Vermillion County, Indiana - Chapter 15: Agricultural Interests, 1913

Chapter 15: Agricultural Interests

Indiana is a farming state, and among her small, but excellent, agricultural districts is Vermillion county, washed by the western shores of the famous W'abash river. Indeed it has been long ago remarked that "every foot of this county is good farming land." Originally, one-fourth of its area was prairie and three-fourths timber land. The most of the prairie land is a rich black soil, while the remainder of the county is rich bottom land of the first and second variety. The entire county is easily drained and available to good cultivation. Especially the lower bottom lands are ricli, much of it being subject to inundations, which leaves a sediment equal to the soil found in the celebrated valley of the Xile in Egypt. Here corn is supremely enthroned as king of the crops produced. Also as high as sixt}-five bushels of wheat have been raised per acre, while one hundred and ten bushels of corn have been raised in Vermillion county.

At an early day, flax was grown in unmense quantities. The flax produced was mixed with cotton purchased, and woven into clotli. Then ever}- house was a miniature factory. The machinery used for manufacturing flax consisted of a brake, a wooden knife to swingle out shives with, a hetchel or hackle to remove the tow and straighten out the lint. They also used the small spinning wheel ("jenny") to twist it into thread. Eor cotton, a hand gin was used, and hand cards were employed to make it into rolls, which were spun into thread upon a large spinning-wheel. .\ day's work for a woman was to card and spin from six to eight cuts. Ready-made clothing was not then known in the markets of the world. Nearly every man was his own shoemaker. Some of the more busy settlers employed an itinerant cobbler, who usually made his trips from house to house in the autumn months and winter season, having with him his little kit of shoemaker's tools, with which he took the measure and made by hand the boots and shoes needed in the family. If the leather ran out before the youngest child was "shod," then he or she had to go without shoes, which often happened.

When this county was fir.st settled, no one could take less than a quarter section of land, which at government price was two dollars per acre, and this often strained the purse of the would-be land buyer. Congress soon found out the hardship this worked and, desiring that all should be permitted to engage in farming pursuits, which is the policy of all progressive governments, it reduced the amount that might be entered to forty acres, and placed the price at one dollar and a quarter per acre, which permitted anyone who could raise fifty dollars to secure a comfortable home for himself and family, if he was fortunate in having one to help him enjoy the independence and battle with the hardships of a true-hearted pioneer farmer. Many men took advantage of this wise congressional provision and entered from fort\' to one hundred and sixty acres of Vermillion county land. This was the base of the agricultural prosperity found on every hand in this coimty today.

While statistics are usually "dry reading," these must be presented in order to show the resources of the soil and mine. Hence the reader is referred to extracts from state reports on the subject, and in this case the items will be condensed as far as practicable, and are as follows, for the year 1880 - thirty -two years ago - and also for 1910:

In 1880, \'ermillion county was reported to have produced 635,000 bushels of wheat; of corn, 663,000 bushels; oats, 76.000 bushels; barley. 1,780 bushels; rye, more than 5,000 bushels; Irish potatoes, 18,000 bushels; sweet potatoes, 840 bushels; buckwheat, 160 bushels; tobacco, 1,700 pounds; timothy seed, 800 bushels.

Farm land improxed. eighty per cent. Average number of acres per farm, 110.2. Value of farm property, $13,373,000. Average price per acre in county, $71.79; average in 1900 was $39.51.

Among the first plows used in this and other counties in Indiana was the one called the "Inill" jilow. The stock, or wood-work, of these plows was generally made 1)\ the farmer himself. The handles were the butts of bushes, the crooked roots forming tlie hand-liold. The beam was hewed bv hand from small, tough oak. The mold-boards were made from blocks of wood about twenty inches square and two inches to three inches thick. The inner or straight side of the mold-board was fastened to the handle and the outer surface was hewn out in an irregular shape. The wing of the share extended high up the mold-board. A loop of iron made the point. It took a good team, a strong man and twelve hours hard work to plow from one to one and a half acres with such a plow, says Smith in his history of Indiana.

The harrow was made V shaped with wooden teeth, the whole made by the farmer himself. Wheat had to be harvested by a sickle, with which an expert could cut about three-fourths of an acre a day. In 1840, the Peacock plow was introduced, being named for its inventor. This implement enabled the farmer to plow much more than formerly and do better work.

