Springfield Township (part 41 of 69)

It is said to be a Pennsylvania idea that a good barn helps to build the necessary house, while an expensive house built first does not help build the barn; care of livestock and the grain produced is possible when barn room is provided, and the revenue is from the farm products.

The time to buy land is on the decline of the market, but the time to sell farm products is on the rising market, and the barn enables the farmer to take advantage of conditions. While a number of Clark County farms have been acquired through the succession of heritage, current expenses must be met and there are some local examples where the fortune has not been exhausted in the third generation. It is said there are only two generations between shirt sleeves, but there is no inherent reason why the third generation should let go of the fortune. While some Clark County land may only have changed ownership by inheritance, the future will tell the story.

While the acreage in Clark County is rated at 260,480, something is to be counted out for the towns and the waste land, and the 1920 census report places the tillable land at 241,540 acres; since the 1910 census estimate the tillable land at 241,631 acres, there is a loss of ninety-one acres; what is the explanation? In 1900 the acreage under cultivation was 240,903, but that allows for clearing and bringing more land under cultivation. Sometimes the fence rows offer the explanation, the farmer, losing ground to the unrestrained growth of briers and bushes, but that would hardly creep into the United States Census report. The value of farm property in 1920 was $42,962,095, which was an advance of $15,758,015 in ten years, and since the 1900 census quoted Clark County farm values at $16,930,454, the advance in twenty years of $26,031,641, throws some light on the economic problem - the high cost of living, which is usually attributed to the World war.

Beside operating their own land, 115 Clark County land owners rent other farm land, and sixty-one farms were operated by managers, and in some instances the owner lives in town and hires the labor on the farm, managing it himself. Someone remarked: "Now that every acre is utilized in pasture or cultivated crops, it is hard to reconcile the fact that only a generation ago some of it was outside pasture; now somebody utilizes every foot of it." A recent newspaper squib reads: "If Ohio keeps on in the way she is now going - and has been going for the last twenty years - it will not be long until we begin to read about 'abandoned Buckeye farms,' just as we have long been hearing of 'deserted New England farms/ "

"There is less improved farm land in Ohio today than there was a score of years ago ; and there is getting to be less every year. In 1900, according to the census report, there were 19,244,472 acres of improved land under cultivation, used for pasture and covered by farm buildings; in 1910 the acreage had decreased to 19,227,969, showing a shrinkage of 16,506 acres, while in 1920 it had shrunk to 18,542,353 acres, showing that in twenty years more than 700,000 acres already wrested from the forests of Ohio has been allowed to revert to brier-grown waste. In Clark County the conditions are different, in twenty years there being 639 acres additional although a decline of ninety-one acres was shown in the last ten years. In 1900 it was estimated that Ohio had 4.6 acres of cleared land to support each inhabitant, while the last census shows 3.2 acres, another potent explanation of the advance in the price of commodities.

result - the higher cost of everything. The 1920 census shows the income of Clark County farmers as follows: from dairy products, $1,011,766, while the total value of dairy cattle is placed at $1,082,942, and beef cattle valued at $516,376. The receipts from hogs were $1,085,375, and from sheep $194,000, showing the bulk of the income to be from the cattle industry. At the 1922 annual meeting of the Springfield Milk Producers' Association with more than 100 members present, all were united in demanding better prices from the milk dealers; it was decided to change from semi-annual to monthly meetings in order that the producers may better take care of their common interests; they had been selling milk at a loss, and some were ready to abandon the business. At this meeting Harry Anderson was elected to succeed David F. Snyder as president. Five delegates were elected to meet with the Miami Valley Milk Producers' Association, and W. N. Scarff reported a conference with authorities at Ohio State University with reference to the milk producing situation in Clark County.

Mr. Scarff was advised at the University that Clark County milk producers should establish a distributing station in order to take care of the surplus product and Mr. Snyder told of his own activities in urging legislation in favor of the milk producers; through the efforts of Ohio dairymen, favorable action was promised, and the Springfield association will continue its demands. Since farmers are balancing accounts and studying the cost of production, they are planning to be on the safe side - hence this agitation of the milk market question. Beside Mr. Anderson as president, the roster of the Springfield Milk Producers' Association is: C. W. Lawrence, vice president; George Winwood, secretary, and Clark Crabill, treasurer. Since 1905 the association has functioned in Clark County.

It was planned at the meeting to put on a membership campaign in an effort to enroll every milk producer in Clark County; while there are 150 members, there are about 500 producers. President Anderson said: "It is our aim to secure 100 per cent membership in the association; it Will be a formidable one if every producer joins with us." The association values the service of W. H. Stackhouse, who was among 148 men summoned from all parts of the country by Secretary Wallace of the Department of Agriculture, to a conference on agriculture. While Mr. Stackhouse is not a farmer, he is a manufacturer of agricultural implements, and a former president of the National Association of Farm Equipment Manufacturers. Mr. Stackhouse had always favored farmers and the recognition given him at Washington reflects honor on Clark County.

The milk producers are in favor of dairy inspection by public health officials, and they will use their own bottles, the dealers saying the average life of a bottle is about nine trips to a customer. Under a state law the use of bottles copyrighted by one firm by another is an infringement, on the same basis as the violation of laws protecting trade marks. Inspected dairies must show 70 per cent standard requirements, and score cards indicate the condition of the herds, barns and general sanitation. There is also a movement toward establishing a testing organization, to be known as the Clark County Cow Testing Association. Dean Ivan McKellip of Ohio State University explained the advantages, saying tests are made twice each month, and thus farmers may determine which are the valuable animals in their herds; records are filed at the university, and with the National Breeders' Association. The charter members of the Clark County Cow Testing Association are: Judge A. H. Kunkle, D. H. Olds, W. W. Garrison, Charles Hatfield, O. E. Lohnes, Frank Snypp, Floyd Carter, Caleb Jones, Elias Driscoll, T. L. Calvert, William Nelson and Harry Croutwater.

Some of the members of the organization have been testing cows for several months, and the new members began immediately. L. E. Valley of Ohio State University has been making tests an4 within a short time an association may be formed for daily tests. While bacteriology is not in all vocabularies, the mastery of bacteria is important to the health of the community. The Springfield milk distributors have official bacteriologists whose duty.it is to detect and eliminate bacteria before the milk is delivered to consumers; as an article of food, milk is most susceptible to the existence of disease germs. The study of bacteria in milk reveals some startling conditions.

