Delaware County, Ohio - Chapter 1: Geology and Topography, 1908

Chapter 1: Geology and Topography

Geology is the history of the earth as that history is read from the rocky structure and surface configuration of the earth itself. Today we find changes constantly taking place over the land about us. Every shower and every freshet leaves the surface changed and sweeps toward the sea land waste. The mineral content of such springs as the Odevene shows that material is being removed from below the surface, that changes are going on there, though concealed from our direct inspection. The study of geology teaches us that we live on a constantly changing earth, that in a very real sense this earth is not dead but living. We should be prepared to expect that a study of the geology of Delaware County would show us that past conditions here were very different from those today - indeed that several different kinds of conditions have held at successive epochs of the long period of our county's history, geologically considered.

Bed Rock Geology

The oldest rocks of the county are the beds of limestone, shale and sandstone which make what we may call the bedrock, the solid rock, as contrasted with the unconsolidated surface deposits of clay, sand and gravel which overlie and conceal them. They run in north and south belts across the county. West of the Olentangy River the surface rock i> practically all limestone; between the Olentangy and Walnut Creek it is black slate; on Big Walnut the Berea sandstone outcrops, and this formation or an overlying formation of sandy shales forms the surface east to the county border. These rock formations are not horizontal but drop or dip to the east at the rate of twenty feet to the mile, so that the limestones which are at the surface on the western boundary of the county are some 800 feet below the surface on its eastern boundary. The succession of rocks which one would pass through in going down below the surface on

Several of these formations are of economic importance. The Columbus limestone, on the Scioto, and near Radnor, is burned for lime. The Delaware limestone on the Olentangy and especially at Delaware is used for road-metal and for building. The Olentangy clay at Delaware is used as one of the materials in the manufacture of tile. The Berea sandstone is the extension into central Ohio of the great sandstone formation of Berea and Amherst, and was formerly quarried at Sunbur}-.

These bedrock formations point to geographic conditions very different from those existing today. The rocks are all old sea-bottom deposits, the lime muds, muds and sands of an interior sea. Their composition shows this. The Berea sandstone layers are marked li\ the ripple marks made by the currents of the shallow sea of that time. The limestones consist in large part of the fragments and sometimes whole shells and skeletons of the animals then living. What the exact limits of that sea were no one knows. It extended beyond the present Ohio basin in all directions, to an extensive land mass in eastern and central Canada and to a land mass which we denominate Appalachia, stretching along the Atlantic coast east of the present Blue Ridge. For uncounted centuries sands and muds were swept into this inland sea and organic deposits ("first limestone and later coal) accumulated, until forces which had been long gathering head 'were able to make themselves felt, and the area between the Ohio and the Atlantic, crowded together as in an immense vise, was pushed up above sea level and in part thrown into great folds. The strongly folded area was in central and eastern Pennsylvania; the Ohio region was raised above sea level but was subjected to only slight folding. This period of uplift was the Appalachian Revolution; it closed the earliest and longest of the geologic periods, the Paleozoic period. In Ohio it marked the passage from water conditions and rock deposit to land conditions and land sculpture by atmospheric agencies and streams.

The land conditions thus inaugurated have lasted on until the present. Little is known definitely of the conditions in central Ohio during this long period. It is a fundamental teaching of geology that streams will cut their beds to near sea level, and that then the interstream areas will be lowered by valley-side wash until the whole land area is not far above sea level - a lowland plain produced by erosion. It is another fundamental teaching of geology that broad areas are slowly uplifted through the action of internal forces; and in this case a lowland plain formed by erosion might by uplift be again exposed to erosion, might ultimately be reduced a second time to a lowland plain. It is likely that this process of uplift and subsequent reduction of the land surface to a lowland plain has been several times repeated in central Ohio. A large part of the surface of central Ohio today stands between 900 and 1,000 feet above sea level. It was probably formed by stream action and near sea level. Since its formation it has been raised to its present altitude. In southern Ohio it has been dissected by streams since its uplift so that the Ohio River region is a hilly country. In central Ohio this plain does not seem to have been cut up to the same degree and what inequalities it did possess have been largely concealed beneath a mantle of glacial drift.

This long period of normal land conditions was closed by the Great Ice Age and the development of the Canadian ice sheet. There were two centers of accumulation, one east and one west of Hudson's Bav. These two ice fields grew and merged into one which extended north to the Arctic, west in British Columbia nearly if not quite to the foot of the Rockies, east to the Atlantic and south to the line of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers. At the time of its maximum extent its margin crossed the Pennsylvania-Ohio boundary in central Columbiana County, extended west to Mansfield, then south to Lancaster, and from there southwest through Chillicothe to the Ohio in Brown County, the ice sheet thus covering about two-thirds of the State.

The Ice Age is sometimes spoken of as if it were the time of the formation, development and disappearance of a single continental glacier. In reality it was much longer and much more complex than this. Several times did the ice sheet form, advance south from its Canadian home, retreat and then readvance. How long- the whole story was, no one knows, but reasonable estimates make it several hundred thousand years.

As the ice sheet moved south into Ohio it found a surface deeply covered with residual soil formed from the age-long decay of the underlying rock. The ice pushed this before it or dragged it under it ; it pushed away the more or less rotted rock which lay between the soil and the sound rock, and it slowly ground away the upper portion of the sound rock, for wherever we find the bed rock under the later glacial deposits it is today sound and unweathered. The upper surface of the bed rock was polished and scratched. The polishing was done by the finer material, the clay, which was dragged along between the ice and the bed rock. Coarse particles and corners of rock made the scratches characteristic of such surfaces, and from the study of which the direction of ice motion can be known. These glaciated surfaces are often well shown on the limestone and sandstone, but are poorly preserved on the shale surfaces. They show well about the limestone quarries near Radnor.

The ice during its advance was thus eroding. During its retreat it was depositing the bowlder clay or till, which now lies on the bed rock. As its name implies, the bowlder clay consists of two parts, a brownish yellow, occasionally blue, clay in which are scattered bowlders of different kinds of rock up to several feet in diameter. The clay is in part comprised of the "rock flour" made by the glacier as it ground away the underlying rock surface or rubbed together the rocks which it was carrying beneath it. With this rock flour was mixed the soil which the glacier found over the surface when it invaded the region. The bowlders were torn by the glacier from the surface over which it came. In all except the eastern part of the county a large percentage of these bowlders is limestone ; they agree then with the bed rock of the county and need not have been carried far by the ice. In the eastern part of the county where the bed rock is sandstone the bowlders are in large part sandstone. A considerable portion of the bowlders are crystalline rock, granite and other rocks and belong to types not found in the county or even in the State ; those have been brought from north of the Great Lakes, from the gathering ground of the continental ice sheet.

The whole surface of the county is covered by this mantle of glacial drift, a covering varying in thickness up to a hundred feet and averaging from twenty-five to forty feet. At the time of ice occupancy this was spread out to make a nearly level plain, concealing inequalities in the rock surface much as the mason's trowel spreads over a rough brick or stone surface a coat of mortar to give an even surface. When the ice retreated from the region this glacial plain probably extended continuously across the county. Since that time the larger streams have cut their valleys below this surface to a maximum depth of fifty to seventy-five feet, but that surface still is largely untouched back from the rivers, and makes the present upland surface and the most conspicuous feature in the scenery of the county.

The general drift surface back from the streams is level or gently rolling. There are, however, two belts of more rolling character, some two to three miles across, which run from northeast to southwest across the county. These tracts are seen only back from the stream lines; they may rise to a height of fifty feet above the upland south of them and they have a steeper slope to the south than to the north. These belts of higher country are belts of excessively thick drift deposits, and mark positions where the front of the melting glacier stopped in its gradual retreat north across the State. They are the moraines of recession of the ice sheet. One, the Powell moraine, extends from Jerome, through Powell, south of Orange and then runs northeast to Big Walnut at Galena. From Galena its front follows the west side of the Big Walnut to beyond the county line. This is the better developed of the two moraines and all the railways between Columbus and Delaware have cuts where they pass from the plain north into the moraine. The other moraine is well shown about Ostrander, makes the high country east of the Scioto due west from Delaware, but is less conspicuous near the Olentangy. It again shows clearly east of the Olentangy some four miles northeast of Delaware and thence continues northeast through Ashley to Ah unit Vernon, where it unites with the Powell moraine.

It is interesting to consider what was happening when the stop was made by which the moraine through Ostrander was made. The northwestern part of the county was covered with ice, reaching southeast to within two miles of Delaware. The remainder of the county, but recently abandoned by the ice, was covered with glacial deposits, probably but poorly concealed with vegetation. The melting of the ice produced large streams flowing away from the ice front. It was these streams which laid down the coarse gravels which are now found in the upper bottoms but which at that time made a level floor, twenty t<> thirty feet above the present stream beds. These gravels were laid down along the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers and Delaware Run.

