McLeod County, Minnesota - Chapter 18: Agricultural Development, 1917

Pioneer agriculture in McLeod county presented two distinct aspects, the conditions which the early settlers met in the Big Woods being altogether different from the circumstances with which the frontiersmen had to contend in the prairie regions of the county. The soil conditions, however, did not greatly differ, after a clearing had been made in the forest, or the soil broken on the prairie.

The first furrow in the county was turned on the townsite of Glencoe, by William S. Chapman, a few hours after his arrival with the pioneer party, June 11, 1855. Considerable plowing was done that year, both in Glencoe and in Hutchinson, but not much of it was ready for crops that year. A few garden vegetables were raised, and about twenty acres planted to potatoes. A little barley was raised at Hutchinson,

Although so small an area was planted to potatoes in 1856, the yield was very large and excellent. Martin McLeod took the first premium on potatoes at the Territorial Fair. He raised them on the farm of Col. John H. Stevens, adjoining Glencoe, and from half an acre obtained 200 bushels of fine, toothsome White Meshannocks. The next spring (1857) the price of potatoes in this county was $2.50 per bushel! They were used almost wholly for seed; only a few could afford to eat them. In August Editor Baxter acknowledged in the Register the gift of a peck or so and said: "Having been without potatoes in our family for some months, we cannot but count these a luxury." But a big crop was raised in 1857 - a large area and a bountiful yield.

In 1857 the crop yield was heavy but the grasshoppers did considerable damage. James H. Mayall (one of the founders of Glencoe, and who, with his brother, Hon. Samuel Mayall, had 300 acres under fence on the east side of High Island Lake) raised beets weighing 12 and 14 pounds each. Potatoes were so large that they had to be cut in halves and quarters to be properly boiled. John H. Stevens raised turnips so large that only four of them would fill a bushel basket. Col. Stevens algo raised good tobacco, which came to full maturity and good quality on stalks five feet high. Onions were sown broadcast and produced abundantly without hoeing, weeding, or other cultivation. "Cabbages half as big as a bushel basket" were not uncommon, according to the veracious Register. Chinese sugar cane, afterwards called sorghum, introduced into the United States in 1855, was being cultivated by two or three parties with the prospect that it would be extensively grown. There were two kinds of the cane - the Chinese sorghum and the African imphee. The fall wheat crop, sown in 1856, yielded bountifully; Abel Wilson's field threshed 40 bushels per acre. Wild honey was very abundant. The Big Woods between Glencoe and Koniska, and indeed nearly to Carver, abounded in bee-trees. Allen Messenger cut one tree which yielded 75 pounds of strained honey.

And yet, in the latter part of the year, provisions of all kinds were very high. In Glencoe, in September, flour was $11 and $11.50 per barrel; corn meal, $3.50 to $4.00 per bushel ; beans, $3 to $3.50; onions, $3.50 and $4; potatoes, $1.25 to $1.50; turnips, $1.35 to $1.50; salt, $7.50 to $8 per barrel; port salt, per barrel, $32 to $40; lard and tallow, 20 cents a pound; butter, 30 to 35 cents; cheese, 20 cents; sugar, 15 to 20 cents; molasses, $1.20 to $1.60 per gallon. There was not a meat market or butcher's shop in Glencoe and no meat prices were quoted. But by November 10 prices of breadstuffs and vegetables had greatly decreased. Salt was up to $12 per barrel.

and cribbing by the first week in September. This was true ot the fields of J. V. McKean and his Illinois Dent variety, and I. W. Cummings and Wm. Morrow with both White Flint and Dent. Cummings had plenty of ripe corn by September 1, and it was described as "plump, well-filled corn, as good as any raised on the improved farms of the East."

An increased acreage was planted in 1858 with high hopes of big returns. Dent corn was ripe by September 1, and made excellent meal. The yields raised on the farms of John V. McKeen and W. 8. Chapman were large and fine and the meal was praised for its good quality.

A few patches of sorghum sugar cane ripened this fall, and the juice which was properly boiled and treated was rendered into a fine, delicious syrup. It was predicted that sorghum would become one of the principal products of McLeod county.

