tionality that perfected his form, and bred for nearly one hundred years on both sides of the British Channel ; this great horse, whose industrial laurels, won during our era, in every part of the world, are as fadeless as the destrier laurels he won in a former period-his unequaled merits, illustrious achievements and universal fame are now the heritage of all the people of France." We not only congratulate Mr. Woodbridge on the success of his enterprise, but the farmers of Addison county on the addition of this noble race of horses to the valuable bred-up stock already famous.
Among the noted breeders and stock farms of Addison county, devoted more or less to the breeding of fine horses, are the following: Joseph Battell, esq., of Middlebury, on his extensive farms not only breeds first-class horses, but is authority on pedigree and history in all of the details of all the breeds known ; (he has "Daniel Lambert" and others with considerable Lambert blood) ; Nelson W. Partch, New Haven, breeder of Hambletonian and Clay stock ; Andrew J. Squier, New Haven, breeder of Clay horses; W. H. De- long, West Cornwall, breeder of Ethan Allen horses. H. T. Cutts, Orwell, breeder of fine Lamberts ; F. A. Woodbridge, Vergennes, breeder of Perche- ron horses : R. W. Sholes, Orwell, breeder of Lambert horses; H. T. Gaines, Panton, breeder of Bruno and Brutus horses ; F. J. Arthar, Shoreham, breeder of Ethan Allen horses; G. W. Whitford, Addison, breeder of Lambert, called Rusher.
There are many more, perhaps, of equal merit as breeders in the county, but enough is recorded to show the drift of the breeding at this time, and that there are not wanting men of genius in the industry to insure honor and profit to themselves and credit and benefit to the whole people through the amount of wealth brought in, and consequently the means for social, moral, mental, educational and religious improvement.
CATTLE.
If Addison county excels in the beauty and excellence of her Merino sheep, and has a wide fame for horses, so are her cattle second to none, and though in detail in breeding and raising to full-grown merits there may have been con- siderable difference, still these three great industries of this agricultural county, viz., sheep, horses and cattle, are triplets born of the same generous soil, under the same sunshine and climate, and nursed and fondled by the same parent, of the same enterprising community.
As noted as this county is for its fine cattle, and representing as it does every well-known foreign breed that has been introduced for improvement upon the native stock, or for keeping pure for raising stock to sell for others' improvement, it is a matter of regret that the records of the early introduction
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are so meager as to make it very difficult to trace with much accuracy the breeds introduced at or near the time of the transition state of the county from wheat to cattle, in 1829-30.
Notwithstanding the paucity of records, it is known that many bulls of the large and beef-producing qualities were crossed on the native stock. The re- sulting cattle, fed on the excellent hay and rich food the pastures produced, soon became noted in the market for their fine mottle and rich, juicy, tooth- some beef. The butchers and dealers in Brighton market soon learned by touch and handle to distinguish the Addison county steers from others, and gave them the sobriquet "lake steers," and "lake oxen," "lake cattle," etc., which names are continued to the present time as a mark of superior excel- lence.
In relation to the absence of records, as early as 1844, Governor Jenison in an address at the county fair in Middlebury, said : "I venture the assertion, wherever a favorite animal is found, could the pedigree be traced, in most in- stances you would not go many removes backward before you would run against some of the imported improved breeds of stock."
At an early day Thomas Byrd, of Vergennes, and soon afterward General Amos W. Barnum, of the same place, introduced into that neighborhood a con- siderable number of English cattle; they have been called ever since their in- trodution " Barnum's breed," from which the large and handsome cattle of Ferrisburgh spring more than from any other breed. They were large, broad- backed, heavy quartered cattle, mostly red in color, and the cows very good milkers, probably a variety of Durhams, perhaps crossed with Teeswater.
Not long after the introduction of Barnum's cattle Job N. Hunt, Joseph Smith, Hon. John S. Larrabee and Aziel Chipman introduced bulls into Shore- ham, and John Rockwell into Cornwell ; a little later bulls of that breed were in nearly all of the towns of the county, and by 1850 cows purchased from im- ported herds were here ; Devons, Herefords, Ayrshires became almost as com- mon as the Durhams. Wightman Chapman, then of Weybridge, kept on his farm an excellent Ayrshire bull several years between 1830 and 1840.