A considerable part of the drainage resulting from the melting of the ice surface found its way through cracks in the ice to tlic bottom <>f the ice sheet and then followed a subglacial course to the ice margin. Along such courses beneath the ice gravel deposits were laid down and these, when the ice retreated to the north, were left as more or less continuous sand ridges (eskers) rising above the general level. This is the origin of the series of ridges which are found in the triangle between the Scioto River and Hocking Valley Railroad, for six miles south of Prospect. When such streams ended their subglacial course at the ice margin they deposited nn ire or less sand and gravel among the knolls of the moraine itself. The most conspicuous area of such origin lies south and a little east of Radnor.

Water Supply

The water supply of the county is chiefly from wells, the supply of the city of Delaware being drawn from a gravel well and from rock wells sunk in the bottoms of the Olentangy some three miles above the city.

The geology of the wells is simple. On the uplands all wells commence in the glacial clay. If after reaching the ground water, a vein of sand is reached in digging the well, either above or at the surface of the bed rock, water may be obtained: if not, the well must be carried down into the bed rock until a supply is reached. The clay will not furnish water, for while it may stand below the surface of the ground water, its texture is so close that water will not flow fast enough from it into the well to make an adequate supply. In the bottoms the problem of obtaining water is simpler. The ground is so low that water is everywhere near the surface while the open texture of the sands and gravel gives a good well as soon as ground water is reached. It is only where an excessive amount of water is needed, as in the case of the supply for the city of Delaware, that the gravel wells are inadequate and that it is necessary to eke out this supply by other means, in this case wells to the rock.

The most important matter connected with the water supply of a family or city is its purity. There is a great underground sheet of water filling the openings between the rock and soil particles. This is the ground water. The surface of this ground water rises in times of rain and sinks in times of drought and comes to the light only where it makes the surface of ponds and permanent streams. This under-ground supply comes, of course, from the rainfall. All the rainfall which does not join the immediate run-off soaks through the loose upper rock until it reaches the surface of the ground water. In so doing it runs danger of infection. The rainfall is itself nearly pure. On and immediately below the surface it gathers more or less impurity, either organic or inorganic. Such impurities may not be harmful; generally they are not, but at the same time that the chance is offered for the water to take up these harmless impurities, the water has the opportunity to take up disease germs, especially those of typhoid fever. Fortunately, the water which is thus always impure and occasionally infected is usually naturally purified. It is known that the upper layers of the soil are inhabited by countless bacteria and these microscopic forms of plant life feed on the organic matter which is in the soil working its way from the surface to the ground water. By this agency, this organic matter is destroyed, is reduced to simpler and harmless forms and any disease germs which may have been in the water are either destroyed or else die from lack of food or from other unfavorable external conditions. As wells draw their supply from the underground water which is normally thus "filtered," or better "disinfected" in passing below the surface, they are usually pure. They may, however, become contaminated in two ways. If they are improperly made, water from the surface may get into the well either at the top or through the sides. Or if wells are sunk in the neighborhood of cess-pools, they are liable to infection. In that case infected matter may work directly along a buried sand vein from cess-pool to well, and the well become a source of disease. In such cases the natural disinfection by the soil bacteria is impossible, while mere filtration through sand, apart from the action of organisms, does not purify. By dilution with the ground water and by unfavorable environment the disease germs may have their strength impaired, but it remains true that wells in the neighborhood of cess-pools are unsafe.

A large part of the rainfall never gets below the surface. It makes the wet weather run-off and goes at once to the streams. In dry weather the stream flow is maintained by the ground water contributions. In so far as river water is made of run-off it is liable to infection. Surface water is not suitable for drinking purposes. Exceptionally it may be, in the case of small streams whose whole drainage area is known to be free from sources of contamination. But in the case of a stream of any size, no individual can know that the drainage basin above a certain point is free from sources of infection. The Olentangy River has been condemned as a source of water supply at Delaware because in time of low water it is exposed to contamination from the sewage of Galion and from private sources, while in time of the spring freshets it is probably quite as dangerous by reason of the washing which the rains give the frozen land surface, sweeping to the streams the winter's wastes, which may be easily infected by reason of cases of disease.

One of the most interesting things connected with the water supply of the county is its sulphur springs. These are so named from the hydrogen sulphide contained in the water and which gives it its characteristic odor. Quite as interesting as this gaseous constituent, is the mineral content of the water. Analysis shows that the water of the Odevene spring* in Delaware contains 361 grains of mineral matter per gallon and nearly one-half of this is common salt. The water of these springs is really salt water. The composition of the impurities carried suggests that the water has followed a long and deep underground course, reaching levels much lower than those touched by the water of ordinary springs. In

-InlsWTruman Thomasof Sunbury hired a man to dig a well. This well, which resulted in the Odevene spring, was drilled for - - or oil. The man got down about twenty-four feet, when he was overcome by gas and had to be nulled out. Thinking it was damp, a lighted candle was sent down in a bucket, but it had not descended more than six feet when it ignited, sending a column of flame up for forty feet with an explosion like a ten-pound cannon. The well b about forty-eight hours with a flame about two feet high, when water seeped in and put it out- There is a gas well on the farm formerly owned by 0. 11. Hough. inside of Sunbury corporation limits, that is about 2400 feet deep. but which is now plugged. It is supposed by oil and gas men that this i territory is on the outskirts of the gas and oil belt. - [Ed this course it derives its chlorides from the limestones which, being old sea bottom deposits, probably still contain a part of the salt water with which they were saturated at the time of their formation ; while the hydrogen sulphide was derived from the decomposition of organic matter buried in the limestones and subject to slow decay.

The soils of the county are derived from the mantle rock, either glacial till or streamlaid gravels. As this difference between glacial till and stream-laid gravels corresponds in general to the difference between uplands and bottom lands, we may speak of upland soils and bottom land soils. As the valley sides which run from the upland to the back edge of the lowland are underlaid by glacial till, their soils belong with the upland soils.

Upland Soils. - Almost everywhere under the upland is found the brownish yellow glacial bowlder-clay. The scattered bowlders are ordinarily inconspicuous in the soil layer. As a result of a number of mechanical and chemical processes the upper foot or so of this clay has been changed to soil, to a layer capable of supporting plant life. Two kinds of upland soils have been distinguished by the United States Bureau of Soils in its survey of the southern part of the county - the Miami Clay Loam and the Miami Black Clay Loam.

The Miami Clay Loam is the common soil of the county, making up nine-tenths of its surface. This soil is light yellowish brown at the surface, passing below into a compact brownish yellow silty clay sub-soil. The clayey character of the soil is due to its derivation from the glacial bowlder clay. Its silty character is due to the fact that that clay is made up of finely ground rock which is not properly speaking clay and which gives a different feel to the glacial clay when it is moistened and rubbed between the fingers, from the feel of true clay. The Miami Clay Loam is uniform over wide areas. It is essentially a grain and hay soil and is well adapted to general farming purposes. Back from the streams where the surface is level

Two varieties of the upland clay loam are to be distinguished. The first is the somewhat poorer soil which underlies the valley sides. These areas are better drained and drier than the uplands and hence the soils contain less humus. They are exposed to rain wash and so lose much of their finer and richer portions. For both reasons they are poorer and the yield is from ten to thirty per cent, less than on the uplands. The second variety i if upland soil js the Miami Black Clay Loam, found in the depressions of the upland surface, either at the heads of shallow streams or in low basins without outlet. Here the surface has been moister, vegetation ranker and hence a larger portion of vegetable matter has become incorporated with the soil. The mineral content of the soil is not unlike the common upland soil.

Bottom Land Soils. - The streams which flowed away from the ice front as it retreated north across the county were heavily loaded with gravel and sand which they laid down in the valleys. Since that time the rivers have been cutting into these gravels and into the underlying rock, so that flood stages of the present rivers cover a part of the bottom deposits but not all. The higher portions are covered with a soil called by the Bureau of Soils the Miami Gravelly Loam. It is open, usually contains considerable rock fragments, and is, on account of its position, nearly always adequately drained. It is admirably adapted for corn, when the drainage is not too free and the soil in consequence droughty.

Another type of soil covers the lower parts of the bottoms which are now subject to overflow. Here the annual additions of clay by the flooded streams and the abundant growth of vegetation have combined to produce a dark soil more clayey than any other of the region, the Miami Loam. It covers the flat first bottoms and makes an excellent soil, though subject to the danger of floods. Lewis G. Westgate.

Axd Representative Citizens Topography

Delaware County is located near the geographical center of Ohio, and is hounded on the north by Marion and Morrow Counties ; on the east, by Licking and Knox ; on the south, by Franklin, and on the west, by Union County. It comprises 283,289 acres, of which, according to the 1907 agricultural statistics, 237>966 acres are farm lands, divided as follows: Cultivated, 72,903 acres; pasture, 142,- 205 acres; woodland, 21,168 acres; lying waste, 1,690 acres. The principal rivers are the Scioto and Olentangy, which flow nearly parallel across the county from north to south. The former, which is the larger stream, enters the county between Thompson and Radnor Townships and forms their boundary-line ; thence it crosses Scfoto Township in a southeasterly direction, leaving the county as a part of the boundary line between Concord and Liberty townships. The Olentangy enters the county about midway of the northern boundary of Marlborough township, and courses in a southerly direction through the tier of townships south of Marlborough. These streams with their many tributaries give the county an excellent drainage system. Since the forests which held back the water have been cut off, the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers suddenly increase to great volume after long and heavy rains, or when the snow melts rapidly in the warm days of spring. The water-power furnished by these streams is described in the chapter on manufactures.