It is estimated by the Ohio Farm Bureau Association that each cow supplies milk, butter, cheese and other products for five human beings, beside nourishing her own offspring, and numerous pigs, chickens, cats and dogs; even motherless lambs sometimes share her largess. Each cow has her dry period which varies from one to two months, and the careful dairyman as well as the average husbandman avoids having the cows all dry at one time. The pioneer mothers who knew nothing of the commercial butter colors, planned to have the cow turned into clover early; they liked to deliver yellow butter in Springfield. However, some of them lived to see the day when the whole milk was sold, and their supply of butter came from town.

While the milking machine is not in general use in Clark County, most dairymen have installed it; the expense of installation and the upkeep are taken into consideration. There is no longer any question about the use of separators, incubators and manure spreaders, and wherever milk is produced the silo has demonstrated its usefulness. In 1896 W. W. Hyslop of German Township installed the first silo in Clark County; he used it sixteen years, and because it was not standing where he wanted it in changing his feeding plans, he used the lumber from it as flooring in the barn ; since then he has installed three other silos. While many were prejudiced against the silo until after it demonstrated its usefulness - among them W. N. ScarflF, the day came when there were fifteen silos installed at White Oaks, and in a paper advocating the use of ensilage, Max M. Scarflf relates that in 1882, according to a survey made by the Department of Agriculture, there were only ninety-two silos in use in the United States.

Within forty years from that survey, there were 700,000 silos in use in the United States. When Clark County farmers first began discussing organization thirty years ago, they were beginning to hear of the wonderful feed, and now silos are scattered to the remote corners of the world. At White Oaks much forage other than corn is utilized in the silos, wild grass and weeds serving the purpose, cattle eating it with avidity. The paper as read before a meeting of the Horticultural society ends : "Let me impress again the fact that the silo is a necessity on the American farm today, and that the progressiveness of a man can be told by the number and size of his silos.'* While Mr. Hyslop had the first silo in Clark County, he was also the first man in Ohio to use silage for beef production; fie finds it an economy since all the corn is utilized, the composition different from the silage fed to dairy cows.

It is said that Clark County farmers have a progressive attitude toward improvements; the old methods were all right in their day, but advantages are being taken of invention; expenses have advanced, and intensive methods are necessary. Under the old method of feeding and handling the dairy products, dairying would be unprofitable. Farmers never fed livestock on such fluctuating markets as since the World war, and the experiment stations are feeling the difficulty as well as the farmers. Clark County farmers are advised to study Pittsburgh rather than Chicago markets, the prize winners at the International Fat Stock Show being prepared specially for that market. The by-products and soil fertility are two arguments in favor of livestock production on the farms of Clark County. Good cattle feeders are like artists and poets - they are born and not made - and a liking for it assures success. A well fed steer is a bulletin indicating the balanced ration, and the margin between the cost and the selling price - that is the essential thing.

Give livestock what they want and when they want it, and there is little danger of over feeding; the expert judges an animal by the condition of its hair, and plenty of water is - well, profitable, if the buyer is due and the. scales are in working order. A lick of salt creates the demand for water, and some farmers manage to secure good prices for aqua pura. A stockman came unexpectedly to the farm and had the coveted opportunity of seeing the steers on pasture. He would buy them from the field, but the astute farmer knowing the location of the water trough, engaged the attention of the buyer momentarily with his car. When he finally rounded up the steers the water had been lowered several inches, and he footed the bill for it.

While pasture was plentiful and livestock found its own living in the forest not much attention was paid to it. In the evolution process, the time came when the land was considered too valuable for pasture, and "corn and hogs" was the solution of the difficulty ; the wheel turned again, and dairy farming was recognized as the profitable thing. While the women had quietly supported the family with the cows and the poultry, the "corn and hog" farmers requiring all their money with which to buy more land on which to raise more corn and hogs, and the pendulum swung again.

Students from Ohio State University won first place in the collegiate livestock judging contest at the 1921 International Livestock Exposition, Chicago, the Ohio team scoring 4,178 out of a possible 5,000 points, winning first honors in placing sheep and horses, and showing knowledge of all domestic animals. Educators and agricultural experts lament the fact that the farm is unable to compete with the city in its allurements, but when farmer boys and girls have opportunities with livestock they enjoy it. There are schools of animal husbandry and household arts, and the young people are being educated back to the farm ; business men, bankers and farm leaders realize that helping farm boys and girls to solve their new and puzzling problems in agriculture is one of the most

A pioneer description of life reads: "We walked on dirt floors for carpets ; we sat on stools or benches for chairs ; we ate on puncheon tables, and we had forked sticks and pocket or butcher knives for knives and forks; we slept on bear, deer or buffalo skins before the fire, or sometimes on the ground in the open air for beds; we had our saddles or saddle bags for pillows instead of pillows of feathers; we had one suit of clothes of homespun which was ample for a year; we crossed creeks and rivers without bridges or ferryboats; often we swam them on horseback, or crossed on trees that had fallen over the streams; the above course of training is the college in which the settler graduated," and in contradistinction to the universities and colleges available to the rural families of today.

No longer can the boy of the Clark County farm expect to succeed by driving his wagon in the rut made by his father, and an education that enables him to cope with changed conditions awaits him; properly educating 11,000,000 boys and girls in order to render rural life more inviting is the task set before the extension workers of agricultural colleges, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Chapter Xii Diversified Products Of Agriculture

From time "immemorial," the "tiller of the soil" has been advised against having "all his eggs in one basket," and the dairy farmer knows the economy of having a few hogs following the cattle on pasture. While it requires different fencing, "hog tight, horse high and bull strong" is the kind of fence needed on any fafm where livestock is featured, and the last census shows that Clark County farmers receive an average revenue of $1,085,375 from swine, with many pure bred herds; in an ode to the pig, some one writes :

In order that the pig may thrive the corn crop is a necessity. The 1920 census shows that Clark County produced 2,582,453 bushels of corn, and 720,000 bushels of wheat, with small grains and fruits to supply the demand. As early as 1839 the Ohio Gazetteer and Travelers' Guide said of Clark County: "Taking its size and secluded position into consideration, it is one of the most productive counties in the state ; as yet it has no outlet to market save the country roads, but such is the fertility of its soil, and the beautiful face of the country interspread with durable streams, and well watered by springs, that a very large portion is under a high state of cultivation."

Corn is the most valuable crop raised in the United States, and much of it is converted into beef or pork before it reaches the market; the four leading crops: corn, hay, cotton and wheat, represent an annual value of more than $10,000,000,000, which is 70 per cent of everything harvested in the whole country. The Ohio Experiment Station Bulletin shows a steady increase in corn production, with a slight drop in acreage in the '80s, followed by an increased acreage since that time. Since more attention has been given to corn again the yield per acre has been increased, and there is talk about 100 bushels - and actual measurement confirms it, but in limited acreage under special culture conditions, the corn clubs showing the highest yield per acre. "Corn is king," and there are veritable corn kings in the country.

