USA > Vermont > Rutland County > History of Rutland County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 19
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Agriculture. - This has been the leading industry in Vermont since the State was settled ; it is, as said by another, an industry of primal necessity. The early settlers as they came into Vermont found it a wilderness. The entire lands were covered with a forest. They were obliged to provide themselves and families with food to sustain life. They did not bring food with them. They had no means to buy it, and there was none to buy within their reach. They must grow it; they could get it in no other way. Each secured a piece
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of land, cut down trees and erected a log house for temporary shelter, and then cleared a patch, burned the timber and brush, planted corn and sowed wheat among the stumps, and for a plow used an axe. With this implement they chopped up the earth among the stumps and roots to get it in condition to receive the seed. This was the beginning of Rutland county agriculture, - of Ver- mont agriculture. The next year another patch was cut over, the material burned and the ground fitted for the seed in the same manner. Thus the work of clearing up the forest was pushed along as rapidly as these hardy pioneers could do it. They soon began to gather some stock around them, as they could keep it. The hard-wood stumps (beech and maple) soon rotted out, when those who had teams began to use the plow and harrow. The early settlers in a few years were in condition to raise a very considerable amount of wheat, rye, corn, potatoes and flax. They soon got a few sheep and of their wool and flax their wives and daughters made the clothing for their families.
For the first half century after the settlement of Vermont there was very little improvement in agriculture ; in that period, there was, however, a constant increase of production in progress. More and more of the forests were cut away each returning year, and the newly cleared tracts hurried along into till- able lands as fast as practicable. The increase was in the acreage put into crops; not in the amount of production per acre. The decayed wood and leaves had been accumulating for centuries ; vegetable mould kept the lands rich for many years thereafter, before any fertilization was required to put them in condition to bring forth ample crops. The lands produced abundantly for many years with indifferent plowing and no fertilization, except what nature provided.
The old wooden plow was used in Vermont for more than half a century after the State was settled. It required more strength of team to draw it than the modern plow and it only " rooted up " from two to four inches of the sur- face of the ground. All farm implements were then rude and clumsy, and though the entire work of cultivation was simply the persistent use of physical strength, yet the lands on the average produced about twice what they do now. But continual cropping exhausted the elements of production to a great degree and the farmers found their soils deteriorated before they were aware of it. The very simple general proposition did not occur to them that to restore produc- tiveness of their soils they must restore the elements, the plant food, which they had lost by this continual cropping for half a century. The proposition, though simple, opens a field for thought, for mental labor in connection with agricul- ture which the farmers were not then accustomed to, and instead of applying the remedy, they allowed their lands to go on in the downward course of de- terioration. By-and-by the inventor and manufacturer awoke and produced a plow with a cast iron mould-board. This, and other improved farm implements, were the first distinctive improvement in connection with agriculture, at least in Vermont. The following is taken from the history of the town of Poultney :
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" During the first half century after the settlement there were few changes worthy of note in the mode of farming. The same farm implements first in use were kept in use with very little change or improvement until after 1820. The old wooden plow was manufactured every where a third-rate blacksmith could be found ; almost any man could do the wood work. In 1825 a plow with a cast iron mould-board was offered for sale in Poultney for the first time. It had been introduced in New York and the Middle States some years previous to that time and was gradually working its way into use. The farmers of Poult- ney and vicinity for some time would not buy it; they said it would break; it might do on Western or Southern lands, where there were no stones, but it would never work among the rocks and stones of Vermont; they were sure of that. After a time one farmer after another, with much urging, was induced to try it, found they did not break it, and that it was much more effective in its work than the wooden plow, and before 1840 the wooden plow was a thing of the past. Other new implements and improvements on old ones soon followed."
The mowing-machine and horse-rake were later improvements. It is not over twenty-five years since the click of the mowing-machine was first heard in Rutland county, and hardly twenty years since it came into general use.