Surface Features

The eastern portion of the county is rolling, particularly in the sandstone districts. The whole limestone district, which embraces all that part of the county west of the Olentangy River, except that underlaid by the waterlime, is moderately undulating, the surface being worn by erosion into shallow depressions, which, near their junction with larger streams, become ravines bounded bv steep bluffs. The district of the waterlime is flat, especially in the townships of Radnor, Thompson and Scioto.

The deeply eroded valleys of the Scioto and Olentangy constitute the most marked topo graphical features of the county. In the southern part of the county, these valleys are deeply cut in the underlying rock. The divide between them, at a point west of Powell, is 125 feet above the Scioto. The descent ot the Olentangy is usually very gentle, occupying sometimes a space of a mile or more on either side; while the valley of the Scioto is narrower, and its banks more frequently rocky and precipitous. In the northwestern part of the county, the valley of the Scioto is strikingly different from the southern part ; the bluffs are never rocky, and the general level of the country is little above the level of the water in the river. The following table of altitudes, which was prepared by the Big Four railroad, is interesting :

The soil generally is dependent on the nature of the northern drift. In this the various essentials (State geological survey), such as iron, lime, phosphorous, silica, magnesia, alumina and soda, are so thoroughly mixed and in such favorable proportions that the strength and fertility of the soil are very great. Its depth has the same limit as the drift itself, which is, on an average, about twenty-five feet. The soil is more gravelly and stony in the rolling tracts. The stones come partly from the underlying rock, but mainly from the drift. They are common along the valleys of all streams and creeks and in shallow ravines. The northwestern part of the county has a heavy, clayey soil, with some exceptions. This clayey flat land is comparatively free from superficial bowlders. Very little gravel can be found, except in the line of gravel knolls that passes northwestwardly through Radnor Township. The valleys of the streams, how- ever, show a great many northern bowlders, as in other parts of the county. Besides these general characteristics of the soil, a great many modifications due to local causes will be seen in passing over the county. There are some marshy accumulations which, when duly drained, are found to possess a soil of remarkable ammoniacal qualities, due to decaying vegetation. The alluvial river margins possess a characteristic soil, strongly contrasting with the general clayey lands of the county ; they are lighter and warmer, while they are usually renewed, like the countries of Lower Egypt, by the muddy waters of spring freshets, and are hence of exhaustless fertility. One of the chief obstacles which the pioneetr farmer had to overcome was the immense quantities of surface-water which covered a large part of the arable lands of the county. At first, open drains were dug, but in the black lands these filled up rapidly, and to avoid this, drains, in si >me parts of the county, ten to twenty feet wide were plowed. Later, in some of the best flat lands, oak planks were set up at the sides of the ditches, and the tops covered over with staves of the same material, placed just low enough not to interfere with the plowing. This method drained off the surface-water, and at the same time permitted the cultivation of crops. By this method some of the whiteelm swamp lands were made to produce corn as well as the best bottoms. Drains were also constructed of poles and broken stnne. As soon as the method of underdraining by means of tile was demonstrated to be a success, tile factories sprang up all over the county, and thousands of acres have been reclaimed to bring forth bountiful crops, and the work of tiling is still going on, year after year.

Timber

The entire county was originally wooded, and in certain localities the timber was heavy. The prevailing varieties are those common to this part of the State, and consist of many of the different kinds of oak, hickory, black and white walnut, ash, birch, sugar and other kinds of maple, and many other species. Many of the more common shrubs, such as hazel, willow, sumac, etc., are also to be found in profusion. The work of clearing the land of its timber has been going steadily on since the arrival of the first pioneer. In those days it was necessary to clear land in order to raise the necessary crops, and the value today of the timber that the early settlers were compelled to destroy would in many instances be more than the present value of the land. It is to be deplored, however, that while the work of cutting off the timber still continues, little, if any. effort is being made by the farmers of Delaware County to replace the forests. The shortsightedness of this policy from an economic point of view receives so much attention in the many agricultural journals, one or more of which nearly every farmer reads, to say nothing of the valuable pamphlets on this subject distributed freely by the federal government, that it is unnecessary for us to dwell at length upon it in -these pages, much as we would like to do so.

Fruit Culture

Wild grapes and plums were found here in abundance by those who left the comforts of civilization to make their homes in this wilderness, and for some time, these with maple syrup and sugar sufficed as dessert. It was not long after the first settlers arrived here before small apple orchards were set out in different parts of the county; but it is impossible at this late day to sav when, where or by whom this was done.

For many years Delaware County has been kept before the eyes of the horticulturalists of the country; latterly, through Mr. F. P. Vergon, one of our oldest citizens, who is recognized as one of the great orchardists of the country and the "Father of the Grass Mulch System," which is explained in these pages. In an earlier day. Delaware County was advertised far and wide as the home of the Delaware grape, the finest of all American grapes. Yet. notwithstanding this prominence, fruit-growing has never reached large proportions as an industry here, and this, no doubt, is due. largely, to climatic conditions. The variableness of temperature, especially in the winter season, when the thermometer frequently drops from a point above freezing to one registering the extremes of cold, the early frosts in the fall and the late frosts in spring, give this county a climate which can hardly be called ideal for fruit-raising. It has been demonstrated, however, that with proper care and attention, hardy fruits can be grown here with profit. Probably every farmer in the county grows some fruit for his personal use, and in these family orchards will be found apples, pears, plums, peaches and cherries ; small fruits are also grown to some extent, with a constantly increasing acreage, as the towns grow in population, affording better markets.

About 1837, B. J. Heath and his family settled in Concord Township, bringing with them from Xew Jersey a grape vine, which they planted and nurtured with care. In 1853. Mr. Heath brought a basket of grapes from this vine to Mr. Abram Thomson, the editor of the Delaware Gazette, and Mr. Thomson, who was an enthusiastic horticulturalist, recognized immediately that here was a grape of unusual merit, and to him belongs the credit of naming the grape and of bringing it into public notice. He sent specimens of the fruit to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which presented Mr. Thomson with a vase and a silver medal. A Dr. Grant, of Iona Island, in the Hudson River, became the largest individual propagator of the grape, and had Mr. Thomson's portrait painted in oil, presenting it to him as a mark of his appreciation. At one time Mr. Thi mson lost nearly 20,000 young vines in a greenhouse which was destroyed by fire. Mr. Thomson also brought the grape to the attention of Maj. P. Barry, who was at that time editor of the Horticulturalist. Its superior qualities were instantly recognized. and brought to the attention of the public by the Major. A big excitement in the horticultural world resulted from the introduction of this grape, and a furor in grape culture was developed, which has been often referred to as the ''grape fever."

The wildest ideas prevailed, and the most extravagant anticipations and expectations were entertained as to the profits of grape growing, and thousands of persons embarked in this pursuit without either the skill or the knowledge requisite for success ; and the result, so far as the great mass of inexperienced cultivators was concerned, was just what might have been expected - failure. During this time, the demand for vines became so great, that they were sold in immense quantities at prices ranging from $1 to $5 each, and even then, the propagators of the vines were taxed to the utmost to keep up with the demand. Thousands of horticulturalists went to Xew [Jersey in the hope of finding more vines like the original. Mr. Heath had secured it from an old Frenchman named Paul H. Provost, and this gave rise to the story that his vine had been sent from France with a lot of other vines, about the beginning of the nineteenth century: but the most careful and thorough searching never brought to light a similar vine, either here or. in foreign lands, and it is now the opinion of those best able to judge, that the original vine was a chance seedling which sprang up in Mr. Provost's garden from some native grape.

Among the early and most successful propagators of the Delaware grape in this county, we may mention the late George \Y. Campbell and F. P. Vergon. As secretary of the Ohio State Horticultural Society for many years. Mr. Campbell was widely known, and his efforts helped to make the Delaware grape a success from a commercial standpoint. In this connection it is not out of place to mention that in 1857. Air. Campbell established a grape and small fruit nursery with greenhouses in Delaware, from which he shipped all over this country, and to nearly every quarter of the civilized world, as many as seventy varieties of grape vines, including the Delaware. This nursery was maintained for many years, and small-fruit plants of all kinds as well as greenhouse and bedding and flowering plants were propagated here, supplying not only the local demand, but going to all parts of the country. Air. Campbell induced Mr. Heath to take up the propagation of the Delaware vine by the "layering"' process. Some years before the "grape fever'' broke out, the elder Vergon had received a vine from Mr. Heath, and planted it beside his house. Mr. Campbell suggested to the youthful F. P. Vergon that he "layer" his vine. This was done, and young Vergon, upon selling the vines to Mr. Campbell, found himself in possession of $37, which, as he says, "was quite a bunch of money for a young man in that day." He realized at once, however, that he had made a mistake in disposing of his vines, and the next morning, heading off Mr. Campbell, he was at Mr. Heath's place and purchased all the young vines he had for sale. Beginning in this way, Mr. Vergon continued the propagation of these vines for eighteen years, dating from 1855, on an extensive scale, selling them mostly to Mr. Campbell, and always at wholesale. It is deplorable that in the county where the Delaware grape originated, there is not a grape vineyard of any importance.

