Richardson County, Nebraska - Agrtcri.ture and Stockraising, 1917 (part 2 of 2)

The tree-fringed streams were enticing to the first settlers and alnno their banks we saw the first homes established. It was not the best land, but the wood, shade, prdtection and home comfort of these natural groxes appealed to the settler. And many of the great farms of Richardson count} still ha\e the home upon the site of one of those pioneer-day spots. \\'hen the owner found that his land was not so convenient and valuable to farm, he did not sell the old home, but bought some of the uplands of the open prairies and adding this to the old homestead, went on with grain farming on the open land and caring for the stock on the old timbereil homestead. The Corwin Fergus home, the old Barney Mullen estate and many other such farms still attest to the wisdom of this plan and are monumental examples of mixed farming that brought comfort and plenty.

The early settler found a Wuti f ul land. Larkspur gleamed in white and blue: the red phlox of the prairies and the blue phlox of the timber dazzled the eye : the yellow gold of the gumweed bent beneath the beam of the old breaking ])l()w and the aster and lily swayed in the winds of the prairies. .\nd as we led our cows out to the lariat ropes atid tied the halter in the swivel, we crunched through thousands of violets. Many a wind-swept, sun-baked prairie home was sheltered by a wild cucumber or grape vine.

The first pastures were fenced in the seventies, with barb wire, and soon afterward farming meant stock raising as well as grain growing. We planted hedges on our own farm, bringing the seed from the old Illinois home. The early settler had no money to buy fencing, but could grow the osage and it was a great advantage to the country ; it shut oft the hot southern winds, tempered the northern blasts of winter and set the landscape of the prairies in frames of living green. We may deplore the osage hedge, but it had a wonderful part in the civilization of Richardson county.

Stock growing in those early days was discouraging, but many a settler soon saw his herd of cattle grow and become valuable. Today we sell our hogs at fifteen cents a pound. I remember when we bought three splendid Poland sows for three cents a pound.

I went into a modern farm home the other day. Tlie electric light plant flashed out and ever}^ room was agleam ; the steam-heating plant in the cellar gives it an atmosphere of summer all winter long; a splendid water system sends a stream of liquid all over the Iiouse, and toilets, lavatories and every convenience lighten the burden of the housewife and make the farm home as modern as that in the city. In our early pioneer home we lived with only a ship-lap siding; the winds swept in the snows of winter. and I distinctly remember sitting by the stove all day long clad in the heaviest overcoat I could get hold of. Our barns were forks set in the ground, poles and brush laid on and all banked with straws and covered with slough grass. Toda\- our horses stand in barns that are comfortable and commodious.

Pioneer Used Corn For Fuel

Corn was so cheap and coal so high in those early days that the farmer burned corn, and we have carried in many a bushel of corn and thrust the big ears into the blaze and saw the kernels crisp, darken, and glow in the lieat. F.xtravagant? No, it was economy, for the coal was dearer than the corn.

We raised tliat corn with walking cultivators and it w'as about 1886 betore we bought the first riding cultivators. In those early days we had one wav of getting a little back from the railroads. Some adventurous farmer would hie awav in the dead of night and the next morning a couple of teams would sweep across a big field of corn stalks and the heavy iron rail would do the breaking most effectively and quickly. It was strange how hard it was to discover who got that iron from the railroad premises. Everyone used it, but no one ever saw it brought into the neighborhood. It had no owner, but many users. All summer long it lay in the shelter of a weed patch and only in the dry frosty days of early spring did it come forth.

Alfalfa came into our agriculture some thirty years ago and it has largely assisted in the progress and development of the same, but clover was the first and perhaps the greatest factor in maintaining the fertility of the virgin soil. It is the great agent of rotation; it is the cheapest fertilizer, it is the greatest combined grazing and hay plant.

Many a farm is today growing more grain, hay and stock than it could have produced in the pioneer days of its virginity. When I read or hear speakers tell of the wasteful depletion of the soil under the hands of the .\merican farmer, I am sure that such a condemnation is not upon the farmers of Richardson county. Great train loads of meat animals, great warehouses filled with wheat, corn and oats, hundreds of cellars filled with fruits and vegetables and groaning tables loaded with the best living that any section of the world knows of, all attest to the tremendous production of the land today. Richardson county can, and does today, grow more tons of hay, more bushels of grain, more pounds of meat and more fruits, vegetables and poultry than at any period in its history. The stability of our agricultural development and future attainments are increased every decade.

The first wells upon the farms of Richardson countv were bored or dug and a long tin or galvanized iron pail was wound up at the end of a rope and the water poured into a half-barrel tub. Today the wind-mills assisted by the panting gasoline engines throw the pure steams through piping systems, to every lot, pasture, shed and barn about the premises; automatically the supply is regulated, it flows into the house and the water system is as complete as that of a city. Great standpipes hold barrels of water stored for stock and man. Deep cisterns and convenient tanks complete the arrangements.

The pioneer called every man his neighbor. There was a freedom. a charitable assumption, an equality and hungering desire for companionship that broke down evcrv barrier of caste and clan.