Scarcely any of the blooded cattle that came into the county were kept pure in their variety, but were indiscriminately mixed and crossed in every di- rection till almost the entire stock became one homogeneous mass, with a dash of every favorite foreign blood flowing in their veins, the Durham cropping out, perhaps, most, Devons next, and Herefords least. Since 1860, however, owing to the radical change in the objects of keeping cattle (which we will notice more fully further on), the different herds have been bred distinct and many of them are registered stock. Up to 1850 or thereabouts there were very many more cattle kept and sold yearly in this county than at the present time. Every considerable farmer added to his income from his annual clip of wool for sale, and his three-years-old steers; some of the larger farmers raised but
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few, but on their yearly sales of three-year-olds would take about one-half of the money and buy two-year-olds of the small farmers or outside of the county, where feed was not so plenty and kept only to supply the yearly demand for the two-year-olds. Parcels of steers might then be seen all over the county in herds of from ten to one hundred head, and those were the steers so much sought for in market (all grass fed) as "lake cattle," Vermont furnishing more than one-half of the cattle in market, and Addison county, or "lake cattle," more than any other county according to amount of improved land. Western beef was not then exported. Early in the cattle history there were two packing houses in the county, one at the center of Shoreham, conducted by Wright, Rich & Company, the other at first by Burchard, Terrill & Company, perhaps a short time by others, and next by John and Joseph Simonds, and after Joseph's death by John Simonds for about twenty-five years, closing in 1860. A Mr. Thomson, of Portland, Me., packed a few years in the same estab- lishment, when it was found the beef-packing business could not compete here with the great houses of Chicago and elsewhere West, where cattle were abundant, and the business was abandoned. The first-named company did not pack beef for many years, nor more than one to two thousand each year, while Mr. Simonds packed from four to five thousand head, usually the latter number, and continued the business for about twenty-five years.
The cattle killed and packed in these establishments every fall were not nearly all drawn from this county, but from all through the western part of the State, and many from St. Lawrence county, N. Y. But these houses had for that long period very much to do with the cattle interest of the county.
The price of beef, and consequently of cattle, from 1825 to 1860 was never more than one-half as much per pound, dressed weight, as the average since that time. But the demand for the packers, with Brighton market dealers, made the trade always brisk, and one having beef cattle for sale could dispose of them at the ruling price almost any time. The packing trade took the coarser and cheaper grade, while the best formed and fattest went to the seaboard mar- kets. Still Mr. Simonds's agents, in order to secure the number he required, had to purchase many mixed lots that were by them sorted, and the choice market cattle were re-sold to Boston dealers, or sent to market by himself. The cause of this method of business was, that barrel beef did not require as choice stock as the fresh-beef markets, nor would the price of beef in the bar- rel warrant as much per pound as the fresh-meat market; all of which trade sometimes produced sharp competition.
Mr. Simonds was a strictly honorable and intelligent business man ; was always considered by the people of the county a public benefactor ; and in the twenty-five years he packed beef he slaughtered over 100,000 cattle at a cost of two millions of dollars, and acquired a fortune (including what he gave his children while in the business) of $300,000, his estate settling at the time of
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his death (about 1870) for $262,000, nearly all growing out of his cattle trade centered in this county.
As before stated, prices of cattle were much less on the average before 1860 than since, and in years of drought or money stringency were subject to great depression in price. Mr. E. D. Willcox informs us that in 1845 his father, 'Deacon Abner Willcox, furnished four hundred beef cattle to Mr. Simonds for packing at $3.00, $2.00 and $1.50 per hundred, and the next year (1846), 800 fat sheep were sold from his estate for 75 cents per head ; this agrees with our recollection when many cattle were sold for $3 for what was inspected ex- tra mess ; $3 for navy mess ; $2 for No. I, and $1 for prime or No. 2; and when those numbers were raised $1 per hundred each the farmers thought prices were paying and satisfactory. Of those numbers the first were fat steers and oxen ; second, fat-cows and heifers; third, slim and poorly fatted cattle, and prime or No. 2 were made up of thinnish bulls and cows culled and not long from the dairy. Labor was much less and keeping very much cheaper in those days than now, and when three-year-old "lake" steers sold for from $25 to $30 each ; two-year-olds from $12 to $15 each, and good fat oxen for $5 per hundred, dressed weight, the farmers were doing well and satisfied with the profit of the cattle industry.
In the early history of the county very little butter and cheese was made more than was used for family consumption; but after 1825 there began, with the increase of cattle, to be some surplus, which was taken to the stores and exchanged for goods, the merchants emptying the pail of butter into a half hogshead of brine kept in the store cellar for that purpose, until enough of dif- ferent lots was received to fill a hundred pound firkin or more, when it was packed and set away and kept until the merchant went to market (usually Troy) for goods ; cheese was also bought in the fall, and butter and cheese went with him to help purchase his six months' stock of goods. There are many living now who can remember good butter bought in exchange for goods at from 8 to 10 cents per pound, and cheese sold in the same way for from 4 to 5 cents per pound. In the decade beginning with 1840, there being better facilities for marketing, there was considerable advance in prices of both butter and cheese, and, payments for the larger lots being made in cash, dairies as a part of the cattle interest began to slowly spring up; good lots of firkin butter brought from 12 to 15 cents per pound, and cheese from 8 to 10 cents. These interests, being fostered by many and enlarged with varying success, but as a rule with increased prosperity, led to careful selection and breeding of the im- proved stock with a view to greater milking qualities for dairy purposes ; more attention was given to the Ayrshire breed, they being claimed as excellent milkers ; the Devons were also pushed forward, being backed by their friends as having rich butter qualities, though it was sometimes admitted they did not give as much milk as others ; but it was claimed that this was more than made
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up by better quality, and also that they were superior for oxen and were easily fattened, and produced superior beef. About this time Sanford's importation of Devons came in, and others.