At an early day, Titus Knox had an apple orchard of twelve acres in Trenton Township. It was a good-bearing orchard in 1845, ani' '* now owned by his grandson, Alonzo Knox. Amzi Swallow, of the same township, also had a twelve-acre apple orchard. William Little and Rev. VanDeman, whose names are so prominently identified with the early history of the county, set out apple orchards. Horace P. McMasters of Brown Township, at a later date, had an orchard yielding from one to two thousand bushels of apples annually, and this was considered quite an orchard in those days. About i860, John Veley, of Troy Township, set out an apple orchard of seven acres, and about twenty years ago he set out twenty acres more in trees. Quite a number of goodsized orchards, many of them quite young, are now to be found in the county. The exceptional success of F. P. Vergon, as an orchardist, no doubt has had much to do with stimulating the interest in this branch of horticulture. In another part of this chapter will be found a paper by Mr. Vergon. in which he sets forth the methods to which he attributes his success. Mr. Vergon's orchard covers between fifty and sixty acres. Three or four acres of this was set out fifty years ago, and about three acres thirty years ago ; the balance was planted in 1888'. Reuben L. Hudson, a neighbor of Mr. Vergon's, has a fifty-acre orchard, thirty acres of which are nineteen years old, and twenty acres are ten years old. "Cobb"' Gavitt, as he is familiarly known, and who resides near Ashley, has an orchard of from twenty-five to thirty acres, which is twenty-five years old. Samuel Willey & Sons have a sixty-acre orchard in Troy Township, which is in its seventh year. They also have 600 pear trees and 100 cherry trees. James Ousey has twenty acres of apple trees in Delaware Township, which are seven years old. William H. Fisher, of Liberty Township, has an apple and peach orchard of about four acres, and a -number of others in this township are starting similar orchards. Among others in the county who have orchards, we may mention Ezra W. Koeple, Thomas A. Kennedy, Walter M. Glenn, of Delaware Township, who has forty acres of trees two years old, and Dr. J. H. Miller, who has a three-year-old orchard of sixty-five acres, on what is known as the Hanawalt place. A reference to the statistics which we include in these pages will show that other fruits are not grown extensively enough to warrant extended notice here.

Delaware is fortunate in having as one of its citizens the most successful apple grower in the State of Ohio, a man who is known and looked up to as an authority in all the apple producing regions of this country. We refer to Mr. F. P. Vergon, who has been called by the Ohio Experiment Station, "The Father of the Grass Mulch System." The following article, which has appeared in substance in a number of the most widely circulated publications devoted to such subjects as agriculture and fruit growing, has been furnished for use in this chapter by Mr. Vergon :

"I have said so much on the system of grass mulch for fruit - in which I am a pioneer - that it may seem monotonous for me to say any more, so I will take the short cut acn iss the field and be as brief as possible.

that grows out of the ground, if sufficiently decomposed so as not to be in the way about the orchard, will answer a good purpose. Grass mulch means not to plow or cultivate the orchard. After you once commence this system, leave it continually in grass. Timothy is not desirable.

"How the work is done. Mow the orchard once or twice a year, as the case may require; rake and drop opposite the trees ; place it around the trees out to or beyond the drip of the branches ; put on sufficient so that grass or weeds will not grow through it, say eight or ten inches thick, evenly spread. If very dry and fluffy, put it on heavier; it will soon settle down. If the ground is improverished, coarse manure is very much better. In this case, let the grass lie where the machine drops it. It is surprising how trees will grow if not permitted to suffer for want of moisture ; water is a wonderful factor.

"Perhaps one of the greatest objections to this system is, to the minds of many, that they cannot realize from the crops in the early history of the orchard; but I believe there is no other way so successful to get the land back to its primitive condition - rich, porous, and full of humus.

"It should be remembered, if the location is a good one. good orchard land, rich, you are laying the foundation for an orchard that will last for generations, if this system is adhered to. It is true that trees can be grown quite successfully by the system of cultivation up to ten or twelve years old. By this time the land is impoverished ; the last fiber burned out of the ground ; humus entirely exhausted ; si imething else must be done.

"The mulch system is quite easily managed, and not expensive until the trees are ten or twelve years old. After this the problem, or expense, increases with the growth of the trees. Fortunately the revenue increases as well. This is easily understood. As the trees gn >w larger, the territory to mow decreases, and the territory to mulch increases ; consequently, a large portion of the mulch must come from some other source than the orchard. The greater part of my orchard is nineteen

"This territory was a beautiful blue grass pasture. I had grazed it with short-horn cattle thirty-five or forty years. I am glad to say this same grass grows in the orchard, wis never plowed up, and we are out of the mud and dirt, year in and year out, in doing all the orchard work, which is a very great item in comfort and pleasure. With this system, the trees have made uniformly strong growth each year from the time they were planted. In some of the varieties that grow fastest, and spread most, the branches in many places have locked horns, and this means a spread of thirty-five feet on trees nineteen years old, this spring. I believe this to be a remarkable growth. Of course many of the slower growing varieties will not shake hands for many years.

"To supply the necessary mulch, we seeded twenty acres of bottom land to mammoth clover, which yielded at least three tons per acre, and was all used for mulch. In addition I bought the straw of nearly one hundred acres of heavy grain for the same purpose, and completed the mulch business where most needed, just before winter set in.

"This is somewhat expensive; but the work on the ground, except clipping and letting the grass lie where it is cut, is done for years. After all, it is certainly cheaper than to cultivate every season ; plow, cultivate and harrow all summer ; in the fall seed with some catch crop, that very often does not catch, and have the orchard washing away all winter and spring. In fact, it would be impossible to carry on this system with our low-headed trees. I never believed mutilating the roots and millions of fibers is the right thing to do : I kin nv it is not with all other plants that grow out of the ground, large or small, and I do not think apple trees are the exception.

"To keep the mice from the trees, we use fine cinders that come from slack coal (no clinkers), a bushel to one and one-half per tree, according to size: Lay it up in cone style at the base of the trees. It is not a fertilizer, nothing grows in it. It is always clean and doesn't wear out. A little wind or sun easily gets the snow oway from the little black cones, and gives the trees a safe and comfortable appearance. 1 have not lost a tree since we began using cinders. We tried wire screen, which, perhaps looks more plausible than are many of the things suggested and used, but this was not satisfactory. After placing it around the tree and pressing it in the ground a little, it looked all right, but was heaved up by the frost an inch or more - just right for the mice to get in their work. I cannot emphasize too much the use of cinders. If I were not within hauling distance. I would have it shipped in by the carload. It costs but a trifle. Rabbits have done us but little harm. They seem to be contented with cutting some of the tips from low branches of bearing trees. \Ye never pasture with any stock whatever; it cannot be done without damage to the orchard.

"As to the results of the grass mulch system, it must be apparent that the ground is becoming richer all the time, with the best natural fertilizer, I will call it, for the welfare of the orchard. We have a reservoir of humus all over the orchard, but more especially under the trees, from the slow decomposition of the mulch on the under side. Here, especially, is where the bacteria delight most to put in their guild work, where it is always nit list.

"Our orchard land is underlaid with shale, but quite deep; has a good depth of rich loam by nature, with a brash red clay sub-soil (no gravel). Yet it has become so porous that practically all the rainfall is absorbed in the ground. 1 am very sure that the water never runs out from the mulch under the trees, not even on the side hills. EJow different it is with dust mulch, especially after drouths in the summer, when rain is so much needed. It frequently comes in torrents; the ground is puddled in an in-taut, and the water runs off almost as slick as from a goose's back; and. if the land is hilly or rolling (as usually the besl orchard land is), cuts out gullies, and washes much of the best soil into the valleys and streams. In the next place the temperature is in a measure equalized ; the ground under the mulch trees is never so hot in the summer and never freezes much in winter. It is quite possible for the roots to be injured by very hard freezing. Some time since. I tested the' temperature of the ground in the heat of summer, under the trees, with thermometers. Under one, the ground was perfectly clean ; the other was mulched. In each case, the bottom of the thermometer rested on the ground, and both in the shade of the trees. I watched them for several days, at 6 o'clock A. M., i o'clock P. and 6 in the evening; the temperature did not run quite even, but the average was two and one-half to three degrees cooler under the mulched tree. I was quite satisfied with this experiment. Extreme temperatures are not best, and the escape of humidity is prevented. These conditions also hold good in spring time; the ground warms up slower under the mulch and the bloom is retarded several days.