A few fields of winter wheat sown in the fall of 1857 had stood the winter very well and the yield was fine, running from 20 to 28 bushels per acre. At that time there was not a reaping or mowing machine in the county. All grain was cut with cradles and all grass was mown with scythes. It cannot with certainty be said that there was a threshing machine, or at least not a separator which separated and Winnowed the grain. Perhaps there was a "chaff-piler," which merely left the wheat and chaff together, allowing the latter to be blown away by fanning mills. Much of the grain was threshed out with flails, and then winnowed and cleaned in the wind, as in the days of Boaz and Ruth; ofttimes it was tramped out by horses on a circular floor of hard earth, on which the grain was spread, and then came on the horses which went around and around until the grain and chaff were separated from the straw and winnowed by a fanning mill. The Process was necessarily slow and imperfect, but was the best that could be practiced for many years, or until the big thresh- Ing machines, with their separators and straw pilers, came,

Crops were generally short in McLeod and Carver this year on account of wet weather. The previous year grasshoppers had nearly destroyed them in many fields. So as early as the middle of September, 1858, flour was $9 in Hutchinson and $10 in Glencoe. There would have been a real scarcity of food, but for the abundance of game in the country. Wild fowl of Several varieties abounded and the settlers' tables were well supplied with fat, succulent, and toothsome grouse or prairie chickens, wild ducks, geese, and pigeons. Fish of the best varieties, bass, pike, croppies, sunfish, etc., were abundant.

"A Large Squash. - We are under many obligations to Robinson Jones, Esq. postmaster of Acton, for a mammoth squash. We have rarely seen so large a vegetable in any part of the world. A few months since there was no such a place as Acton. Now it is a thriving community and the enterprising citizens are producing extraordinary specimens of vegetables."

Nearly four years later, or on August 17, 1862, Robinson Jones became the first victim of the Sioux outbreak of 1862. He and four others were killed by the Indians half a mile from Acton P. O., Meeker county, and this was the beginning of the war. The postoffice was at the residence of Mr. Jones, who was the postmaster from its organization until his death.

To add to their financial and other materia! troubles in the spring of 1859, the McLeod farmers were seriously injured because of the lack of suitable seed wheat, A large area of land had been plowed and harrowed, but there was not sufficient good seed to sow it. It was feared that the homegrown stock on hand would not all germinate, and indeed there was not much on hand, for the entire crop of 1858 had not been very large and it became necessary to grind much of it into breadstuff. Finally seed was obtained in Stearns and Hennepin counties, but the farmers had to pay $1.50 and $2.00 a bushel for it. The winter wheat on the prairies had nearly all been killed in the winter of 1858-59, but in the Big Woods the small areas seeded in the spring of 1858 yielded as good hard wheat as was ever raised in Missouri or Ohio. This was the season when it is said the first harvesting machines were used in McLeod. Two or three John H. Manny reapers were purchased in St. Paul and brought up. They were not selfbinders, or even self-rakers. The grain was cut by a sickle and fell on a platform, Here it was raked into bunches by a man standing on the machine, and then dumped off to the ground, where it was bound into bundles by binders following the machine. Commonly four horses drew the reaper. Sometimes the reaper had a mower attachment, which was very serviceable in cutting the rank wild hay.

The early settlers did not have much produce to sell. In the first years they raised little more than enough grain and vegetables necessary for their sustenance. There was a great abundance of game and fish in the country but no market for it. There was no way of getting the valuable timber of the Big Woods to market, even after it was converted into lumber, with the two small saw mills in the county. The one thing that was produced in the county which brought in the most money in the summer and fall of 1859 was ginseng. This queer pungently aromatic root, so highly regarded and esteemed by the Chinese, grew in the Big Woods in great profusion. The people in that portion of the county, men, women, and children, resorted to the woods, day after day, and gathered it in considerable quantities and contrived to get it to the Minneapolis market, where it brought 30 to 50 cents a pound. An active worker could secure five or six pounds a day and the work of digging it could not properly be called exercise,