The 1921 corn kings of Ohio as "crowned" by the Ohio State University Agricultural College were John Gleason of Clinton County, who produced 113.1 bushels, and J. Elmer Drake of Clark County, who showed a production of 105.8 bushels of air-dried, shelled corn on tenacre plots. Eight Ohio farmers are now listed as producing more than 100 bushels, and this is the second time Mr. Drake has won the honor, having produced 101.25 bushels the previous year. There was a time when forty bushels was regarded as a big yield of corn in Clark County. In more favorable corn years, more farmers attain to the 100-bushel standard, one Madison County farmer having shown a production of

125.64 bushels of corn on a ten-acre tract, and a Muskingum County farmer attaining to 128.81 bushels, the highest production noted at the Ohio State University Agricultural College. The different townships in Clark County have held corn shows, and Paul Sherrin of. Madison Township who produced 118.5 bushels to the acre is proclaimed the 1921 champion boy corn grower of the county.

When Warren County was preparing for its centennial celebration some years ago, prizes were offered for authentic information as to who had produced the first crop of corn in the Great Miami Valley, and Clark County won supplying the information that John Paul, Jr., had grown corn on Honey Creek in 1792, the area then in Greene, but now in Bethel Township, Clark County. It has been related that the Paul family massacre in 1790, occurred while its members were outside the palisade preparing the soil for planting, the father and mother and three of the children falling victims to the tomahawk, while a son and daughter reached the cabin, and according to accounts, this son produced a corn crop two years later.

While some of the accounts credit Kreb and Brown with growing the first corn along Mad River in 1796, the John Paul, Jr., narrative won out in the Miami Valley investigation. The Paul family endured unusual hardships, and just recognition should not be withheld from this wilderness agriculturist. When Clark becomes a front line Ohio county in corn production, it should commemorate this frontier corn grower who won the laurels for Clark before it had established a name for itself among Ohio counties. It is related that when Kreb and Brown were growing their first crop on Mad River in 1796, David Lowry, who had just come into the community, supplied their table with fish and game and lived with them. He raised a crop the next year for himself, and also accompanied the surveyors who laid out the first road from Dayton to Springfield - that a few years before there was a Springfield.

It is said those pioneers who "consecrated the rich soil of Clark to the ennobling art of agriculture/' had their camps near the present railroad crossing on Mad River, and that it was the most primitive method of agriculture - the forked sticks and brush, and since Springfield has become a world center in the manufacture of improved implements of agriculture, it seems a far cry to stick-and-brush methods along Mad River. The Indians had grown corn there, the accounts saying that Gen. George Rogers Clark and his army destroyed several hundred acres of it in 1780, and mention is made of their green corn festival which was an annual occurrence.

"For this festival the hunters supplied the game from the forests and the women the green corn and vegetables from the fields; on this occasion they not only feasted themselves with plenty, but made offerings and did homage to the Great Spirit for his blessings. (They may have borrowed the New England Thanksgiving idea instituted by the Pilgrim fathers.) At this festival each year the council of women of the tribe selected the names of the children born during the previous year, and the chiefs proclaimed the names at the festival; these names could not be changed, but additional names might be acquired by acts of bravery or circumstances which might reflect honors upon the persons."

While "the crops grown by the Indians consisted mostly of corn, they cultivated beans and peas, and they had a kind of potato that captives among them said "when peeled and dipped in coon's fat or bear's fat, tasted like our own sweet potatoes."

While W. N. Scarff of White Oaks in Bethel Township paid $100 for ten ears of premium seed corn grown in Johnson County, Indiana, . by Klore the "corn king" of the United States until someone else wrested the title, because of his seed and nursery business, he could afford to do it for the advertising, and yet under the decline of market prices it was announced that corn belt farmers in 1921 received less than 5 cents an hour for their labor, and the labor of their wives and children - statement made by a speaker at an agricultural conference, but with the eight-hour day - eight hours in the morning and eight hours again in the afternoon - that allowed of some revenue from corn production.

In studying economics, farmers are advised to think in terms of commodities instead of fluctuating dollars, and they wonder why they must pay 400 bushels of corn for a wagon they used to buy for 150 bushels; they pay 350 bushels for a gang plow they used to buy with 125 bushels, and the corn farmers hit the hardest by the depression have discovered that the dollar is the common measure of values, and it is what they can get with their money after all. But after all the housewife who exclaims : has discovered the real secret of happiness - the way to reach the heart of a man, is to tickle his palate with things edible - delicacies, whether in or out of season.

Some dreamer exclaims: "The farmer has the privilege of going out in the morning sun, and taking off his hat to the beauties of the world. God is the great artist who with sunshine, rain and soil and shower, can combine colors and produce a burst of glory ; the mansions in the skies are not more delectable than the landscapes, and some of the habitations of earth. 'The earth is the Lord's/ and yet the hand of man has rendered some beauty possibilities an offense against the landscape - nothing cheerful, and all shade and shrubbery a minus quantity." Too many farm homes fail to combine the artistic sense with the utility idea, and the environment is unattractive; it was Alexander Pope who exclaimed : now that he must know the botanical names of vegetables, and the scientific names of the bugs that destroy them, as well as the chemical formula of the stuff that destroys the bugs, he is more than a farmer; he is an agriculturist. It is a twentieth century conception that the town man who owns land is an agriculturist - that the real farmer lives in the country. When a Springfield capitalist designated himself as a farmer because of land ownership, an acquaintance had his sense of nicety offended, and inquired why the opprobrium. It is said of some country folk that they are "city-minded, and of city folk that they are country-minded," and it is unfortunate that they cannot "change places with themselves."

While the farmer may not labor as in the past, although seed time and harvest still impress him, he must know how to manipulate levers, switches and buttons, and mechanical knowledge is his only salvation. It is a fast age in which mind is more than matter, and the master mind solves the problems of progress. Some one writes : "Gradually is all of the romance going out of country life; we almost shed tears to read the old home paper, and find that folks who used to go 'visiting* over Sunday now spend 'week-ends,' " and that social animadversion illustrates the change from man power to machinery in doing everything. The man who knows the farm and leaves it, is unable to manipulate the machinery when he comes back again.

The oldest good story is about the boy who left the farm and got a job in the city; he wrote a letter to his brother who remained on the farm, saying: "Thursday we autoed out to the country club where we golfed until dark ; then we motored to the beach for the week-end," and the brother on the farm replied: "Yesterday we buggied to town, and baseballed all afternoon. Today we muled out to the cornfield, and gee-hawed until sundown; then we suppered and piped for a while before we staircased to our room where we bedsteaded until the clock fived again," and those who know the routine of "feeding sheep and feeding sheep" understand all about it.