"Things of less importance - apples that drop are clean, and are not usually bruised. Even the leaves are caught up in the mulch in the fall, and are where they will do the most good. It is quite generally conceded now. that apples color better and keep better where mulch is used. If this be the case, and I think it is, they are of better quality also, and I verily believe the trees are longer lived.

"I 'got onto' this system from my pioneer days - clearing up primitive forest. The leaves, bark, rotten branches, etc., were eight to twelve inches deep, and are added to each year, while decomposition is going on underneath. A better mulch could not be provided for the timber by any artificial means. Here Nature has done her own plowing for thousands of years. I have never forgotten how hard it was to walk on this mulch in the winter time - being heaved up by the little needles of ice and line earth, honeycomb fashion, underlie ith. The ground was always moist and rich under this mulch. Tt seemed to me this would he an ideal condition to have under my trees. Nature is certainly a wonderful teacher, and newer weans her children. T think it is Shakes-

Axu Representative Citizens

"I am very sure with this system it is possible for the trees to ripen annual crops, and form fruit buds for the next year. Under other conditions, the trees frequently suffer so severely from drouths that the crop is not well matured, and fruit buds are not formed for the following season. Failure of crops very seldom dimes from freezing-out in springtime. It is for want of bloom and vigorous trees. It has been proved that well grown apples contain over ninety per cent, of water. I am glad that it is possible to retain it in the ground ; otherwise we would not have so much water to haul out at harvest time. In the fall of 1906, we harvested our eleventh or twelfth consecutive paying crop annually since 1893 or 1894. I can't recall the season, but one year, our apples, when as large as big marbles, were frozen, in June, as hard as rocks, Xo human being can prevent a calamity of that kind. This section of the orchard that is twenty years old this spring (1908), and yields ten to twenty bushels per tree - sorted in the orchard, all handled in crates of one to one-half bushels (a tree can easily be measured), hauled in every day and stacked up in our cold storage.

"Some trees of my own planting in the section of the old orchard forty-five years old, have harvested forty-five bushels and over per tree. These old friends do not bear such uniform crops any more. They can afford in their declining years to take a little more rest.

"A few weeks ago, looking over the orchard, I saw plenty of fruit buds, as I thought, and cut small branches of different varieties, and set them up in a jardiniere filled with water in a warm room. Now they are in bloom, and I am reminded of when the 'apple trees are in blossom and the bobolinks are singin'.'

"In conclusion, it seems to me quite possible to have the orchard in such a condition, by supplying its every want, as to overcome sufficiently the unfavorable elements, so as to have a crop annually."

Joseph H. Cunningham, florist, Delaware, is the only one in this county who is engaged in this business on a scale of any importance. He learned the business with the late George W. Campbell, who was one of the foremost Ohio horticulturalists of his day. In 1890. Mr. Cunningham established himself at his present location on West William Street, with a greenhouse J2 x 20 feet in dimensions. His business has grown steadily, and he now has 10,000 feet of glass. He does a general florist's business, and a glance at his shipping receipts for almost any day will show shipments going to points as widely separated as Philadelphia and San Francisco, and New Orleans and St. Paul, Minnesota.

The difficulty the early settlers met with in acquiring stock can hardly be appreciated at this day. Sheep were unknown and horses were only less unfamiliar. Cattle ami hogs were easily kept, so far as feeding was concerned, but another difficulty involved them. The woods abounded with wolves and bears which soon learned the toothsome qualities of beef and pork. Endless devices were invented to protect these valuable adjuncts of the early settlement from these wild marauders, but with limited success. Time and again were the early settlers aroused from their sleep to find the hope of a winter's supply in the clutches of a bear or hopelessly destroyed by wolves. Hogs were allowed to breed wild in the woods. Occasionally they were brought into a pen for the purpose of marking them by sundry slits in the ears. Such occasions were frequently the scene of extreme personal danger, and called forth all the intrepid daring inculcated by a life in the woods. The animals, mi ire than half wild, charged upon their tormentors. and then it was expected that the young man would quickly jump aside, fling himself upon the back of the infuriated beast, and. seizing him by the ears, hold him still enough to make the necessary marking. These hogs were sold to itinerant buyers, who collected them in droves, taking them to Zanesville, swimming the Muskingum on the way. The shrewd settler always sold his hugs with the understanding that the buyer was to deliver them himself. This often proved the larger part of the bargain, and the dealer, wearied out and disgusted, would be glad to compromise the matter by leaving the hogs and a good part of the purchase-price with the settler. A hog turning 200 pounds was considered a heavy-weight, and a drove averaging this would be the pride of a dealer and the envy of his fellows. At an early day Stephen Bennett and David and Joseph Prince of Berkshire Township followed the business of driving hogs to Baltimore. The task of driving such herds of swine as they took to market can hardly be appreciated at this day. On account of their wildness they were likely to stampede at the first opportunity, and numbers of hogs were lost on every trip. At an early time Stephen Bennett broughl sheep from Kentucky and traded them for hogs, and it took a good hog in those days to buy a sheep.

This is a good com country, and raising and feeding all kinds of live stock has always been a profitable ami popular occupation with the farmei. The first blooded cattle were brought to Delaware County about [826 by Judge Hosea Williams and Wilder Joy. These were bought in Pickaway County, and among them wa> a dark roan shorl horn bull that was a tine animal for that day. most of the line breeds in this section having been crossed until the stock was deteriorating. Gilbert Van I bun broughl some Durhams into the county about [836, and a few years later a few were purchased by a Mr. Jones 'if Radnor (which niie of the vcr\ numerous citizens of that name we have been unable to learn), from M. S. Sullivant of Columbus, from that time to the present the grade of the cattle bred in the county hi- constantl) been improving, owing to the efforts of a few men in different sections who have maintained fine herds. Among those of the earlier day we may mention T. F. Joy, X. Leonard, Norman Perfect, T. C. Jones and Uiaunev Hills. The latter gentleman, in 1854. purchased a small farm in Troy Township, which he named "Crystal Spring Farm." By subsequent purchases he increased the size of this farm until it included some 400 acres. This place has ever since been famous as the home of the best of thoroughbred shorthorn cattle. Shropshire sheep and Yorkshire hogs. The foundation for this reputation was laid at that time by the purchase of the fine young shorthorn bull, Master Miller, 693. and the beautiful young Rose of Sharon heifer. Fanny Fern by Prince Charles the 2nd "321 13," from the Messrs. Renick. At this time, and fur the next six years, T. C. Jones was associated with Air. Hills, the firm name being Hills & Jones. In 1862 the herd was divided. Mr. Hills's success as a breeder of short-horns was well attested many years ago by the choice of numbers of his herd for export to Great Britain, where they graced the pastures of Lord Dunmore at Stirling, ami produced descendants that were most successful in the show-ring. Two animals that Mr. Hills bred were shipped to England by the purchaser and sold for about $7,500. For many years F. P. Vergon was successful as a breeder of short-horn cattle. Among others, we' mav mention John Worline, of Marlborough, who is one of the oldest short-horn breeders in the county, and keeps a herd of perhaps twenty-five registered cattle. The breeding business established by T. C. Jones was continued by bis son. Arthur H., until about 1902, when he sold the herd at auction. At that time 1 tough Bros., of Berkshire Township, purchased some of the Jones stock, and since that time have been breeding short-horn ami polled Durham cattle. They now have about eights- head, of which thirty are registered. Some of their fine animals have been imported from Canada. Price & Hills, of Radnor Township, also have a herd of these cattle. For many years, T. R. Smith, of Berlin Township, was a breeder of Devonshire cattle. M. I',. Shoemaker and Son bred Highbred Hereford cattle for a number of years prior to [900. Their farm was near Ashley, and they had a bull and a small herd of cows. There are many other farmers who have smaller herds of fine stuck. In the southern part of the county dairying seems to be growing in favor. The facilities for shipping milk to Columbus where the demand is constant, and the close proximity of good creameries, has given an impetus to this department of agriculture.