In the decade of 1850 - and even earlier and later - blackbirds were a great annoyance and did much injury to the cornfields of Minnesota, They attacked the fields as soon as the seed was planted and continued their ravages until the corn was gathered. In McLeod they were especially hurtful. The legislature of 1860 offered a bounty of 50 cents per 100 for the heads of the noisy, ravenous marauders in shiny black coats,

Captain A. L. Brown was intimately connected with agricultural life in the early days. Writing on the subject he has Said: "During the winter of 1858-59 the government paid $12.00 a ton for hay at Ft. Ridgely, and large quantities were hauled there. Major Thomas A. Sherman's battery of light artillery was there at the time. A number of farmers from Glencoe, New Auburn, and other places, hauled hay to the fort, which was 29 miles from Lake Addie. The writer drove there on one occasion with a load drawn by three horses. The snow was about a foot deep on the level, and there was neither road nor track broken. There was no house nor shanty on the road until coming to the house of William Mills, at the cross roads, three miles from the fort. The financial crash of 1857 had brought hard times to the new settlers, who, as a rule, ad money sufficient to enable them to start on their claims, but not enough to tide over the time when the failure of their crops and monetary troubles of the country left them with but few resources. The sale of the hay was therefore a great help to many. Another source of income was the furs which were exchanged for groceries, and the ginseng which was sold for cash.

"For clothing and blankets, grain bags were cut up. Father Brown had a grist-mill at his former home, and brought with him 150 bags, so we used to wear pantaloons on which were emblazoned the family name. Grain was very hard to raise, but root crops seemed to flourish even on the sod. A few years later, a farmer had but to 'tickle the ground' to make it produce good paying crops, but in those days, the country was full of blackbirds, prairie squirrels, and gophers, who harvested most of the grain. The corn, not being acclimated, was frost bitten. To preserve it, it was picked, and dried in the stoves. The ovens would be filled, and the top of the stove covered. When the corn was sufficiently dry, it was ground in hand coffee mills. The Craig family brought with them, from Philadelphia, a hand spice mill which was rather larger than a coffee mill. The mill was kept pretty busy. It was sometimes used from morning until night, the children taking turns at the mill, one family using it after another had got through.

"Blackbirds were the greatest pest, as they came in great flocks. Shoot one and it seemed as though a thousand came to his funeral. Entire families were out from break of day until dusky eve, with shotguns, tin pans, and seare-crows. Some tried poisoning the grain, but that did not do much good. The crop of rutabagas and turnips was good this season, and the settlers had an abundance of these vegetables.

"The wheat raised by the settlers was of the Canadian club variety, and as there were no threshing machines here at that time, as soon as the ground was frozen sufficiently hard, horses were hitched together four abreast and driven in a circle on the grain, and in this manner the wheat was threshed out, and then winnowed in the wind. The yield was about ten bushels per acre."

For several years prairie fires were a serious menace to the settlers of McLeod county. Cabins, sheds, hay and grain stacks, and even standing crops, were destroyed by these great fires which were sometimes many miles in extent.

"The pioneers who settled in this part of the Big Woods," says Allen Reinmuth, of Wright county, "had to face many hardships and nerve-testing ordeals, and the experiences and privations they underwent should be related for the benefit of the countless generations yet unborn who will reap the fruits of the work done by their frontier ancestors and predecessors.

"People of the present day, and especially those who have never lived on farms, have no idea of the hardship a pioneer eneounters in a new country. By the time he has cleared or broken, paid for, and established a standard model farm, he has used a great deal of vitality, patience and energy.

of McLeod county, where the timber had to be cleared off before a cabin could be built or a garden planted. The trees were so large and set so close together that a traveler could Scarcely see a rod ahead, and in the summer the foliage was so thick that the sky was obscured. Many varieties were represented. These trees varied in size, the white elm and the white oak being the largest and tallest.

"The clearing away of the forest was no easy task. Saws were almost unknown, so the work was done with axes. There was no market for wood, and it had to be disposed of. The trees were felled, cut in lengths of eight or ten feet, and then rolled into large heaps. This was done with the help of oxen when such could be secured, but the pioneers that could not afford oxen used wooden hand spikes, a slower and more difficult process. These heaps were then lighted, and since the wood was green and did not burn readily, the piles had to be relighted, time and time again. The old pioneers, recalling the early clearing of the forest, have regretted many times that timber like oak, maple and ash were wasted, by burning in Such a manner, where today it would demand a ready market at a high price. Not only was the process of felling trees tedious; it was also hazardous, for many a tree when falling would become lodged in the branches of a nearby tree, which would then have to be chopped also. This was a very dangerous task, for the tree might shake loose at any time and fall and ¢rush the man working beneath. Two acres were all that could be cleared by two men in one winter.