In the People's Forum of a Springfield newspaper was a discussion of daylight saving, one of the writers saying it was a misnomer - that it was not in the interest of farmers, but of golf players. Men who play golf find the hours of daylight insufficient, and since the farmer works all day and half the night, he uses the lantern for overtime. Those who breathe the morning air before the sun has warmed it, do not care to save it, and a wag penned the lines :

It was Thoreau who said : "Thank fortune we are not rooted to the soil, and here is not all the world." In one unbroken sentence, Old Timer raises the question: "How many of us cherish childhood memories of this new and sparsely settled country, when the only minister we had was the circuit-rider, and mother spun all our clothes and knit our socks, and the schoolmaster boarded round with his pupils, and corn pone and molasses were on the table for each meal, and we had oil cloth table covers, and we went to the spring for water, and drank out of the long handled gourd?" What a flood of memories, and with what lightning speed they correlate themselves. No place for the voice to fall when reading that reminiscent inquiry. Better not read it aloud. Old Timer omitted a cross-cut saw, and the other fellow riding the saw; no need of a gymnasium under such environment.

In the March issue, 1922, of the American Magazine published in Springfield, the Hoosier jokesmith - George Ade, says: "Nowadays we haven't any out-in-the-country. The telephone, the rural free delivery, and the motor car have co-operated to eliminate distance, until every villager lives just across the street from the city fellow, and every farmer next door to the villager. If you were to take an average working girl of Boston, a girl of corresponding social importance from any small city in Ohio, and the daughter of a well-to-do farmer in the corn belt and stand them in a row, attired in their most circus regalias, each of them short-skirted and high-heeled and hair dressed according to her own specifications, you couldn't tell which was which, unless the country girl should betray herself by putting on too much face powder," and not long ago in a discussion of city versus country life, the city girl objected to the country because she wears silk stockings. "Where ignorance is bliss," but until the city girl visits the country, she cannot be "wise" about it.

Chapter Xiii

One Clark County rural enthusiast said there is a progressive spirit among local agriculturists ; they are given to experiment, and apply the acid test to everything. Another declared they are conservative, and inclined to cling to time-tried methods of agriculture. Since livestock or animal husbandry go hand in hand with agriculture, some farm like the patriarchs, and the "cattle on a thousand hills" in this "neck o' the woods" belong to the hustling up-to-the-minute farmers; they seek to maintain land fertility and the standard of productiveness, and the theory of crop rotation has been reduced to practice throughout Clark County.

While Arbor day is observed there is also some inclination toward reforestation ; black locust and catalpa groves are not unusual, and living fence posts are seen here and there about the country. A staked-andridered fence is a rarity today, and where, or where, is the rail-splitter of yesterday? While there are regulation fences in Clark County they are built of wire, and what does the youngster of today know about fence worms? What does he know of the requisite skill in building a straight, rail fence, the eye of the master-builder the only plumb bob or spirit level used in doing it? Who said anything about laying the fence worm in the light of the moon, or was it laid in the dark of the moon to keep the timber from sinking into the earth?

The wire fence does not shelter the birds or the beasts in time of a storm, and lightning sometimes strikes them when they are near it; the farmers of today would make slow progress with the implements of yesterday; the reap hook, the scythe and the cradle had their day in the harvest fields of Clark County as well as the rest of the world. The arm strong mower - Old Father Time - is always caricatured with the mowing scythe, but the Clark County farmer has all the advantages of labor-saving machinery; when in need, Springfield inventors and manufacturers take care of the situation for them. The modern hay loader - W. W. Hyslop using it first - combines so many of the old time operations that Maud Muller is dismissed from the meadow, although:

"The murmuring grass and the waving trees - Their leafy harps sound unto the breeze - And water-tones and tinkle near, Blend their sweet music to my ear ; And by the changing shades alone, The passage of the hour is known," the most acceptable way of marking time in the world. The practical minded settler had a formula for a short winter - borrow money in the fall that comes due in the spring, in harmony with the Benjamin Franklin philosophy:

The importance of agriculture in its relation to the problems of reconstruction, and as the principal foundation of real prosperity, is more fully recognized today by the nation as a whole, than since the middle of the last century. While the vanguards are crying: "Beware! Watch your step/' because every appliance is being utilized to supply the oil in toil, the country is far from making full use of machinery. While "Watch your step" may be timely admonition, the agricultural problem is deeper than is indicated by current discussions which treat it as an emergency; when Secretary Wallace of the Department of Agriculture said that legislation in the interest of farmers is not class or group legislation, he was taking into consideration that agriculture is the industry that supports all other phases of development. Legislation in the interest of the farmer benefits the whole industrial group, and that describes the situation in Springfield most accurately, where the factories supply the needs of advanced agriculture.

This understanding of legislative needs renders possible the solution of some of the farmers' problems, which hitherto have been understood only by those engaged in farming ; the trouble is not with the argument, but with the application of it by politicians looking out for the farmer support. What the farmer needs is: adjusted freight rates, unrestricted markets, credits easily obtained and freedom to organize for marketing his products to the best advantage. While Secretary Wallace recognizes progress, he maintains that conditions are "out of balance," and recommends closer co-operation between individuals and groups in agriculture as well as in other industries. While there was rejoicing when the prices of farm products began to decline, the farmer continued paying the higher prices for his necessities, and thus the burden of reconstruction was shifted to agriculture.

While the farmer had the alternative of buying less, when he withholds his patronage other lines of business and industry suffer from it. With the use of improved farming machinery, the acreage under cultivation steadily increased for many years, but with the decrease so noticeable under decline of prices, the question of food supply is being studied; there must be some method of providing a reserve of food- stuffs, and under such system the farmer need not sell under the pressure of low prices; there is need of a better system of marketing. In some of the older countries grain crops are not rushed to market, but are stacked or put under cover, and are threshed and marketed as there is demand for them.