Undoubtedly Capt. V. T. Hills as a breeder of Red Polled cattle has made Delaware G mntv more widely known among cattle breeders in the United States than any other individual. It is claimed by breeders of these cattle that they combine the capacity of milk and beef production in the same individual to an equal if not to a greater degree than any other breed. In 1887 Capt. Hills purchased eight cows and one bull - the best that were to be had in England. By the time the herd reached Delaware County, it numbered seventeen. The Bull Pando, 1254, proved to be a very valuable animal, leaving his impress on many of his get. He was one of the very great bulls of the breed. The cows of this importation were a useful lot. Chic was never beaten in the show ring; she was first at the World's Columbian Exposition, and champion cow over all breeds in the "General Purpose-' class, twenty-seven prize cows of all breeds competing. Other importations were made from time to time, the last, in 1900, comprising eighteen cows and two bulls. For ten or twelve years, beginning with the year 1890, Capt. Hills exhibited at leading- fairs all over the country, taking over 400 honors. Two of the five cows ( Trvste, No. 5169, aged thirteen years, and Mayflower 2nd. No. 8025, eight years) representing this breed in the official milk test conducted in the Model Dairy at the Pan-American Exposition, in 1901. were owned by Capt. Hills, and were it not for the energy and personal work of Capt. Hills, who was prevailed upon by the earnest solicitation of the committee appointed by the Red Polled Cattle Club of America, to select these five cows, the breed would not have been represented at the test. There were ten breeds, represented by five cows each, in the test - Jerseys, Guernseys, Ayrshires. Holsteins. Polled fersevs, Shorthorns, Brown Swiss,

French Canadians, Dutch Belted and Red Polls. Experienced men, furnished by the various breeders' associations, spent months in making selections of representative cows of the several breeds, with the result that the Ayrshires, Jerseys, Holsteins, Shorthorns and French Canadians were said by competent authority to be "the finest lot of cattle of these breeds ever seen together." With these five herds the Canadian Government sent at its own expense, one general superintendent, and with each of the herds was a manager, expert in compounding rations, as well as an experienced feeder or care taker. The Red Pollwere in charge of a herdsman only. Mr. P. K. Krider, who had never compounded a balanced ration in his life. Capt. Hills's cow, Mayflower 2nd. won second place in butter profit out of the fifty cows tested, excelling all the Jerseys, all the Ayrshires, all the Holsteins and four of the five Guernseys. In writing the foregoing, we have made free use of a pamphlet issued by the Red Polled Cattle Club of America, in 1903.

In fat stock shows, steers from Capt. Hills's herd have been shown with credit. Of one shown in 1900. the expert of the Breeder's Gazette said, in speaking of the slaughter test: "Star presented one of the most beautiful and profitable carcasses on the hooks. He had roasts of equal thickness of the champion's, and much better marbled, and he had no more excess of fat. His rounds were not so well filled, however, down in the lower parts where the meat is cheap."

In October, 1902, Capt. Hills sold the larger part of his herd at public auction in Chicago. There were eighty females, fourteen bulls and fifteen calves at foot, and the prices paid at this sale made an average price of $283 per head for all ages. Capt. llill> still maintains a small herd at his farm in Scioto Township. A herd of these cattle is also kept' by Mr. James Raney. of Baltimore, on his farm in Scioto Township.

The breeding of fine sheep has long been an important industry in this county. Mamyears ago, Miner Tone, of Liberty Township, owned one of the finest herds of sheep in the

State. This flock passed into the possession of R. K. Willis, who for many years gave the most careful and intelligent attention to sheep breeding. Thomas Jones, of Delaware Township, also bred fine sheep. Wesley Bishop, of Troy Township, has been engaged in the Merino sheep industry since 1880 on Pleasant Hill Farm. He has the largest flock of pure bred Merino sheep in Delaware County, and has done much toward raising the sheep standard in this section. One of the best known Merino collections in the country is owned by C. H. Bell, of Ashley. The flock was founded more than forty years ago by the father of the present owner, and for the past twenty years has been making fame by its winnings at the big State and international shows. In 1888. the Bell flock won all the firsts and seconds at the Ohio Centennial show, and the younger Bell has kept the flock up to the high standard established by his father. Many of the rams bred here bring from $100 to $200 each. In 1904, R. D. Mc- Gonigle & Sons started in the Merino business with upwards of thirty fine sheep. They have established a notable flock, from which they have sent prize winners to State fairs in Ohio, Virginia, Illinois. Michigan and Xew York. J. C. Wood, of Delaware, proprietor of Wood's Big Walnut Farm in Porter Township, started his flock about eleven years ago, and has some of the best bred sheep in the State. Mr. Wood is one of the active and influential members of the Delaine Merino Association. William E. Gallant, of Delaware Township, also has a flock of these sheep. In March. 1905, there came to Delaware Township one of the best-known sheep breeders in the United States. S. M. Cleaver. A recent issue of the American Sheep Breeder says the coming of Mr. Cleaver will bring Delaware more in the eye of the Merino sheep public than any other spot in America. The same paper also says: "As a judge and critic of Merino sheep he is the best man of his time, and has no equal in the mating of sire and dam." Maplewood Stock Farm, the present scene of Mr. Cleaver's labors, is located in the southern part of Delaware Township, where the C. D.

& M. interurban line crosses Sandusky Street. Mr. Cleaver has always been prominent in organizing the different associations of Merino l.ieeders, in seyeral of which he has held official position. In 1905, he helped organize the Consolidated Association of Merino Breeders, ami has been its secretary since that time. He is also secretary of the American Delaine Merino Sheep Association of Delaware. Mr. Cleaver ceased exhibiting a number of years ago, and since that time he has supplied many exhibitors with prize-winning stock. He owns some of the most noted rams in the country - Gold Standard, Fortune, Improver and Oil King having a reputation with breeders everywhere.

The Shropshire flock, which was started at Crystal Spring Farm in 1876 and is now kept by Mr. F. P. Hills on Oakland Farm, Peru Township, Morrow County, is the oldest in the State of Ohio. The foundation stock was imported from several of the most distinguished breeders in Great Britain, and numerous additions were afterward made from the flocks of Joseph Beach, J. Pulley, J. Bowen Jones, H. Lovatt, Thomas Fenn, T. S. Minton, Messrs. Evans & Everell. W. Ward and others who rank high as breeders of this popular breed in their native home. The strongest point in their favor in this country is their great value for crossing upon other breeds lacking in mutton qualities - notably the G >mmon Merino, which compose probably ninety to ninety-five per cent, of all the sheep in the United States. The half-bloods make good feeders and command the highest prices in our markets, being largely purchased for exportation to England, there being no embargo upon them, and sell from three to five cents more than our beef. Shropshires clip about eight pounds of medium combing-wool, which sells higher than any other sort. Rams weigh from 150 to 250 pounds, and ewes from 150 to 200 pounds, when in good condition. They are prolific, and mature early.

T. R. Smith raises sheep on an extensive scale, and there are many others who have fairsized flocks of high-grade sheep, raised and fed for wool and mutton, among which we

Among the large and important flocks of Merino sheep in the county, is that of H. P. Miller, of Sunbury, which has been established over forty years. Mr. Miller's Delaine rams are registered in either the Standard or the Improved Delaine Association. They present a strong combination of desirable features, rather than any one single feature.

There are many fine herds of swine in the county, the favorite breeds being Duroc, Poland China, Chester White. Many years ago Chauncy Hills introduced Yorkshire hogs, and more recently the firm of Price & Hills, of Radnor, have introduced the Hampshire breed. Charles Davis also has a herd of this breed.

For upwards of forty years the breeding of fine draft horses has received considerable attention. The most popular breed, because it may possibly be best adapted to this section. is the Percheron or Percheron-Norman, named for Le Perche and Normandy, in France, where they are extensively bred and whence they are imported into the United States. The first horse of this breed was brought into Ohio by Thomas Jones, who later, in 1879, came to Delaware Township and settled on a farm on the Radnor Pike, which he named "Alderbrook." Among the early importers of these horses to this count)-, we may mention Covell Brothers, of Delaware, who were also interested in the Radnor Importing Company and the Delaware Importing Company. These concerns sent representatives to France at different times, to purchase horses for importation. Among other individuals who were interested in importing, breeding or dealing in this breed at that time were W. H. Case, John and Edward Thompson, Capt. Solomon Weiser, Stephen Thomas of Radnor. Dr. John M. Rapp, and others. Some of the present day breeders and dealers are F. P. Hills, \Y. W. Ferguson. H. Domigan, Lewis Slack and Hough Brothers.

of Wales for centuries, and is a pure and distinct variety of the horse. Their distinguishing characteristics are beauty of form, docility and hardihood; in all qualities which make ponies valuable, it is thought they have no equal. In England, where ponies are much used, they are very popular - no other breed more so, and frequently sell as high as $200 a head. Two head of these ponies were imported by the late Thomas Jones of Delaware from Liverpool in August. 1885, who selected them in person in the breeding district of Wales. From that time to the present these ponies have been bred at Alderbrook Farm, which has been managed by Mr. Jones's daughter. Miss Winnifred Jones, since [899, when advancing years compelled her father to retire from active business life. For about ten years F. P. Hills engaged in breeding these animals of which he had some splendid representatives. Among those who are m iw breeding Welsh ponies in this county are David Dyer and John Gregg in Berkshire Township, and R. J. Pumphrey of Delaware.