"The mosquitoes were plentiful, for the shallow pools were kept from evaporating by the shading forest, and myriads of insects hatched out daily, Screens were unknown, hence very little rest did the pioneers have by day or night. during the summers of the first few years. After the timber was Somewhat cleared away, the pools dried out, and the mosquitoes became fewer in number, Some of the early settlers did not have the endurance to keep up the task they had begun, 80 left, driven away by discomforts in which mosquitoes and other insect and animal pests were an important factor.

"Industry was crude then, for the equipment was meagre. Labor was done mostly by hand. Horses were hardly to be had on the farms of that date. The oxen, though very strong, could not be handled like horses, for several reasons. They had no bridles, so they could go wherever they pleased, and sometimes they Would even run away from their owners. They had not the intelligence that horses have, therefore they could not be trained to do all the work that horses do. But they could live on the scantiest of rations and survive the winters in the erudest of shelters, and they were therefore more admirably suited to pioneer life, and kept alive and efficient under conditions that would have killed the more delicately constituted horse.

"The early pioneers, for the most part, had crudely constructed shacks built out of logs, about twelve by twenty feet, on an average, in size. These log houses were usually covered with bark for a roof. Sometimes straw, tree limbs and twigs were used. When it rained these roofs usually leaked, making the suffering intense. Everything got wet and the only thing to do was to wait until the rain stopped, and then dry the clothes and bedding by the fire.

"The chimneys were built of wood, plastered on the inside to prevent them from burning, and like those of Lincoln's time, were small at the top and wide at the bottom. They were about six feet square at the bottom and three feet square at the top. Logs cut in suitable lengths were used as fuel, and as they were green, a large fire had to be kept up.

"There were few matches in those days, so fires were kindled by friction. To do this, two dry sticks were rubbed together until they produced a spark, which would be dropped into a pile of shavings to ignite them, and the glow induced would then be blown into a flame. When matches finally came into use on the farm, this disagreeable task was done away with.

"Implements of labor were also crude. Most of them were made of wood and progress with these tools was very slow, and the work could not be done either well or skillfully. The plows were made something like modern potato hillers, with a beam, two handles, and two braces to hold the handles in position. In the middle of this crude tool was a straight 'four by four' with an iron plate one-half an inch thick, fastened to the beam by old-fashioned screws. The harrow used was a branch taken from the top part of a maple tree. These harrows were drawn by two yoked oxen with a chain fastened to the beam by old-fashioned screws. This kind of a harrow was easily made and could well stand the jerks and jars it was exposed to while dragged over the stumps. The harrow was somewhat effective in smoothing the plowed ground. The cycle half-moon grain-cutter was the tool used to cut the grain, This was swung by one hand, and the grain was caught in the other, which was very hard and slow work. As soon as seythes and cradles were invented and purchased, the farmers made better time and raised more grain. The threshing in the early days was done by means of a flail.

"The method of seeding was most interesting, looked at from a present day standpoint. There were first placed three sharpened poles, ten feet long, a few inches in the ground in a vertical position, and in a straight line with each other across the field. Each stick had a red flag tied to it as a sight to go by. The man had a few sacks of wheat placed conveniently here and there so he could get more seed whenever he needed it. To sow, he carried a sack on one side, fastened over his right shoulder. One part of the sack was partly left open so he could reach in and get a handful of wheat, This wheat was scattered to right and left in front of him. He would never carry more than a peck of wheat in a sack at one time as more would be too heavy.

"Most of the settlers were very poor. The land, it is true, was cheap, but tools and other necessary articles were high priced, and almost impossible to get. When the pioneers had no crops, provisions were high, and must be carted to the lonely cabins from a long distance. When the crops were plentiful, often the pioneers secured hardly enough for them to pay the cost of transportation to market."