Corn ground was "'laid off" both ways (no check-rowers and planters) ; the wife, son or daughter would drop the corn at the intersections, while the farmer w ould follow along with his hoe and 2>roperly cover the seed. Wheat, oats and barley were all sowed broadcast, by hand, from a sack swung over the neck and shoulders. But few men could be hired, and in fact it was well, for the farmer had little with which to pay for help, could it have been obtained. Each family did their own farm work in those days. However, in harvest time, there were many roving bands of "grain cutters," who were ex- ])erts with a sickle, who started in at the southern part of the state and worked north with the advancing harvest time. The best reapers could get thirtyseven and a half cents per day and their board, or one bushel of wheat. It was not until 1840 that the grain cradle came into general use in this country. A good cradler could cut and shock about two acres a day, "between sun and sun." Previous to 1840, grain was threshed with a flail, or trod out by horses. Two men could flail out twelve bushels a day and two men and horses could tramp out and winnow and separate the grain from the chaff, about twenty bushels a day. The winnowing and separating the grain from the chaff was done by hand sieves. The mixed chaff and grain was poured from above on the bed sheet, while two men would \ibrate the sheet so as to create a current of air, which would blow the chaff from the grain. The first threshing machine was introduced in 1839. With four horses and nine men. two hundred bushels of wheat could be threshed and cleaned in a dav. The wheat had to go through a second cleaning process later on, before it was suited for the mill. It took three men two days to clean and tie up in sacks what would be threshed in one day.

Strong man could generally cut from one to two acres a day, between daylight and dark. The hand rake was then used to rake up the "cutting" and it was then stacked by means of wooden forks. With a modern mowing machine, one man and his team can easily cut ten acres a day and, with a steel-toothed horse rake, he can gather it for stacking purposes in about the same time. The stacking is done now, usually, by a steel fork operated by a man with a horse or team. Before the introduction of improved machinery, about 1840, it took one man twenty-four days to plow, seed and harvest ten acres of wheat and forty- four days to plow, plant, cultivate and harvest ten acres of corn.

The decrease in annual crops does not in the least indicate the decline in agricultural interests, but simply is made plain by stating that rotation of crops, and putting more land into pasture, at certain times, causes this fluctuation in figures in the reports given by the assessor to the department of agriculture.

The fruit crops, one year with another, in A'ermillion county are good, and a paying proposition tu the horticulturist. Apples, pears and peaches all do well, and many years the crop of pears has been indeed wonderful, both as to quality and quantity. Within three miles of Clinton, two years ago, there were raised a thousand bushels of choice pears, on one farm, which the following season had half that amount. All varieties of small fruits do well in this section of the state, and add much to the resources of the farm. While many vegetables are grown here, the farmer makes the major part of his money from the production of corn and the stock that he raises and feeds for the markets of the world. "The Wabash Bottoms" have been known since the first advent of white tillers of the rich soil, to be famous as a corngrowing section.

Agricultural Societies

Naturally, a good farming county has good farm associations and agricultural societies, by which one farmer may see the manner in which his fellow-farmer produces crops. Not nearly enough attention, however, is paid to this matter, and in consequence the farmer and business man sufifers loss. Whoe\er causes two blades of grass to grow where one grew before, or he who shows a corn raiser how to produce ten bushels of corn more per acre, is really and truly a great benefactor to the entire human race. Vermillion county was slow to realize the importance of organizing and keeping up annual fains, and not until 1866. just after the close of the Civil war, was any attempt made to form an agricultural society. One was then formed and continued to hold its annual exhibits at Newport until 1879, when, on account of the railroad running through the grounds of the society, public opinion so changed and interest was so slackened that it was practically abandoned. In 1880 a joint-stock company was organized, but that never materialized to any considerable extent. In 1887 two agricultural societies were organized, one, the Vermillion County Fair Association, having its headquarters at Eugene, and another, the Vermillion County Joint- Stock Society, with headquarters at the county seat, Newport. Both societies held fairs that year, but on account of the bad weather the one at Eugene was a dismal failure, while the one at Newport had receipts amounting to two thousand two hundred dollars and every premium was paid in full. Two hundred and fifty stalls were occupied by horses and cattle. Steam waterworks and reservoirs were used. No drunkenness or gambling was allowed on the grounds and all passed ofif as it should. Of later years the county fairs have been allowed to run down and none are now held - and it is to be regretted, too.