These rivalries and the consequent attention to better breeding had a ten- dency to increase the dairy interest and slowly decrease the number of cattle kept for beef purposes alone, which state of the cattle trade went along down to 1860, at which time the whole cattle industry was fully ripe for a radical change, in the means sought to obtain the end desired-that of getting the greatest returns for the capital invested. After 1860, and the commencement of the War of the Rebellion, the price of beef and dairy products advanced very rapidly ; the unprecedented circulation of currency representing the value of great quantities of property changing hands everywhere; the demand for pro- visions for feeding so many non-producing men, with the depreciation of the currency caused thereby, advanced the prices of all the necessaries of life to a fabulous degree ; and butter and beef being staple articles of food, felt the fever- ish and heated pulsation to a remarkable extent. Beef cattle of the first class ran up to $12 per hundred live weight, and butter touched half a dollar a pound ; cheese corresponded with a market value of fifteen cents per pound. This state of values pertaining to cattle interests made lively times ; middle-men increased in numbers, which made competition brisk, all having a tendency to force up prices. In the rush of these stirring times, to make an acre of land produce the best returns, the dairy interest came out ahead ; and a great change in the kind of stock kept; the establishment of weekly markets in the large towns, and, after a little, in all the towns, furnished ready facilities for turning in cash every week the quantity of butter made. The starting of several cheese factories in the county (two in Orwell, one in Shoreham, one in New Haven, and perhaps others), combined with the butter markets alluded to, very soon made the county chiefly a dairy county, instead of mainly a beef-producing county as before.
As a result we no longer see the large lots of fine steers as before, but everywhere cows; not because fat cattle pay less, but that cows pay more. We are credibly informed by a long resident there, that Ferrisburgh, which used to be the banner town for beef, has not a single lot except, perhaps, a few pairs of nice oxen ; and what is true of this town is, with a few exceptions, true of the whole county. There are a few large farmers and dealers that keep and turn annually large numbers of fat cattle, many of them of the very best quality ; some of these deserve notice. Two pairs of six-year-old oxen were purchased of J. Q. and George Adams, of Ferrisburgh (by E. D. Wheeler, a large dealer), one pair of which weighed 4,060 pounds, the other 3,950, live weight, under- stood to cost five cents per pound. Hon. A. T. Smith, of Vergennes, a large farmer, has fifteen hundred acres, the largest part lying in New Haven ; keeps two hundred cattle (besides sheep and horses), one hundred of which are
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steers ; the others mostly cows; he sold in 1884 one hundred and fifty three- year-old steers that averaged a little over 1,200 pounds live weight each. E. Allen, of Ferrisburgh, has lately sold a pair of oxen that weighed 3,645 pounds. F. P. Booth, of Ferrisburgh; E. S. Wright, of Weybridge; Hon. C. W. Read, and Byron Smith, of Addison, and others, are dealers, and keep fine beef stock.
Aikins Dukett, of Bridport, with a farm of 1,400 acres, sells about one hun- dred beef cattle annually, besides sheep and horses. E. D. Wilcox, of Bridport, one of the largest and most successful feeders and dealers of fat sheep and cat- tle, has a farm of 1,000 acres; uses 800 for grazing purposes, fattens about three hundred cattle annually ; the best lot he has fattened on hay and grass alone, were a lot of forty-five three-year-old steers, sold in market September I, 1867, which averaged, dressed weight, 850 pounds, for which he received $90 each. J. N. Payne, Bridport (raises fine Ethan Allen and Lambert horses and first-class Merino sheep), keeps from one hundred to one hundred and thirty choice cattle ; has usually twenty cows ; raises his calves of high-bred Durham stock, and sells every spring twenty three-year-old steers before turn- ing to pasture ; has sold thus early for several years for $50 each. A pair of oxen sold by Buell Brothers, of Orwell, in fall of 1875, tipped the beam at 4,850 pounds. Michael D. Leonard and his sons, of Shoreham, with a farm of 1,500 acres, turn yearly two hundred or over of fat cattle.