Shetland ponies. In 1887, Corrington Gavitt, better known by the familiar sobriquet of "Cobb" Gavitt. of the firm of Cobb Gavitt & Company, proprietors of Evergreen Park- Shetland Pony Farm, near Ashley, imported the foundation stock of his present herd. They were purchased from the Marquis of Londi mderry, Bressy, Shetland Isle, who has the largest ami best herd in the world. About seventy-five of these ponies are always to be found at Evergreen Park, whence they are shipped all over the country. Twenty-seven Shetland ponies were raised here in 1907. Thomas Jones, of Delaware Township, also imported and bred Shetlands. Tom Thumb, which he brought to this country, died in 1905 at the age of thirty-six years. In [898, Livingston Brothers, of Leonardsburg, purchased fr< im Mr. Jones two mares by Tom Thumb, and since that time they have been engaged in breeding. They now have eleven ponies on their place.

Mineral Springs

Delaware possesses some of the most valuable mineral springs in the world, and each spring is charged with medicinal and therapeutical properties which have the most beneficial influence on mankind, both in health and disease. Many watering places and health resorts enjoving the patronage of many thousands of people, would be overjoyed with water of such wonderful therapeutic values as is found here. If these waters had been properly developed, Delaware would now be unable to furnish accommodations, and if they would now advance the work, hundreds, yea thousands, of those who know of these waters, would be the strongest advocates ; for they stand ready to give testimony of the beneficial results of these chalybeate and sulphuretted waters.

Long before tradition taught our forefathers about them, the wild animals could have been seen here, drinking from these springs. Xot only to quench their thirst were these waters beneficial, but they had a marvelous influence upon their vitality. The Indian told the white man how he found the buffalo, the deer, and the bears and cattle congregated here : how the various tribes came here to secure their meats while the animals visited these waters, and how the different tribes finally pitched their tents in the valleys and hills along the Olentangy River and the Delaware Run. They were wont to relate to the white frontiersman the marvelous benefits the old and the young derived from the waters. They fully appreciated that these mineral springs possessed something far better, more pure, and greater than other waters in the river and streams, as well as other springs in other localities.

The white pioneer soon learned also that these springs possessed something which made them better than other waters : and located near them to enjoy their health-giving properties. He, too, saw with surprise, animals, both wild and domestic, seeking these springs, and only ceased coming to them when they were shut out by the fences.

For over half a century, thousands of people annually followed the same law and instinct, not fully appreciating the medicinal powers in these mineral waters, until some years ago, when a few enterprising and progressive citizens connected with the University and city, believed that these waters contained valuable medicinal agents of great value to humanity, and possessed by but few mineral springs in the world. Acting upon their belief.

they had them analyzed. The analysis proved that each and every mineral spring possessed medicinal qualities of uncommon and beneficial influence to mankind. This wonderful revelation made by them, proved that the waters were not only similar, but far superior to many others whose fame had spread far and near. These white and black and saline sulphur and chalybeate springs in this locality are far superior in every respect to many in this and foreign lands. The analysis has proven that Delaware's Sulphur springs are better and stronger than those of Virginia, where thousands visit annually. They are better, and possess more valuable ingredients than those of Pennsylvania or Colorado.

The temperature of springs, as well as the waters charged with certain medicinal agents, render them more or less valuable for therapeutical purposes. As a rule, spring waters have a temperature of 33 degrees. When the temperature is higher than 36 degrees, they are known as thermal springs. These are often of more or less value independently of the power of the water to dissolve mineral substances and the gases they contain. Yet when a spring is thermal, and contains the important gases, and holds in solution valuable mineral agents, they become of far greater importance to mankind.

Such are the springs in this locality. These sulphur springs have a temperature of 60 degrees, and the chalybeate springs 57 degrees, while the famous Wildbad Spring of Germany has a temperature of 61 degrees: the Clifton, of New York. 54 degrees; Carlsbad. 131 degrees ; the Warmbrunn, Germany, 68 degrees ; the Hot Springs of Arkansas, 90 degrees to 108 degrees; and the Great Geyser of Iceland, 180 degrees. The composition of mineral waters varies according to the strata through which the water passes, as well as to the pressure and previous composition under which it is in contact with the deposits. Waters vary in composition in the same locality, yet come to the surface in close proximity to each other, as is witnessed in this locality. We see the same conditions at Saratoga. New York. Coming by pressure to the surface, these wa- ters are found to possess different therapeutical values one from the other, yet each and every one possessing rare and valuable medicinal virtues.

When the great mineral strata below has been thoroughly drilled into, and other springs have been carefully developed and located, there will be no reason why the waters will n. it be sought after for drinking and bathing purposes, and the curing of all forms of diseases equal to, if not far more, than those in other localities of less value.

The rare mineral combinations so universally present in these mineral springs, and with which the people should have been more deeply interested, are not so different from those whose waters have cured many diseases, and given happiness to many individuals. The oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbonate and bi-carbonate of sodium; the sulphate and chloride of sodium; the carbonate and bi-carbonate of calcium ; the different forms of in m combined and re-combined by nature's law, are of the highest therapeutical value when properly used.

The classification of mineral waters is exceedingly difficult, yet all are based upon the predominence of some certain constituents, or constituents imparting to them certain medicinal and therapeutical values to be used in different diseases or in various ways. The special or principal constituent giving the peculiar character to the mineral waters, acting as a cathartic or as a laxative, is the bi-carbonate of magnesia and bi-carbonate of soda, and the chloride of sodium. The tonic mineral waters contain bicarbonate of iron or oxide of in n. The alterative mineral waters contain iodide of sodium and chloride of potassia and sodium. The diuretic properties of the mineral waters depend upon the bicarbonate of lithia and the protoxide of hydrogen. It will lie well to remember this when studying and discussing tli- qualities ami uses of these mineral water-. That the carbonic acid gas, sulphuretted hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are the lifegiving principles of all of our mineral springs, we can no longer doubt. They contribute to the solubilitj of the ^alts contained in the waters, and render them more palatable and more agreeable to the stomach. The perfect solubility of these salts enhances the medicinal power of the mineral waters, and hence are more valuable for drinking and bathing, and curing of diseases. Once let the gases be driven off or escape, and the water evaporated, and it will be found it will take more than ten times the amount of rain water to re-dissolve them. The absence of these gases in the strongest iron springs of Europe, render them worthless, or nearly so. When comparing these springs with many others, there is found a much larger amount of gases in them, thus making them of the highest benefit in curing diseases and for every day use. The gases seem to travel through some of the springs and escape ; but in the case of the springs in this li cality, the springs are most thoroughly and firmly impregnated with them.

While many famous mineral springs contain bicarbonate of maenesia, which acts as a laxative and an anti-acid in some stomachs, the Delaware springs contain not only the same, but added to them is the sulphate of magnesia and chloride of sodium, acting more mildly and safely as a laxative and carthartic as well as correcting the "sour stomach," especially seen in those addicted to the use of alcohol, and those, too. who overindulge in eating at unusual hours. By using these waters, the "heartburn" and sick headache soon disappear. These waters start the torpid liver, and arouse the intestinal inaction, and stimulate metabolic changes. The medical profession well know and highly appreciate the use of the carbonate and bicarbonate of sodium, found so abundantly in these springs, and can testify to their highly beneficial influence as medicinal agents, especially in correcting the morbid secretions of uric acid. As found in the waters of these springs, the acids hold in solution aluminates. the phosphates, etc.. rendering them thus highly beneficial in all forms of rheumatism. With a little labor, many valuable testimonials could Lie furnished giving proof of remarkable cures in this disease. When used for bathing and drinking, the effects have been far more rapid.

The Chalybeate springs, known as the Lenape or Hills' Springs, furnish one of the best tonic waters in the country. The iron contained in the waters, when taken into the body, builds up the red corpuscles of the blood, stimulates the appetite, and enriches the whole body. That most important agent so demanded by the whole animal creation, chloride of sodium, or common salt, is abundantly found in the chalybeate springs, and in each and every one of our springs.

Every physician can testify how this agent increases the solubility of the albumen of the blood, and prevents the rapid destruction of red corpuscles. It stimulates the secretion of gastric juice, increases the flow of bile., and the more rapid interchange of the fluids in the body, called osmosis. Acting on the kidneys, there are increased secretion and excretion of the urine. The great influence salt has on the body one cannot estimate until one has used the water so remarkably supplied with it. The only method of proving its action is by carefully watching and recording the therapeutical effects on the patient. The same is true of all the waters. The effects have been watched and recorded, and many are ready to give testimony of astonishing and bewildering results. Chemical analysis fails to decide the exact medicinal effects, independently of the careful and faithful observation of the beneficiary. The afflicted, who have used the waters and been benefited, always furnish the best and most reliable evidence. Blessed as the locality is now with many different mineral springs of the highest medicinal value, many more can be developed by systematic drilling, equally as good, if not better, and at the same time locate them so that sanitariums, hotels and bath houses can be erected with great advantage, to accommodate those wishing to come here for pleasure and treatment.