In 1921 farmers' purchases were below normal but prices are gradually coming to their standard except the rates of transportation; this increased transportation cost decreases the price of what the farmer sells, as well as increasing the cost of what he must buy on the open market; it catches him both ways, and while he has met the situation by buying less, he cannot escape the burden of fixed charges when he must realize on his own products. A dispatch from Columbus says: "A statewide agitation is being made by farmers to bring about freight rate reduction, and the movement has reached every county. One farmer sets forth his position and that of others who are dependent upon the soil by saying, 'It is difficult, under present conditions, to make the receipts from a farm meet the expenses ; with the prices that prevail for farm commodities, it is a matter requiring most careful financiering, and one of the agencies contributing to this condition is the excessive freight rates, affecting both the things we buy and the things we sell. It is the farmer who pays the freight, because with high rates he is obliged to accept lower prices in order to reach the consumer at all/"

President Homer L. Corry of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce had a request from the National Council Chamber of Commerce to send representatives to a conference held in Washington in February, 1922, and W. H. Stackhouse was asked to represent Clark County. There are two sides to the question, the railroads maintaining that they will be unable to continue the carrier business at a reduction of rates. Secretary Wallace cites world wide conditions as an inevitable result of the World war as at the bottom of the difficulty. He stresses the high freight rates, and the want of foreign markets, saying it would require some miraculous transformation for a period of adversity to be turned into an era of prosperity over night; big crops produced at high cost, with unemployment in other industries which lessens the buying of foodstuffs, are the immediate causes for present conditions in the world of agriculture.

It is an indictment of modern civilization when, with the unmarketed surplus in the United States because of prohibitive shipping rates, millions of people overseas are suffering for necessities, and others are starving. There is need of adjustment when the foodstuff production of 13,000,000 farmers is withheld because of transportation conditions, thus paralyzing conditions at home and abroad, and business men with leaders in agriculture are "putting their shoulders to the wheel to lift the farmer's wagon of state out of the economic mudhole," and thus restore rural prosperity. One economist said: "The plain facts are that the farmers in America are up against it. When they have asked for bread they have been given stones."

There is a difference between promises and performances and the agencies that must work for the improving of conditions are those in the hands of the farmers themselves. In periods of depression they have greater need of organization, and in the present hour of American agriculture's severest trial the farm organizations have an unlimited opportunity for service. The price the farmer receives for his commodities has little relation to that paid by the consumer, and more attention is being given to methods of distribution. When business manifests bad symptoms, the manager does not wait until it collapses to apply a remedy and students of the question recognize the need of the farmer for better organization for the purpose of marketing his product. He is too much at the beck and call of those who profit at his expense, and the chances of the middleman will be slim in future.

A news item from Columbus reads: "Aiming toward a concentration of effort on the weak points of different communities, 352 farmers' institutes will be held throughout Ohio during the winter months, according to E. L. Allen, state leader of institutes." Farmers have shown greater interest, and perhaps because of adverse conditions confronting them. Applications were received by the department for 672 institutes, while only 352 were secured, although about 200 independent institutes were held, and Clark County had a number of institutes in different localities. The institute movement started in the '80s and this year (1922) Ohio has thirty-eight men and fifteen women going about as institute instructors. Ninety-one percent of these "preachers of scientific agriculture" are from farms and return to them when they finish the course as instructors.

The attendance of Clark County farmers at the Farmers' Week meeting at Ohio State University indicates their interest, the enrollment from the entire state reaching more than 6.000 in the tenth annual session. In welcoming the visitors, President W. O. Thompson of the university said : "The hope of today lies in the fact that the American farmer is more intelligent than ever before," and the fact develops that Ohio's rural population has made more progress with its problems of illiteracy in the last decade than have the cities and towns. Beside the program of lectures, visitors to the university saw exhibits of livestock, grain and other farm products, beside witnessing the demonstration of farm implements. While Ohio farmers are using more implements and machinery than they did ten years ago when the Farmer Week was instituted, the country is far from making full use of available machinery. The 1920 valuation of implements and machinery was $146,575,269, which was an advance of 186.2 per cent in ten years.

In 1921, on the farms of the United States there were 134,169 trucks in use; there were 246,139 tractors, and still there were 17,000,- 000 horses, showing that "horseless" does not yet describe the age. However, it is predicted that in time the horse will be as unusual in farming as the bow and arrow in hunting. When farmers realize the possibilities of machinery the horse will vanish from the fields. Why, at the Farmer Week a mechanical cow was shown eating silage from a bin, and giving milk in a continuous stream, and it attracted much attention. Mechanical mannikins proclaimed the food value of milk and in the future little will be required of the farmer himself only to foot the bills.

It was President Theodore Roosevelt who established the Country Life Commission of which Secretary of Agriculture Wallace was named as a member, and its inquiries sent a wave of amusement broadcast, and the fourth annual conference of the American Country Life Association held in New Orleans in November took up similar questions. It discussed the age-old rivalry between town and country which has long ago been consigned to oblivion in Clark County. What town gent remarks about the country jake on the streets' of Springfield, or what gutter-snipe offers to whip the boy from the farm who shows himself in town? Why are all the doctors located in towns? Do juvenile courts and other child welfare agencies handle country problems on a par with those in town? Such imaginary differences do not exist in Clark County.

A student of the farm problem says: "Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that our agricultural problem will be solved if the farmer is restored to the relative position he occupied before the war. The farmer cannot hope through future years to obtain in the enhanced value of farm lands the reward for his heavy toil," and the future control of the market seems to be the solution. It is reported that American farmers are leaving the United States for countries where land is cheaper, just as there was a time when settlers were attracted to Mad River. The government land at pre-emption prices has all been taken up, and with the advantages known today few would want to overcome wilderness conditions in Clark County again. The stories of John Paul, David Lowry, Jonathan Donnel, Simon Kenton - why read fiction when such real life stories are a possibility?

While there used to be corn shocks standing in some of the fields until corn planting time again, where there are twin-cribs and silos that rule no longer holds in Clark County. In February, A. D. 1922, there were corn shocks but silos were minus, and it does seem like double trouble at planting time to have to remove the last crop from the field. A recent writer declares that the novelist is sure of the reader's tears when he describes the farm hand who pitches hay all day long under the hot sun, or the woman who is compelled to mend her children's clothes, wash the dishes and make the beds - nothing to do but work - but the fact remains that the happiest folk in the world are those who work, and the twentieth century gentry who breakfast in bed and work only when they feel like it, are designated by "trouble shooters" as the bane of society.

The Clark County pioneers were busy folk - busy all day long - and while there may be advantages in poverty and deceit fulness in riches, most men and women of today make some effort to accumulate property, and it is said that whenever a man is born into the world there is a job awaiting him. The owner always has a job on the farm - is never out of employment, but with the decline in price of farm products the wages paid for farm labor declined with it. While there are apprentices in factories, the story of the "bound boy" belongs

When the United States went into the world war it seemed to mean ruin for the farms. The boys and girls rushed to the cities, attracted by the alluring wages, many of them commanding more than wages, designating it as salaries. They liked the city with its diversions and comradeships. They were lifted out of the atmosphere of the farm, the humdrum of milking cows, planting seeds and doing chores. The farm house was supplanted by the boarding house. But when the armistice ended the war and labor was not in demand, when jobs were at a premium, it changed the picture. When the swivel chair jobs vanished from the earth, the migration was toward the country again.