Others might be named who still keep and fatten beef cattle as a specialty; but enough has been mentioned to show this feature of the cattle interest at the present time, and we turn now to the more important part of the industry, viz., dairying and breeding different stock. The butter interest has increased until the annual product is 2,000,000 pounds in round numbers, and 600,000 pounds of cheese, manufactured in four or more cheese factories, and at this time two butter creameries in New Haven ; the balance in the many single farm dairies.
The preponderance of dairy interests has brought to the front the breeders of pure stock of the different varieties, some of which we will name in order to show the interest in that line ; most of these farmers keep dairies in connection with raising stock. Many of these cattle are registered. As breeders of Jer- seys we name J. T. Lamos, Bridport; J. G. Wellington, M. A. Williamson, T. J. Faar, Jos. Battell, Middlebury ; E. J. Matthews, Cornwall; W. B. Wright, H. T. Cutts, Orwell; L. R. Hopkins, Whiting ; and E. B. Douglas, Shoreham. Of Durhams, F. and L. Moore, E. Tottingham, Shoreham ; T. S. Goff, Hiram Merrill, J. S. Wilmarth, Addison ; Loyal Wright, O. S. Stow, Weybridge ; M. Satterly, Vergennes; C. E. Abell, J. T. Branch, Orwell. Of Ayrshires, Charles Merrill, Addison ; T. Hooker, Cornwall ; H. Hammond, Middlebury ; J. B. Conkey and E. L. Warren, Orwell. Of Devons, C. P. Morrison & Son, Addison ; F. T. Atwood, J. C. Kelsey, M. S. Sheldon, Salisbury ; A. J. Stow, Weybridge. Of Alderneys, J. W. Boyce, Middlebury.
AIKENS DUKETT.
ALITTLE. PHil ..
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The first Holstein importations of any considerable amount were made about eighteen years ago, since which time they have rapidly gained in favor in Vermont, combining, as itis claimed, excellent milking qualities and great weight of good beef. These cattle are the least numerous as yet in the county. Ex- cellent stock of this variety is represented by C. L. Kimball, of Ferrisburgh; he is a young, enterprising farmer, and has several head of registered animals of that breed. George F. O. Kimball, of Vergennes, owns a thorough-blood Holstein bull, purchased by H. W. Keys, of Newbury, Vt., and sired by the celebrated Holstein bull " Benjo," weight 2,500 pounds.
The celebrated and fertile "Cream Hill" (Shoreham) stock farm of 300 acres, belonging to B. F. Bates's estate, now owned principally by his successor and son-in-law, H. B. Hammond, 9 East Fortieth street, N. Y. city, and farmed by D. F. Macauley, manager, has one hundred and ninety head of cattle, forty of which are pure Holsteins. The oldest, or imported stock, is registered in the H. H. Book in Holland and all in the H. H. Book of America. The exceed- ingly watchful care of this stock, under Mr. Macauley, is performed by an im- ported herder who well understands their management in Holland. They are kept on the rich pastures of the farm in summers, and go into their stables about the middle of November, and remain without going out until spring ; are bed- ded with clean saw-dust and groomed every day ; clean food-boxes are before the cattle, where hay, shorts and meal are fed, and outside of these there is a trough covered with lids, where clean water runs from which they drink. The cattle's tails are held from the floor and all filth by a cord suspended from the ceiling above and fastened around the bush of the tail. The forty head of the Holsteins are composed of twenty cows; one bull, "Indian Chief," coming five years old, which weighed in the fall 2,250 pounds ; several cows weighing from 1,500 to 1,700; one two-year-old bull, and four bull calves. The others to make forty head are young heifers. The manager informs us that there will be no cows or heifers sold until the herd reaches one hundred cows, and the ultimate design of the owner is to make a model butter dairy farm. To this end there is kept a strict record of the daily weight of each cow's milk, and records from time to time of the butter made from each cow. In seven days of this last record we noticed on his book several best cows from whom fifteen to nineteen pounds of butter were made in seven days. No bull is used except those whose ancestors are proved to be extra milkers by practical tests.
This farm was managed in the lifetime of Mr. Bates by A. C. Harris; the stock and management of the farm was in the line of Merino sheep and Lam- bert and other Black Hawk horses, and the large number of barns were fitted for that specialty ; but since the present management, the objective point being changed, a barn to accommodate the Holstein dairy is to be built, 42 x 160 with 24 feet front, which, with the others now adapted to the object now in view, it is thought will accommodate the number of cattle the capacity of the farm will
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require. The Cooley system of butter-making has been adopted, and the butter made has found a ready market the past season in New York houses at from twenty-five to thirty cents per pound. We have recorded the plans of this farm at length on account of the boldness of the enterprise and the unstinted way in which capital has been applied to insure success in the undertaking, and the interest with which the people of the county will watch the development of the costly outfit.
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