Agriculture received a severe set-back during the Civil War and the Indian Massacre. Many of the able bodied men were away at the front during the years of the Civil War. Crops suffered severely during the massacre. Damage was done by the Indians and by fleeing refugees. The people living in the Stockade at Hutchinson went out in parties to make some attempt at harvesting, but a large part of the crop in 1862 was ruined for lack of care. Live stock was killed by the Indians, and by the refugees, and many of the cows which escaped this fate strayed away, or died from neglect.

This prosperity, unfortunately, was interrupted by the Yavages of the grasshoppers. Grasshoppers had done some damage in the county in 1857, but not to the extent that they Wrought their destruction in the seventies. In the raid of 1864 a Swarm of the insects appeared a few miles west of Glencoe, and there were also a few the following year,

But in 1873 the great raids began. That year McLeod suffered considerably. In 1874 practically everything growing Was destroyed. In 1875, 1876 and 1877 the destruction con- tinued. Grasshoppers were everywhere, they darkened the sun with their great clouds of flying bodies, they ate up the crops, and even devoured the ends from rail fences. Various efforts were tried to destroy them, but none of these efforts were of much effect. The people were in destitution, too poor to move away, and with hardly enough to eat. Aid was extended in the way of clothing, provisions and seed wheat. But the times were dark indeed, and the pioneers, only just recovering from the massacre, were almost overwhelmed with this new disaster.

Since the grasshopper years, agriculture in McLeod county has been conducted on a successful scale. For many years wheat was the principal crop. This has now given away to general farming and dairying. There have been dry years and wet years, the hail has ruined many crops and the blight has at times caused much damage. But these are but minor drawbacks, and exist only in isolated cases. The general story of the county has been one of prosperity. A few years ago came the hog cholera, but that also has been subdued, and swine raising is an important industry in the county.

McLeod county is acknowledged as being among the best and most prosperous stock-raising and agriculture counties in Minnesota, Its people are wide-awake and keep step with the progressive march of the times in all that pertains to a civilization of happiness, industry and culture. The first permanent settlers of the county were farmers, and their object in coming was to till the soil.

All had many lessons to learn. Many of the pioneers were from foreign countries, and all the conditions were new. Some were farmers from the eastern states, and they, too, found circumstances absolutely changed. Some were men who had previously been engaged in other occupations, but who saw in the opening of Minnesota an opportunity to secure a farm, together with the health and longevity that come from outdoor life. All of them, regardless of their previous circumstances, were able and willing to work; they had industry and courage and they were determined to win.

In the face of obstacles of which they had previously no knowledge they started to carve their fortunes in the wilderness. The country was new, there was no alternative but that success must be won from the soil, which was their only wealth and their only help. And in spite of all the obstacles and inconveniences, and notwithstanding the fact that in the face of many disasters hundreds of the pioneers left the county, those who stayed, and those who have come in since, have met with unbounded success. Nor is the end yet reached, for the county has in its agricultural and dairying resources a mine of wealth yet undeveloped, which, when the years roll on, will grow more and more valuable as the people become, through scientific methods, more and more able to utilize it.

The farms of McLeod county are similar to the farms of any other county having a rich soil. It has its good farms and its poor farms. Or, better stated, it has its good farmers and its poor farmers. Agriculture, like every other trade or profession, has its successes and its failures, but perhaps not as many complete failures.

The high altitude gives to McLeod county an ideal climate. Its mean temperature for summer is 70 degrees, the same as middle Illinois, Ohio, and southern Pennsylvania. The extreme heat that is felt in these states is here tempered by the breezes of the elevated plateau. Its higher latitude gives two hours more of sunshine than at Cincinnati. This, with an abundance of rainfall, 26.36 inches annually, on a rich soil, accounts for the rapid and vigorous growth of crops and their early maturity. There is a uniformity of temperature during the winter Season in central Minnesota, with bright sunshine, dry atmosphere, good sleighing and infrequent thaws that make life 4 pleasure in this bracing, healthy climate,