Chapter Xiv Forward Movements In Agriculture

While the first man in the world was placed in a garden, there was no hoe awaiting him on the fence, and there is no account extant that he labored until after he had eaten an apple at the hand of the woman God had given to him. When knowledge between good and evil was thus imparted to them, Adam and Eve began hustling for their own livelihood, and it seems that they turned their attention to agriculture. From that time on until within the memory of men and women still living, there was little connected with agriculture beyond the mere humdrum existence. The log rollings and the raisings were all that brought people into social intercourse at all.

While the premium list of the Clark County Fair of 1921 designates it as the sixty-ninth annual event, there is mention of a fair held in South Charleston in 1850, which seems to have been the first rural display in Clark County. At that time Jonathan Peirce specialized in raising mules and Shorthorn cattle, and he was the only exhibitor of thoroughbred livestock. The stalls for livestock were the fence corners, and that was two years before there was a fair in Springfield.

Another account says that at the first fair held in South Charleston in 1852, Mr. Foos of Springfield exhibited trained hogs in a side show. The local fair secretary, Elmer Jones, has no record further than the annual catalogue, and if the fair began in 1852, and did not miss any years, 1921 would be its sixty-ninth annual session. When the first fair was held in Springfield, a platform was erected and prominent men entertained the visitors. At this meeting Judge Harrold advocated better farm improvements, better livestock, and more grain, saying that Clark should be one of the greatest Ohio counties. Threescore and ten years later the same ideas are being promulgated before the farmers of Clark County.

When the 1921 annual report was read it showed revenues amounting to $24,599.37 and passed the board with expenses aggregating $24,- 410.70, leaving a balance of $188.67, showing that, as president for the last four years, Wilbur J. Myers of Moorefield Township had kept the finances on the right side of the account - a surplfts rather than a deficit. At the reorganization meeting W. W. Hyslop of German Township was elected president; vice president, Van C. Tullis of Pleasant Township; treasurer, J. R. Durst of Mad River Township, and secretary, Elmer Jones of Springfield Township. The reorganization meeting was held the last day of December. All departments of the fair were to be placed under the management of competent men at a later meeting.

The Clark County Fair Association owns a forty-nine acre tract that blocks city residence improvements along Yellow Springs Street. It was acquired many years ago and has advanced in value. It is looked upon as an excellent building site, but while the association maintains the grounds in such excellent order it serves as a park for the residents of that community. There are good buildings, a good race track and a cinder path for use when racing stock must be kept off the speed track. There is enough shade, and there are shelter facilities so that many horses are wintered there. The stake events attract good horses. In 1921 there were six stake races and seven class events, but a reduction of speed events was under consideration by the new board.

The Clark County Fair rivals the Ohio State Fair in its stock exhibits and race events. In 1921 there were 105 exhibitors of Duroc Jersey hogs, and 122 exhibitors of Hampshire hogs, with other branches of livestock equally well represented. In seasonable years there are fine exhibits of fruits and grains and vegetables. Both agriculturists and horticulturists contribute to the display. The Farmers' Institute, the Grange, Farm Bureau and Horticultural Society all promote the success of the Clark County Fair. The livestock breeders' associations contribute,and again the fair contributes to them. There are feeders and breeders, and when one fair is over they begin planning for another. There are organizations among thoroughbred livestock men except Shorthorn cattle. Only a few Clark County men specialize with this beef cattle type, and W. W. Hyslop who introduced the use of ensilage as a feed for beef cattle, belongs to a Shorthorn association in Greene County.

Clark County farmers have thoroughbred animals of the dairy type, and wherever there is a dairy there is a silo. While the hog raising industry seems to be overshadowed by the dairy interests in Clark County, local farmers sold 61,723 hogs through the Springfield Stock Yards in 1921, and that means more than $1,000,000 revenue from swine. A newspaper squib says : "The farmer needs more dollars for his hog, the consumer wants more hog for his dollar, and the real hog is the in-between - the middle-man." There is a story told that in the '40s - and that means early history - when Paist & Company packed pork at South Charleston, they only paid $2 to $2.50 a hundred for "hogs on foot." and John Hedrick who was inclined to speculation bought a quantity of packed pork, and "wagoned" to Columbus with it, losing money in the_ venture. His profit did not pay the expense of it.

Another speculator of that period, Seth Smith, brought sixty head of cattle from Highland County to Greene Township, but he was unable to get more than $7 and $8 for good milch cows, and lost money. It has not been a losing venture at all, as Clark is rated as a foremost livestock county. A number of local farmers are studying the comparative economy in the different methods of feeding, and some are bringing feeders from the Chicago Stock Yards. Those cooperating through the extension service of Ohio State University in the study of feeds are : C. A. Steele, A. E. Wildman, M. J. Baird, Lewis McDorman, C. R. Crabill, John German, E. E. Clark & Comapny, and William Roberts. It is said that 120 Ohio farmers are feeding under Ohio State University supervision, and results will be reported from the experiment.

It is of interest to know that in 1832, when James Foley of Moorefield Township represented Clark County in the Ohio Legislature, he introduced a measure to "prevent unsound cattle from running at large." Mr. Foley lived many years in Moorefield Township, and honor is due him because of his public spirit in protecting the owners of livestock; that long ago cattle run in the woods outside, and cow bells were a necessity. A shortage in the number of young men enrolling as students in the veterinary colleges is reported, and an alarming shortage of veterinaries is prophesied. A veterinary always does a good business in Springfield. There are about 10,000 veterinarians engaged in practice in the United States and Canada, and fewer students enroll than die of old age. It is said that when normal conditions prevail again, more young men will be attracted to the study of veterinary science. While motors and tractors are supplanting horses, livestock is not yet eliminated from Clark County. There are breeders of Percheron and Belgian horses, and all kinds of track horses are bred within Clark County. While track horses are seldom seen on the roads they are produced for the races, and now and then a carriage team is seen in Springfield. Pedestrians turn and look after a team of carriage horses now as they used to turn and look after automobiles. There are still a number of hitching posts in front of modern homes in Springfield. In 1921 W. L. Snyder sold a horse for $20,000 that was shipped to Italy. It was Mohawk, Jr., bred by James Clark of Moorefield Township, the farm known as Mohawk because of the sire that was kept there many years. Binland, with a trotting record of 2.38, was the fastest horse ever bred in Clark County. In 1918 he won the Transylvania classic at Lexington. He was once owned by Mr. Snyder, but before the record was established. Mabrina Gift, owned by John Monohan, was the first stallion to trot a mile in 2.20, after being sold to Buffalo parties. There are horses in constant training at the local fair grounds, and horsemen are urging fair managers to offer better inducements for speed.