The economy adhered to by the farmers of Vermont for the first half cen- tury or more of our history, led them to do all they could within themselves ; to raise all they needed for their own use upon their own farms, with sufficient to square up their accounts with the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the cooper, the carpenter, the merchant, and the doctor. Their lands then produced bountifully, but the markets for their produce hardly paid for transportation before the days of railroads, with butter at ten cents a pound, cheese at four or five cents, potatoes at ten or fifteen cents a bushel, and rye and corn at fifty cents. The first specialty in the history of farming in Rutland county seems to have been in
Sheep Husbandry .- The scope of this work is such that only a general out- line of the history of this very important branch of farming [industry can be given, but enough we hope to encourage the young farmers of Rutland county that it may be made profitable, if entered into with zeal and made a subject of scientific investigation and constant attention and study.
The first sheep brought into Vermont were the " native breed," so called, or, as they were sometimes called, the " English sheep." They were a large, healthy, hardy sheep, with long, coarse wool, which supplied the material for clothing for that day and generation. The pride of the early settlers did not aspire to fine wool clothing. They did not then grow sheep or wool for the market. They were grown for their flesh to eat and their wool for clothing, and now and then a sheep or fleece of wool for a mechanic or tradesman.
The importation of the Spanish Merino sheep led to the specialty to which allusion has been made in this branch of farm industry. When this breed of
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
sheep was first imported from Spain to this country, or by whom, does not seem definitely settled. The late William Jarvis, of Wethersfield, Vermont, while American cousul to Portugal, made large importations of the Spanish Merino to this county in 1810 and 1811. He was not, however, the only im- porter nor the first one. Colonel David Humphreys, of Connecticut, was an earlier importer of these sheep than Jarvis ; but the importations of the latter were largely to Vermont, and the well-known character of Mr. Jarvis, his knowledge of sheep and his enthusiasm in their improvement, enabled him to do more than anybody else in laying the foundation for the success of sheep husbandry in this State.
The first importations were scattered about and did not attract general at- tention in Vermont much before 1825. The tariffs of 1824 and 1828, with the growing interest in the Spanish Merino, created an enthusiasm in Vermont in sheep husbandry, and this brought out as a specialty the business of wool growing in this State. A high tariff by Congress had the effect to raise the prices of wool. Manufactories went up on every stream capable of running machinery, as the readers of the various town histories herein will learn ; farm- ers went almost exclusively into the business of wool-growing.
The inquiry may now properly be made as to the character of the sheep imported from Spain by Consul Jarvis and others. They were doubtless a pure Spanish Merino, they were not as large or as hardy as the old English sheep, but their wool was as fine and pure as any wool ever grown before or since. Their fleeces did not average over three and a half pounds, but the wool was of excellent quality what there was of it.
Now we come to a very important part of the history of our sheep hus- bandry, viz., the improvement on the imported Spanish Merino sheep. Such improvement has been made that the descendants of this imported breed are a larger and more hardy sheep and produce an average fleece of nearly, if not quite, three times the weight of the original Spanish Merino. How has this improvement been effected ? Undoubtedly the Vermont climate is favorable to that end ; our Vermont grasses are well adapted to sheep, and our Vermont breeders have exhibited a measure of scientific study and acquired knowledge in their calling which may well challenge the attention of scientists in any de- partment of industry. In the last few years large sales have been made by the Vermont breeders of the Spanish Merino to parties living in nearly all of the States in the Union. Car loads have been sent to the Western States, Cal- ifornia and New Mexico. In fact the Vermont sheep are the standard in this country, and they are obtained for their excellence and to improve the flocks of sheep elsewhere - we were about to say everywhere. It should not be for- gotten that the Spanish Merino has been raised to his present high degree of excellence in Vermont by forty years of hard mental labor on the part of the pioneers in this work, among whom is our own J. A. Benedict, esq., of
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Castleton, in this county. Without disparagement to any among the leading sheep breeders of this county, past or present, may also be mentioned Joseph S. Griswold, of Benson ; D. W. Bump, of Brandon ; Albert Brasee, J. Ganson, and Chandler B. Gibbs, of Hubbardton ; Lyman W. Fish, and Harry Collins, of Ira; Johnson S. Benedict, Chauncey L. Barber, and William F. Barber, of Castleton ; Volney Baird, Pittsfield ; Isaac H. Morgan, Poultney ; John H. Mead, Rutland. Many others have been and are engaged in this industry; but the above are those now prominently following it.