The Odevene Spring will always be of commercial interest, as the water is finding an unlimited demand. It is shipped in large aim mnts to various parts of the country, and is having a growth never dreamed of by the citizens of Delaware. The steady development of the Saratoga springs has been going on until now they have world-wide renown. What has been done there can be done here, and should have been done lung before this. Let five to ten wells be drilled in the most pleasant parts of the city, and soon we will see hotel and sanitarium accommodations made for the large number resorting here for health and pleasure, and many as permanent citizens, to use the waters, and will see the population doubled in ten years.

The first spring at Saratoga was discovered in 1767, "the High Rock Spring." by Sir William Johnston. Tradition tells of the Indians using from it long before this. The Congress Spring was discovered in 1792. Then followed others in rapid succession, until now they have over thirty, all properly analyzed and recorded, each one possessing rare medicinal properties, and which over 300,000 people annually visit for health and pleasure. Why should not the various sulphur and chalybeate springs of this city cause it to become the Saratoga of Ohio and the west ?

It is the duty of every scientific and medical writer interested in our city, to investigate, write and make reports upon the history, probable origin, chemical properties, the therapeutical value, and the medicinal importance of each and every spring. In this manner a vast and valuable fund of information can be collected for the city, and for all coining here to use the water for various forms of diseases. This should have been done long before this, and the benefits would have accrued to the town. It has only been of recent date that the Odevene Spring waters have been brought prominently before the people, and its possibilities cannot be estimated. The reason for this rapid growth is the marvelous therapeutic action of the properties found in the water. It is only too frequently stated by the wise and the unwise, the learned and the unlearned, that these, as well as all mineral waters, have no medicinal values, and the same results can be attained by using artificially prepared waters. The argu- ment only confirms the benefits arising from the use of these waters as nature furnishes them to us ; yet all differing in power as cathartics, laxatives, diuretics and elixir waters, as discussed and taught in medical books. The action of these same agents chemically prepared, act upon the organs by irritation, causing secretion and elimination, while these same agents in these mineral waters are natural to the body, acting as powerful oxidizers of the disintegrated or broken-down tissues, and eliminating from the body by the different organs, the waste matter. These waters, charged with important elements, again furnish the blood with powerful restoratives to build up tissue, and to cure disease. That the Odevene stimulates the liver secretion, and acts as a cholagogue, we have abundance of evidence. Those using it report the laxative or cathartic effects, and the more rapid digestion and relief from distress in the stomach. The gastrointestinal irritability is relieved and cured. The dark, swarthy complexion changed to a ruddy, healthy color, and the whole system, through the glandular organs is strengthened and invigorated. The weak and debilitated heart and arteries gain power and strength. The nervous system .is electrified and set going. To give a list of the diseases influenced and cured by these waters would take too much space, and would be confusing. These mineral waters, like all others, should be used by the sick under regular and strict rules, and always under the care of a physician or nurse, who have carefully investigated their use. Those in health need no help, and are ready to testify to the benefits derived from using the waters for bathing and drinking.

The Odevene Spring is owned and operated by the "Odevene Spring Company." It is located east of the campus of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and a little west of die Olentangy River, and near the junction of the C, C. C. & St. L. Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. A company drilled this well int.. the rock and struck this valuable thermal mineral spring water at the depth of 400 feet. The well is in the great lime nick strata, and the sulphur component renders the water valuable in many forms of disease. Their bottling works are nearby the spring, where they work a number of hands, washing the bottles, filling, labeling and packing ready for shipping. They have arranged for a portion of the water to flow from the well, to accommodate the hundreds of people who visit it daily for drinking and other purposes. Over twenty thousand gallons flow from the well daily. The medicinal effects of the water have been thoroughly tested, and endorsed, not only by the local physicians, but by other leading physicians. They prescribe it daily with the utmost confidence to those of a sedentary habit, and to those suffering from bilious disorders. The water, containing the laxative salts, chloride of sodium or common salt, bicarbonate of magnesium, the chloride of magnesia, induce effects that are mild, pleasant and certain, and without irritating the intestinal tract, or impairing the digestive functions; on the other hand, promoting the appetite, and stimulating digestion and assimilation. The chloride of calcium acting powerfully upon the glands of the skin, the kidneys, and the mucous membrane, is an agent of great value as a curative power. The various forms of eczema and the enlargement of glands are cured when the water is systematically used for drinking and bathing. The same can be said of the White and Black sulphur waters, as thousands of people, who have for many years used them, can testify.

We will speak also of the Magnetic Springs, properly called Chalybeate Springs. The Lenape Spring, owned by Mr. C. E. Hills, has been analyzed and tested for years. The ingredients contained in these waters are of great benefit to the blood and the body. Many chalybeate springs in this country, as well as in Europe, are visited for the purpose of drinking, bathing and treatment. Those at Richmond, Va. ; Sharon, Pa. ; the Bedford, Brighton and Cheltenham in Europe, where large numbers visit annually, are renowned. Yet the chalybeate springs of our own city have nearly the same chemical composition; and in addition, combine the valuable saline properties

That we may prove that what has been said is true, we append the following analysis of our springs, and a few of the most noted in when the patient needs a tonic.

The Odevene natural spring water was analyzed by the celebrated consulting and analytical chemist, A. A. Brenneman, of New York. He gives the following composition:

By the analysis, we see the water, as stated, is not only a strong mineral, but a highly saline sulphuretted one. This chemist further says: This sulphuretted hydrogen gas is entirely free, no sulphide occurring in the water, except the traces of sulphide of iron, and this in suspension. He says further, by way of comparison with other mineral waters, that this spring is exceeded by only one other in sulphuretted hydrogen gas. A United States gallon contains in cubic inches as follows :

Taking the analysis of these wells, we find the Odevene of greater value in this gas and its combinations in the curing (if disease, and as a valuable mineral water.

The Lenape Magnetic Springs were known, like the other springs, to the Indians long before the coming of the white man. The Lenni- Lenape tribe of Indians camped in the vicinity of these waters.

There are two of these springs only a few feet apart, giving a discharge of 8,400 gallons each day. Though so near together, the waters differ materially in their composition, as will be seen in the analysis. Unlike the other springs, it has a magnetic influence, making it one of the marvels of nature. Its use in various diseases has been carefully tested, and found to be of great value. No. 1 acting on the liver, kidneys and blood, while No. 2 acts more directly upon stomach diseases and the bowels, as well as on the blood. Having such large quantities of iron, its use is especially adapted to the diseases affecting the blood, or when the patient needs a tonic.

When these waters have been used regularly and systematically, they improve the secretions and the appetite, relieve the decomposition of food in the stomach, and stop the eructation of gas, cure the diseased mucous membranes, and stimulate the torpid liver and intestine to action, build up the broken-down corpuscles, and thus stimulate the whole organism. These waters being strongly antiacid, they combine with the gastric juices, and act as a laxative and cathartic, and act most beneficially on all cases of rheumatism.

The oldest and most famous spring is the White Sulphur Spring on the campus of the Ohio Wesleyan University. Thousands of students and visitors from all parts of the United States and the world have the most perfect knowledge of it, and are ready to give testimony as to its value. How long it has been flowing, tradition fails to tell. The rich, sulphuretted odor of this, as well as of the five others of the same nature, appearing along the Delaware Run for two miles to the northwest, can be detected long before reaching the springs. The visitor, oil the first visit, is disgusted and nauseated with the taste and odor, which is so powerful; but after a few visits he likes it, and many are found there daily praising it in the highest terms. Daily, hundreds are seen with vessels, drinking and carrying the water away.

These sulphur springs are more bountifully supplied with sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid gases than any other springs in the country. In each gallon of water can be found 96 cubic inches of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and 36 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas. The large amount of chloride of sodium, ami the different forms of chloride of lime. compounded with magnesia, renders the water most valuable as a powerful anti-acid, acting to cure dyspepsia, toning up the mucous membrane of the sti >mach and intestines, and restoring the, digestion. They start tin- torpid liver, and pancreatic and intestinal action, restoring the digestion, and acting as a mild laxative and cathartic. The composition of the water also shows' diuretic properties, to the beneficial influence of which on the kidneys many testify. Thus we find we have a mild cathartic refrigerant, diuretic anti-acid, and an anti-septic water, to bless and benefit mankind, as found in but few other localities. The gaseous products found in one gallon of water by analysis :

White Sulphur Spring of Delaware - temperature 60 degrees, density 1.0026, total solids; gases - Sulphuretted hydrogen 96, carbonic acid gas 24.

The sulphuretted springs known as the C. O. Little Springs, west of the city, containing white and black sulphur, are equally valuable, but have never been analyzed.

These sulphuretted waters, possessing these mineral substances and abundance of gases, can be readily distinguished from the others by the odor as well as by drinking. Those found in Europe, and in various parts of the United States, are far inferior to those in outlocality. Those in Virginia and in Pennsylvania do not conform to these in power of medicinal influence. The famous Harrogate Sulphur Spring has a density of 1.01113, and a temperature of 48 degrees. The celebrated Clifton Springs, of New York, to which so many go annually, do not compare with either the White Sulphur Springs or the Odevene Springs of Delaware, yet it is classed with the leading mineral springs of the world.