Before the Ohio State Board of Agriculture had acquired a permanent fair grounds at Columbus, the state fair was held in different counties, always holding the second session in order to induce local boards to make necessary improvements, and in the 70s it was held in Springfield. While W. W. Hyslop said it was in 1869 the first session was held in Clark County, others say it was 1870, but the concensus of opinion favored 1871-2 as the years. Clark County had to provide additional ground to accommodate the fair, and after the two years in Springfield it was held in Dayton. By that time the permanent grounds were acquired in Columbus, and the state fair was no longer held in different counties.

Clark is one of the exhibiting counties in the state fair at Columbus, and it is announced from the Department of Agriculture that it ranks ninth in the number and value of premiums won in 1921. While Ohio has eighty-eight counties, only seventy-five of them made any exhibit. There were sixteen exhibitors from Clark County, and they were awarded a total of $1,995.23 in premiums classed as follows: Sheep, $213; dairy, $73 ; poultry, $486.50; farm products, $591 ; horticulture, $25.50; women's work, $61 ; horses, $120 ; swine, $399, and cattle, $26.63, showing that all kinds of livestock were shown from Clark County. G. W. Wildman was the largest individual premium winner, and second place was taken by Wilson Brothers. Other Clark County winners at Columbus were: Howard Gerlaugh, Chandler Raup, Laura Larkin, Springfield Dairy Products Company, Forest M. Baker, Charles F. Hauck, William Fox, George Grube, Charles Mauneng, Mrs. R. C. Hensel, Howard Scarff, Mrs. A. A. Gray, M. E. Roberts, S. C. Bell, Chinchinna Stock Farm. Peter Knott and W. W. Hyslop.

It is estimated that approximately 3,000,000 people attended the different fairs in Ohio in 1921, and since the fair is primarily an educational institution, it is deemed advisable to eliminate some of the questionable concessions. It is said that the judging teams sent out from Ohio State University College of Agriculture to attend fairs made an excellent record, winning first honors at the International Livestock Show and the National Dairy Show, and second at the National Swine Show. The dairy products team won four out of five cups offered, including sweepstakes, and it was placed first, second and third in individual ratings for judging butter, milk and cheese, thereby winning eight out of thirteen medals offered, and Clark County is usually well represented in the student body there.

Clark County is well represented both in exhibits and attendance at the International Fat Stock Show in Chicago, the 1921 visitors reported being: Clarence Laybourne, Howard Smith, Merritt Roberts, C. R. Crabill and Howard Gerlaugh. Some years there are Clark County corn exhibits in Chicago. The international competitive spirit was apparent in the intercollegiate livestock judging contest where students from Canada and the United States were rivals in the arena. It was a close race between representatives of the two countries, Ohio's team of five student judges winning 4,178 out of a possible 5,000 points, the Ontarian Agricultural College with 4,164 points taking second place in the contest. It was in the horse and sheep classes that Ohio made the best showing with 1,075 tallies on horses, and 1,164 on sheep. The distance to Columbus renders it an easy matter for Clark County citizens to attend the state fair, and they are thus familiar with events there. With Farmers' Week at the University and a week at the fair, in addition to the Clark County Fair, Clark County farmers are abreast of the times in the world of agriculture.

At the annual meeting of the Clark County Pomona Grange, the officers chosen were: C. E. Jones, master; C. E. Roller, overseer; Mrs. Catherine Koontz, lecturer ; Elmer Sigler, steward ; Mrs. Agnes Swallow, secretary-treasurer; Mrs. Rathburn, chaplain; Russel Ream, assistant steward; Mrs. C. A. Phares, Ceres; Mrs. Roberts, Pomona, and Mrs. Weaver, Flora. The Clark County Pomona Grange dates back to the '70s, and the first organization was at Donnelsville. Among the leaders in the Grange movement were Samuel Deitrich, J. B. Trumbo, J. B. Patton, J. B. Crane, R. L. Holman and Rei Rathburn. Cooperative buying was the underlying principle in the beginning, but gradually the plan drifted away from business to social features, and the Clark County Granges at Fremont, Beech Grove, Pitchin, Rockway, South Vienna, Olive Branch and Lawrenceville are now all community centers of social activities.

The Grange as organized in the 70s was simultaneous in many Ohio counties - a farmer's business organization, and as such it was conducted for years, building halls and thus owning its own property, and there are a number of Grange halls in Clark County. Since the consolidation of schools providing better auditoriums in the different townships, the Granges are inclined to use them as their meeting places, thereby allowing the school property to serve the whole community. When the Grange became a social center more people were attracted to it. It is understood that the idea of creating an organization limited to those engaged in the pursuits of agriculture originated with Oliver Hudson Kelley of Massachusetts. In the early '50s Mr. Kelley entered a farm near Itasca, Minnesota, but in 1864 he was appointed to a clerkship in the Department of Agriculture at Washington. In 1866 he was constituted agent of the department to investigate farming conditions in the southern states just beginning reconstruction after the Civil war, and he reported: "I find there is great lack of interest on the part of farmers," and being brought face to face with the conditions he resolved to institute something to change them.

Mr. Kelley said: "Where we find one who reads agricultural books and papers, there are ten who consider 'book farming* as nonsense. After making a general investigation, I found the circulation of purely agricultural papers was but one to every 230 inhabitants. Their system of farming was the same as that handed down by the generations gone by ; of the science of agriculture, the natural laws that govern the growth of plants, there were ninety per cent who were totally ignorant. There is nothing now that binds the farmers together, and I think such an order (The Grange) would act with the most cheerful results." The Hon. John W. Stokes, acting commissioner of agriculture, very heartily endorsed Mr. Kelley's plan, and in 1868, backed by a few prominent farmers he commenced the organization in the different states of subordinate lodges of the Patrons of Husbandry, now known as the Grange.

In January, 1873, the National Grange was organized in 'Georgetown, District of Columbia, with Dudley W. Adams of Iowa as master, and from that time forth the Grange has been a factor in all the efforts launched to better the condition of the agriculturist. "Father Kelley" died in 1913, after the success of his labors were a demonstrated certainty. He saw accomplished by the Grange many things of untold value to the people, the recognition of the equality of women in all walks of life - they were admitted to the Grange on the same basis as men. The enactment of laws for the creation of farming experiment stations which now dot every state in the Union is an outgrowth of the Grange. The rural free delivery of mail service, the teaching of agriculture in the public schools, and the encouragement of the system of farmers' institutes - in short, many advances in rural life are due directly to the efforts of the National Grange. The Grange is non-partisan, non-sectarian, and open to all rural families. It is the rural community center. The members meet and discuss issues, formulate petitions and when necessary ask for favors. When farmers band themselves together and ask for a measure, it means more than individual effort. The Clark County Pomona Grange has accomplished much through cooperation. While there are but seven active Grange organizations in Clark County, there are 878 subordinate Granges in Ohio, with 102,159 members.