There was a time in McLeod county when, like all new lands, the first consideration was to build good barns for the housing of the flocks and herds, and the home was the most inconspicuous object in the landscape. As the farmers prospered, the log house disappeared, and now there are few log houses in the entire county. Now the farmer's house vies with the city residence, and has many of the modern conveniences. Where electrie light and power cannot be secured, gasoline engines furnish power, and a number of farm houses are lighted by their own gas plants. By the use of elevated tanks in the house or barn, or pneumatic tanks in cellars, farm houses often have all the Sanitary conveniences of a house in town. Farmers realize the value of keeping their property in the best of Shape. Houses and barns are well painted, lawns are carefully kept and flower gardens show that the people recognize that the things which beautify add a value to life as well as to property.

The rural telephone reaches practically every farm house, which, with rural mail delivery and the newspapers, places the farmer in close touch with the great markets and with the current of affairs of the outside world. There is no longer any isolation such as existed in the early days when pioneering meant privation; no longer any need for the denial of many of the luxuries as well as the comforts of life. The farmer can have the daily newspaper and the daily market reports; he can have the advantage of the circulating library, and his table can be supplied with whatever the village or city market may have to offer. The changes of the half-century have been more marked in scarcely any direction than in the conditions which surround life on the farm. The plodding ox which did the field and farm work has disappeared; the gang plow, the mower, the seeder, the harvester and the steam thresher are doing the work so laboriously and imperfectly done by the scythe, the cradle, the hand-sower, the flail and the horse-power thresher. The buggy, the carriage and now the automobile are almost universal among the conveniences of the farm, while the sewing machine, the organ and the piano are familiar objects in the inner life of the farm home. The future doubtless holds still more in the way of conveniences and comforts, but it can give nothing beyond what the great service the farmer has rendered and is rendering the country in the way of its development merits. There cannot but be deep regret, however much it is in the nature of things, that so few of those who bore the heat and burden of the day in the years of beginning, have survived to enjoy the fruits which their labors produced.

The nationality of the citizens of MeLeod county has had considerable influence upon the character of the farming operations. A few Bohemian families which first came to the town of Rich Valley attracted others until the "Bohemian settlement" covers three densely inhabited townships.

Two or three German families in Acoma and elsewhere started the immigration of that sturdy race until they occupied over half the county. The Danes and Norwegians have also permanently established themselves here. Many of the earliest settlers were Americans, Scotch and Trish.

The population of the county has always been largely rural. Out of 1,286 people in 1860, there were 955 living in the country, In 1870, when there were 5,643 people in the county, 5,208 were in the rural districts, Even in 1880, with 12,342 people in the county, 10,684 were in the rural districts. During the next decade the villages grew somewhat, and in 1890, out of 17,026, there were 4,199 in the villages and 12,827 in the country. During the next ten years, the villages grew faster than the rural districts, for out of 19,595 people in the county in 1900, there were 6,388 in the villages and 13,207 in the country. In the next ten years the rural population decreased, and the villages remained about at a standstill. Out of 18,691 people in the county, in 1910, there were 6,413 in the villages, and 12,278 in the rural districts.

There were but 137 farms in the county in 1860, The average farm family consisted of seven persons. The farm population was 28,2 persons to every 100 acres of improved land. In 1870 there were 943 farms. The average farm family consisted of 5.5 persons. The farm population was 24.3 to every 100 acres of improved land. In 1880 the number of farms had increased to 1,743. The average farm family consisted of 6.1 persons. The number of improved acres had increased so rapidly that there were but 7.7 people to each 100 acres of cultivated land. There were 21.5 persons for each square mile of land in the rural districts of the county. The number of farms in 1890 was 2,070. The average farm family con- Sisted of 6.2 persons. There were 6.4 persons to each 100 acres of improved land, and 25.9 persons to each acre in the Tural districts. Since then the changes have not. been so radical. In 1900 the average farm family consisted of 5.7 Bersons, and in 1910 of 5.4 people. In 1900 there were 2,335 farms, in 1910 there were 2,268 farms. In 1900 there were 5.9 people to each 100 acres of improved land, in 1910 there Were 5.1 to each 100 acres of improved land. In 1900 there

The agricultural statistics for McLeod county in 1910, according to the United States census were as follows: Population of the county, 18,691. Number of all farms, 2,268. Color and nativity of farmers: native white, 1,160; foreign-born white, 1,107; negro and other non-white, 1.