Cattle. - The cattle of the early settlers were of the " native breed, " and not much attempt was made at improvement in Rutland county until after 1830. The Durham was about the first breed introduced in Rutland county in the way of improvement. This, crossed with the native breed, did produce an improvement. It increased the size and beauty of the animals and they were more easily fattened ; but it was claimed that it did not improve the dairy, that the Durham cow was no better (if as good) for the dairy than the native cow. But the dairy was hardly made a specialty in Vermont farming until after 1830. Butter and cheese were made from the first, but made to supply the families of those who made these articles, and to pay merchants' and me- chanics' bills - made for home consumption ; there was no market elsewhere which demanded these products to much extent. Even up to 1840 butter seldom brought over ten cents a pound, and cheese not over five or six cents. The dairy business in Rutland county began to increase gradually as early as 1834. The mania for wool-growing, which had for a half dozen years existed among the farmers, began to subside, and as that was passing away more atten- tion was given to dairying. The farmers began to keep less of other stock and more of cows. Thus they went on from year to year until nearly every farmer kept either sheep or dairy entire, except his necessary team.
Since the system of associated dairying was introduced, improvements in that department have been more rapid. It is a matter of history, we suppose, that Jesse Williams, of Rome, N. Y., was the originator of the American cheese factory system. This he originated in 1850, and for the purpose of relieving the members of his family from excessive labor in the management of his own dairy. But in this act of his he developed a principle of immense value to that interest, and the factory system is now quite generally adopted in this country wherever intelligent dairying is prosecuted. It may be regarded not only as a great labor-saving invention, but as developing a more scientific mode of man- ufacture, a better article, and a more successful business.
Associated dairying began in Rutland county in the year 1864. It had then made considerable progress in the State of New York, and especially in the vicinity of Rome where it originated. Rollin C. Wickham established the first cheese factory in Rutland county, in his own town of Pawlet. The next one was established in Middletown and the building erected the same year
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
(1864). Like most other improvements, the system had to undergo opposi- tion, but there is no opposition now. It is the true system of dairying, espe- cially of cheese-making.
Several foreign breeds of cattle have been introduced in this country during the last twenty-five years, for their supposed excellences as dairy stock. Among them are the Ayrshires, the Jerseys and the Holsteins ; there are other breeds, but these are the leading varieties. Each of these is undoubtedly a fine dairy stock, and collectively they have doubtless done much to improve the dairy ca- pacity of this country. But the improvement has not been alone the result of breeding in this country. The scientific and skillful breeder of dairy stock, like the Merino sheep breeder, has improved upon nature ; he has improved upon the imported cow. Both our wool-growers and our dairymen have evinced remarkable skill in their callings, and may well stand beside the great inventors of modern times, as benefactors of their race. The yield of butter or cheese per cow has been largely increased in the last twenty or thirty years. The cow has been improved and the facilities for working up the milk so as to se- cure the entire yield and give a better quality of butter and cheese are now seemingly all that can be asked.
If the same study and mental energy and persistence that have been de- voted to sheep raising and the dairy in these later years, had been given to our worn-out soils, the crop reports would show a much higher figure. But let us hope that we shall soon see two blades of grass where one now grows.
Horses .- Vermont horses are also noted for their excellence. The Black Hawks and Morgans first gained their notoriety in Vermont, and the Hamble- tonians were first known as trotters in Rutland county. We have had our full share of " fast-horse " men, the most of whom have lost rather than gained money in their chosen occupation. The trotting horse is now the leading at- traction at every agricultural fair, and skill in breeding and training in these latter days sends him almost on the wings of the wind. The horse is a noble animal, and the larger class of horses in this county are now bred and grown for the purposes of utility. It satisfies the ambition of some to have a horse that will finish a mile stretch in one or two seconds less time than any other horse ; but it does not follow that the horse which comes out half his length ahead is the best horse in the service for which horses are made. Every man is to be commended for his love for a beautiful horse. A fine moving horse, a good carriage horse, a good " roader," a good work horse, a horse which has " bottom " and endurance - all these are valuable and may well be sought for in breeding and growing this animal. Great improvement has been made in this stock in the last forty years and a fine field exists for further improvement, without attempting to grow up a horse whose only merit is that he can trot a mile in one or two seconds less time than any other horse.