The groveless prairies permitted the eye to wander for miles across the plains and some morning when we saw the white gleam of new lumber as a shack arose, perhaps many miles away, we knew another friend had come to our country. Many an evening as I have stood upon some rising knoll and seen the lights of the little homes flash out across the prairies, I would count the friends who clustered about those lamps. We met in the little white school houses and spelling bees "liter-aries," revivals, funerals and weddings were all well attended.

Our ways of traveling were primitive. If it was not too far we went afoot, otherwise we used the best we had. Sometimes it was a saddle on one of the old farm horses, sometimes it was a spring wagon, sometimes it was the old farm wagon. Then along in the eighties it became common for the top buggy to appear on the farm roads. About this time we saw the orchards and groves spring up until they hid the gleam of the evening lamps; the social life of the old communities became a little more limited, our neighborhoods a little more narrow. We beheld a little of the unknown caste begin to grow into the social Hfe.

The grading of the schools threw the interest of the older boys and girls from the old school house; it no longer was a recognized center of sociability, it became too circumscribed for the religious life and as few of them were ever remodeled or rebuilt to keep pace with the community and farm growth, the agricultural society has been diverted largely to the villages, towns and cities. Even the country churches felt that progress had left them sitting by the wayside in many instances. The fact that fifty per cent, of the faims became the homes of renters also had its effect on tlie social life; it lost some of the stability that originally characterized it. But tlie automobile is again enlarging the social life of our county, permitting the establishment of larger business, educational atid social activities. The coming together of the rural people is now bringing about a new era. Cars drive miles to the school, the picnic or the business meetings of the rural people.

The Farmers Union has come into being and organized agriculture is now upon us. Numerous local organizations, each composed of from fifteen to one hundred members, are united in one county organization. These locals also unite in district organizations that own elevators, stores smd exchanges: the farmer is demonstrating that he is a business man as well as a tiller of tlie soil. Tliev ]m\e again enlarged the neiglihorhood do) bounds and today these bounds are even wider than in the pioneer days. The county organization is connected with the state union and through it to a national organization, in^ twenty-seven states.

By this rural organization, the i,iri:(.,- !i(hards(in cuuniy have united into one community, one thousand homes; five thousand farm people that are working in a solid body for the uplift of the agricultural development of the community. This movement being just in its infancy, no hand may write the tremendous import of the awakening of the farmers of this rich agricultural land to the possibilities that lie before them. It is causing them to think and think hard and fast. We can easily predict that almost every farm home will be reached ; the farmers will solve the social life, the economic distribution of their products and the soil maintenance far more efifectively than it has ever been done by entrusting it to outside interests. Fully conversant with his working power, the strength of his will and the possibilities of organized effort, the future of this county is contemplated serenely by the farmer.

If working almost alone, we have reached the climax of the first half century ; that we see today, as the palatial homes beside our highways attest, the commodious barns testify and the well tilled fields beside the road demonstrate, how mighty will be the achievements of the united farmers of the next half century. The tractor turns the stubble with a rapidity and ease never known; the cars carry the farmer swiftly and comfortable on his way to pleasure and business; his organization will enable him to secure just legislation and effectively to study and practice economical distribution and marketing of his products, build and equip tjie best rural schools in the world, educate and entertain his children on the farm, extend the social vision of his neighborhood life and build an agricultural environment surpassing the wildest visions of the most optimistic dreamer.

She buikled the greatest achievement of them all - mother, the architect of "home, sweet home." With a courage born of the love and hope of a parent she stepped across the gangplank of the ferry and turning reverentlv she gave -one last, longing look toward the Eastern horizon, where far away in the dimming distance lay the home of her youth. Tender and strong were the chords that bound her to the past.

Hope, love, ambition for the children and the instinct that bade her rise above selfishness, were stronger than any chain that ever clanked from the forge. Upon this hope and love she saw the rising vision of a million homes.

The past was but a memory, the future a stern Ijut beautiful realit}- ; the heart of our nation bows reverently upon her hearth-stone. Xot with the martyrdom of an hour did she lay her life upon the altar of home, but with an everlasting self-abnegation she faced the blizzards of a score of years and the droughts of their summers. Self -ambitions and the anticijiation of her youth she gently, but firmly, laid away and drew the curtain of hope and love before them. Let them lie in the secret place of her heart. Her God alone knows the sacrifices she made that day. and when the hands of the recording angel shall write the last record of her life, they will be emblazoned upon the unsullied page and we shall behold a tremenddus sacrifice.

She brought the flowers and fruits of that Eastern home and planted them upon the sun-baked, wind-swept jirairies: she watered and cared for them, shaded them from the sweltering sun and protected them from the lilasts of the blizzards until she saw the .splendid groves, the flower-adorned lawns and the fruitful gardens throwing their shade and colors across the plain. The footsteps and achieved ambitions of the pioneer mothers ha\e marked an impress upon our empire that time and eternitv cannot eflt'ace. Tt shall ever grow grandly and sublimel\- in our appreciation.

The mothers of Nebraska need no towering monuments to remind us that they lived and loved ; no tablets of bronze or stone, as every fireside w ithin our domain stands as a tribute to her memory. As the vine entwined and embowered the home that .she built, her love entwines our lives.