Per cent. of value in all property: in land, 67.9; buildings, 18.2; implements and machinery, 3.5; domestic animals, poultry and bees, 10.4.

The number of farms operated by owners in 1910 was 1,891, or a percentage of 83.4, In 1900 the number thus operated was 2,010, or a percentage of 86.1. The amount of land in farms belonging to this class was 241,841 acres; improved land in farms, 192,929; value of land and buildings, $16,475,675.

Farms operated by managers - number of farms, 14; (number of farms in 1900, 22) ; land in farms, 1,845; improved land in farms, 1,558; value of land and buildings, $130,100.

Mortgage debt reports - (for farms operated by owners only, others not having been secured) - number free from mortgage debt, 1,306; number with mortgage debt, 575; number with no mortgage report, 10.

For farms consisting of owned land only - number reporting debt and amount, 495; value of their land and buildings, $4,313,025; amount of mortgage debt, $1,068,372; per cent. of value of land and buildings, 24.8.

The United States census reports show the following statistics of population for MeLeod county for the years 1890, 1900 and 1910, alphabetically arranged:

The McLeod County Agricultural Society. In March, 1859, the first agricultural society in McLeod county was organized at Glencoe. The constitution was adopted March 19. Any person might become @ member on the payment of 50 cents. The first officers were John H. Stevens, president ; Lewis Haryington, vice-president ; Clayborne Chandler, treasurer ; Alonzo H. Jennison, secretary. The executive committee consisted of F, W. Getchell, of Glencoe; John Lester, of Bergen; A. J. Snyder, of Glencoe; E. G. Wright, of Hutchinson; and D. J. Pettijohn, of Rich Valley.

John H. Stevens was the leading spirit in the organization of the society. In 1853 he had been the prime mover and influential worker in the organization of the Hennepin County Agricultural Society, and the next year was very prominent in organizing and establishing the Minnesota Territory Agricultural Society. He was its second president in 1855, and held the same position in 1893 and 1894. In Holcombe's History of the State Agricultural Society his portrait is the frontispiece, and he is called the "founder" of that society.

The first fair of the McLeod county society was held at Glencoe, October 20, 1859. The exhibition was in Graham's new building and while the articles exhibited were not numerous they were well selected. The live stock was shown out of doors, and the exhibition was altogether creditable. Col. Stevens, then editor of the Register, censured the people of the county as a whole because they did not manifest more interest in the fair, but commended the exhibits made.

Exhibits of ladies' fancy work were made by Mrs. G. K. Gilbert, Mrs. Lovina Cummings, and Miss Lizzie McKay. Captain I. M. Larrabee, the veteran seaman, had a number of mechanical articles of his own invention and construction. Ford & Buck had a cheese press and numerous pieces of carpentry. The wives of Jer. Nobles, Prentice Chubb, and J. Merrills received awards for the best butter. I- W. Cummings had the best spring wheat, which was pronounced equal to winter wheat. The corn shown by J. Merrills, I. M.Larrabee, J. V. McKeen, I. W. Cummings, and J. H. Smith, comprised several varieties, one of which, the "Rocky Mountain," was guaranteed to ripen 90 days after planting. Remarkably excellent vegetables were displayed by Chubb, McKeen, Merrills, C. G. Mickel, A. Langley, W. K. Vickroy, Cyrus Butterfield, A. H. Jennison, Dr. Kennedy, and Mrs. Egbert. Miss Francina A. Cummings showed delicious jellies and preserves and Jeremiah Nobles proudly exhibited a gallon of "Chinese sugar cane," or sorghum molasses of his own manufacture.