Manufactures .- As our space is limited for the consideration of the subject
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of the industries of the county we can but briefly allude to mechanics and me- chanical work under the head of manufactures.
One historian tells us that the axe and the plow were the most primitive of manufactures, another historian said, that " a woman with a pair of hand cards, the great and little wheel, one of which was turned by the hand, the other by the foot, made the outfit for the earliest manufacturing establishment in Ver- mont." It is perhaps of no great importance here to discuss the question whether axes and plows or the spinning-wheel, were first made. It is probable that in Vermont the axe was first used. The first thing done on the settlement was to cut down trees on a space large enough to build a log house upon, and the settlers could not have done that without axes. They did have an axe when they began, and that was about all they did have of farm implements ; the axe, if we may say so, was the pioneer's tool. The axe used by the early settlers was a rude implement with a helve, as Horace Greeley once said, "like a pudding-stick." The wooden plow, the first used in Vermont, we have al- ready described. The early settlers were obliged to have clothing as well as something to eat, and every household very soon furnished itself with the hand cards, the wheels named, and a loom, all of a rude character; but with them (kept perhaps in the same room in which the family ate, drank and slept) the women of the household carded and spun wool and made the clothing for the family.
Saw-mills were about the first mechanical establishments propelled by wa- ter power. The settlers occupied the log dwellings no longer than they were obliged to; but they could have no other until they could saw boards and planks from their plentiful timber. Quite early the saw-mills went up on all of the streams in Vermont, and the settlers began the erection of frame houses. Details of these early mills will be given in the histories of the various towns.
About the year 1800, and in some towns a little before that time, carding machines and fulling mills were erected, which were then regarded as a great improvement. At the carding machine the wool could be transformed into rolls ready for the spinning-wheel and the flannel could be colored and fulled, ready to be made into coats, jackets and trowsers for the men and boys. Soon there was another advance in this direction. There were woolen and cotton factories established, factories where, strange to say, they could take wool and run it through the various stages in the same mill and it would come out fin- ished cloth. The "spinning-jenny " was a wonderful machine and how one man could run a hundred spindles while the good housewife could run only one, was a marvel. Many of the early carding and cloth mills of this county will be noted in the subsequent town histories.
About 1800 iron ore was discovered in Brandon, Chittenden and Tin- mouth, and great hope was inspired as to its becoming a source of future wealth. Furnaces were established in Brandon and Tinmouth at which stoves were made, which gradually superseded the old-fashioned fire-place.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
The manufacture of pot and pearl ashes was a prominent and very early industry. The forests had to be cut down and burned, thus furnishing a source of manufacture without cost. The sale of the product supplied the settlers with a medium of exchange for household necessities which was of great value when money was very scarce.
Jno. Burnam, who is elsewhere mentioned in these pages, established a starch manufactory at Middletown, about the beginning of the century, using potatoes for his stock. It was quite a success; but in common with very many other early manufacturing shops in the county, was carried off by the great flood of 1811.
Manufacturing was quite brisk in Rutland county for about a quarter of a century prior to 1830, which included woolen and cotton goods, stoves and iron ware, whisky and cider brandy. The manufactories of those goods in this county were quite numerous during that period, but diminished rapidly after 1830, a result due largely to the fact that the county lacked railroad trans- portation to distant markets and could not, therefore, compete with others who were more fortunately situated.
The railroads have now revolutionized the industries of this county, as they have wherever they have been built and sustained ; they became almost a nec- essary condition of our existence. It is not quite forty years since the first railroad was put in operation in Vermont. "Cheap transportation " says a modern writer, " is the instrument and the test of civilized progress. In pro- portion as men can travel quickly, easily and cheaply, and can carry goods and material quickly, easily and cheaply, very nearly in that proportion do wealth, and intelligence, and happiness, that is, civilization, advance."