For a pioneer and frontier county the exhibit of live stock was very gratifying. The selection of cattle was small but fine. The Durhams of Clayborne Chandler, Rev. J. J. Hill, John Lester, and Mrs. MeClary were remarkable. Col. Stevens had a fine Ayrshire cow which he had brought from Ohio, and she was the premium cow. The young heifers of C. G. Mickel and A. M. Close, the well broken young steers of Lawrence Gallick, Jr., and A. Langley's and J. V. McKeen's work oxen attracted the admiration of stockmen. The best span of draft horses were A. H. Jennison's, while A. H. Jennison's herd, John Lester's mare and colt, and Clayborne Chandler's colt: were all notable specimens of horses, Many hogs were shown and Editor Stevens said there was not a poor hog or one of inferior breed on the ground. Two years before there were but few pigs in the county and now there were at least 4 thousand. The swine exhibitors were B. F. Buck, F. E. Ford, John H. Stevens, John Lester, George Harris, Lawrence Gillick, I. Ww. Cummings and others. There was also a small but good poultry display by John Lester, and others,

Col, Stevens said editorially that the fair was "a decided Success." He said that "it was much better than the first fair held in Hennepin county, in 1854," and Col. Stevens was the principal organizer and manager of that fair. (See Hist. State Agricultural Society.)

The first county fair in Hutchinson was held in a tent, in 1873, on a site back of where the Farmers National Bank now Stands, the site being a part of the same lot. Here meetings were held and exhibits made for two years, after which the annual fair was held in a larger tent located on the ground now occupied by the Catholic church, this latter site being used for a year or two. As considerable interest was manifested in the undertaking and the number of exhibitors increased, as well as the attendance, a location affording more room was sought and was found a little to the east of where the Chicago,

Milwaukee & St. Paul depot now stands. Here a still larger tent was erected and a race track laid out, a temporary fence being built on two sides and watchmen employed to guard the unprotected portions of the track. Fairs were held annually at this location for several years, after which removal was made to the present fair grounds in the southeastern part of the city, where substantial buildings were erected.

For some time previous to the last removal it had heen customary for the business men of Hutchinson to personally devote considerable time and labor in making preparations for the fair, among the most active in this work being the Sumner brothers, J- V. V. Lewis, Isaac Kouwe, John Mersen, G. A. Adams and W. J. Ives, In 1880 we find Mr, Ives acting as president of the society, with 13 vice-presidents from different townships, and with David A. Adams, secretary, and J. V. Lewis, treasurer. Admission tickets, good for one entrance, cost 25 cents, a 50 cent ticket being good for the whole day, while children under 12 years old were admitted for 10 cents. The exhibits were divided into substantially the same classes as they are today, including draft horses, roadsters, cattle, swine, sheep, poultry, fruits, grain, seeds and flour, vegetables, dairy products, domestic manufactures, such as needles, shells and hair work, farm implements made in McLeod or adjoining counties, fine arts, flowers, pantry stores, ete. Running and trotting races were also held, During the years that have since elapsed interest in the fair has continued and a steady improvement has been noted in the quality of many of the exhibits. One of the attractive features of the fair in recent years has been the School Industrial Contest - a competitive contest between the pupils of the McLeod county schools in both industrial work done in the schools and farm products, The finished products are placed on exhibition in the "School Exhibit Building" of the fair grounds for inspection and display. The business men of the county have generously contributed money every year in order to make it possible to offer prizes and encourage the boys and girls in industrial work. The present year (1916) the contest was mainly supported by the various banks of the county, which contributed sums of money for cash prizes. The exhibits in this department were grouped under the following heads: grain, grain in sheaf, grass (alfalfa, red clover and white clover), vegetables, fruit, flowers, sewing, cooking, weaving, manual training, agricultural booklets, and geography. Another popular feature of the fair during the last three years has been the Livestock Judging Contest, in which boys,. as well as adults, are permitted to compete. This was entered into readily by the younger generation, no less than 50 boys taking: part in it last year, An entertainment program is also prepared to add to the interest of the occasion. In stimulating the agricultural and stock-raising interests of the county by representing opportunities for friendly competition among the farmers and enabling them to become better acquainted with each other and each other's work, the society has performed a most useful function and the good accomplished is likely to be of the most permanent character.

December 27, 1913, the McLeod County Agricultural Association was incorporated, the corporation to begin February 1, 1914, and continue for a period of 30 years. The names of the incorporators are: Hans Jensen, H. A. Moffett, L. A. Ritter, Robert McMullen, Jr., and H. H. Pennoyer.