As already indicated, it was not contemplated in this chapter to go mi- nutely into the histories of the industries which have been pursued in Rutland county ; they will be more fully described in later pages of the work. We in- tended only to give a general outline, and at the same time to enforce as well as we could the importance of a knowledge of the subject. We do not under- estimate the history of men; but even that cannot be understood without a knowledge of man's position and the influences which surround him. No one will deny that the advance in this region, in wealth, in prosperity, in all that pertains to civilization, in the last fifty years, has been without a parallel in history.
Bir. Jhardwell
I7I
MARBLE AND SLATE IN RUTLAND COUNTY.
CHAPTER XIII.
MARBLE AND SLATE IN RUTLAND COUNTY.1
Geographical Position - Geological Age - Mountains - Lakes and Ponds - Geographical Order .of Rocks - Rock Formation - Ice Period and Glacial. Theory - Fossils - Minerals - Economic Minerals - Early Quarries and Mills - Analysis of Marbles -Comparative Strength of Marbles - Chronological List of Marble Quarries - Development of Machinery - Slate Quarries - Chronologi- .cal List of Slate Quarries - Iron - Clays.
T `HE geographical position of Rutland county begins on the east of the crest of the Green Mountain Range, and extends west to Lake Champlain and the State of New York, with Addison county on the north and Benning- ton county on the south ; it has an area of about one thousand square miles. It has an elevated surface, mountainous on the east, with numerous foot hills and scattered spurs of the Green Mountains - a member of the Apalachian system which extends from Quebec to Alabama. The soil is fertile and the surface is drained by Black, White, Quechee and Pawlet Rivers, and Otter Creek.
The geological age of the rock formation of Western Vermont has been the subject of much discussion and controversy by many eminent geologists, par- ticularly in relation to the shale, slate and limestone formations (including mar- ble), that are exposed along the valleys and lower portions of the district em- braced by Rutland and adjoining counties. The order of the various formations along Lake Champlain was determined as early as 1842, by Messrs. Hall, Emmons, Mather and Vannuxem, of the New York Geological Survey. These formations stand in the following order: Potsdam sandstone followed by cal- ciferous, Chazy and Trenton limestones, and the latter by Hudson River slate. But with regard to the age and order of the rock lying east of the Champlain Group, a diversity of opinions have been entertained by a number of promi- nent geologists.
Professor Emmons, in his report of the New York survey, advanced his theory of the "Taconic System," claiming " that the range of mountains ex- tending from Addison county in Vermont south along the western borders of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and also the limestone and marble on the east of the range, belonged to a formation older than the Potsdam, but younger than the primitive rocks"; but he was opposed in his views by Professors Hall and Mather, and Professor Rogers, of the Pennsylvania survey, who regarded the limestone and slate of the Taconic Range as belonging to the Champlain Group.
The geological reports of Vermont seem to leave the age of these rocks undetermined. In 1866 Sir William Logan, of the geological survey of Can- ada, extended his "Quebec Group " so as to include the rocks of the Taconic Group of Emmons.
1 This chapter was prepared for this work by George J. Wardwell, of Rutland.
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HISTORY OF RUTLAND COUNTY.
Of the various theories set up to fix the geological age of these rocks, it was left for an unpretentious Vermont citizen to furnish the means of deter- mining their geological horizon, viz .: Rev. Augustus Wing, a graduate of Am- herst College of the class of 1835. He was not a professional geologist, but became deeply interested in the science, and a large portion of the latter part of his life was spent in studying the rocks of Western Vermont, with a view to determining the age of the marble formation. "Knowing," says Professor Dana, " that fossils were the only sure criterion of geological age, he searched and found them, and thus reached safe conclusions." " He accom- plished vastly more for the elucidation of the age of Vermont rocks than had been done by the Vermont geological survey." " His discoveries shed light not on these rocks alone, but also on the general geology of New England and Eastern North America."
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