The Farm Bureau office is a clearing house for all Clark County farm problems. It is a community center for a great many citizens. The American Farm Bureau Federation grew out of the war time necessity of speeding production, and in 1916, the bureau was organized in Clark County. When the United States Government laid its hand on Clark County, and asked for greater production, W. N. Scarff and others became interested in the Smith-Hughes Vocational Law recognizing the county agent plan, and cooperating with the Council of Defense in an effort to place town boys on farms, the initial steps were taken, the state would give $1,500 toward such an organization.

From the beginning Mr. Scarff had been president. At the recent election C. A. Steele became vice president, succeeding Howard Smith; Albert Hayes succeeded Stanley Laybourne as secretary, and Asa Hodge succeeded himself as treasurer. The first farm agent was W. E. McCoy who remained until February 1, 1920, being succeeded by E. W. Hawkins. On December 31, 1921, there were 952 members with the number increasing rapidly. While each township is organized the membership in some is greater than in others, ranging from sixty-three in Pleasant to 132 in Bethel. These two townships represent the extremes both in geographical and agricultural conditions. Dean C. G. Shatzer of Wittenberg College defines geography as including everything connected with the lives and occupations of men. While Pleasant is in the hill country, Bethel is in the valley of Mad River.

While the farm bureau membership fee was $1, there were 450 members. In 1920 the fee was changed to $10 and the membership has more than doubled itself. Each township has its local organization, that cooperates with the county board, as the county organization is amenable to the state bureau. The state farm bureau is controlled from the Department of Agriculture of Ohio State University, and the farm agent is an extension member of the university faculty. It is the comment universal that one engaged in doing research work in local history would cultivate the acquaintance of the pioneers in order to gain the necessary information. There is a saying, "Reading makes a ready man while writing makes an exact man," and Mr. Hawkins comes into personal contact with many, and since he keeps an accurate record of his transactions, he is an authority. He has an unfailing fund of historical information.

The future of agriculture is well taken care of through the Farm Bureau, Mr. Hawkins coming into personal relation with the boys and girls through the corn and pig clubs. When he visits a farmstead it is usually for a conference with the boy, and proprietary interest is thus fostered in the farmer of the future - he has his corn plot and his brood sow, and someone is taking note of his operations. A number of Clark County boys have won special honors both in the county and state, Charles Cauliflower and Amy Nicklin representing the boys and girls' pig and food clubs, enjoying a week at the university at the expense of the Clark County Agricultural Society. John Prosser, Jr., won first place in a corn show recently held in Columbus, and Paul Sherrin has been proclaimed the boy champion corn grower of Clark County, with a yield of 118.5 bushels, while his brother Cleon Sherrin produced 113 bushels of corn to the acre.

The Springfield banks financed both the corn and pig clubs, Paul Sherrin receiving $25 and his brother $15, and first and second prizes were awarded in each township additional to the county winners. In 1921 there were 134 boys and girls enrolled in the various competitive clubs in Clark County and it is recognized as the outstanding corn club county in Ohio, said Guy Dowdy of the Boys' and Girls' Club Department of the University. The winners were given a banquet by the bankers' group who pledged the $400 given in prize money, the spread l>eing laid at the Chamber of Commerce banquet rooms. The speaker,

Mr. Dowdy, said : "If you are going to build the right sort of boy for farming he must have a good foundation, and it is best made by carrying out some scientific methods of agriculture. That is what corn club work does for him. Farming requires the best brain and brawn," and statement was made that the Clark County Boys' Corn Club average production was eighty-six bushels, which is twice the average yield in the state.

Speaking for the bankers who provided the banquet, George W. Winger commended the boys, assuring those who did not win prizes that their efforts had not been in vain, and Gen. J. Warren Keifer gave a reminiscent story of his own farming experiences, saying his knowledge of agriculture had been to his advantage. Paul Sherrin and Jack Drake, representing the boys of the club, told how they raised their corn and spoke of the benefits a boy receives who engages in the competitive work, and they thanked the bankers and the Farm Bureau for their efforts. Each year brings forth new winners, and in 1920 Edwin Lohnes of Mad River Township, who produced a fraction more than 118 bushels to an acre, was state champion, that honor going to Montgomery County in 1921, with a yield of 126 bushels.

The picture of Edwin Lohnes, whose success stimulated a number of Clark County boys to enter the 1921 contest, is shown. Each boy does all the work himself in producing his plat of corn. The corn show has become an annual feature in some of the townships, and it is said visitors frequently remark about better corn at home, but it is only the exhibitor who wins. A careful selection of the prize-winning ears is urged, as sometimes the carefully selected sample wins over a better field of corn. There are domestic and household exhibits, and boys and girls are in an atmosphere of advancement in everything.

While the Clark County Farm Bureau uses the basement of the Mad River Bank, when the court house is rebuilt it will be sheltered there again. The eighty-eight counties of Ohio are divided into twentytwo four-county groups, and Clark is in group fourteen, associated with Miami, Champaign and Darke counties, and meetings are held in the different centers, these counties co-operating in movements in which they have mutual interests. The State of Ohio appropriates $800,000 for the Farm Bureau extension, and the returns are from improved methods and better citizenship. On Washington's birthday, 1922, the Clark County Farm Bureau invited the farmers of the county to witness moving pictures, two films, "Spring Valley" and "Homestead" being shown, throwing light on some of the problems of country life, the entertainment given them in the Fairbanks Theater. The attendance indicated that the effort of the bureau was appreciated and the social side of rural life is considered in Farm Bureau activities. The census report shows 11,000,000 boys and girls on farms in the United States, and the Farm Bureau aids in the club work now being carried on by the federal department of agriculture and by the colleges of agriculture.

While an optimistic tone is noted in recent business surveys, Clark County farmers know all about fluctuating markets. Along in the '30s, when a farmer was coming to Springfield or going to Dayton or Cincinnati, he would tramp out sufficient oats to fill all the linen bags he had and he would collect the vegetables and apples and what butter his wife had ready, and all was in readiness. It required several days when the trip was extended to Cincinnati. Before there were railroads drovers went to Cincinnati with livestock, even driving turkeys from the vicinity of Springfield. When night came on, the turkeys roosted in the trees, but they were on the ground early in the morning. David Lowry's experience shipping venison hams by water via Mad River and the Miami did not prove a success, and livestock was driven to market.

In that period cows sold for $5 and $10 payable in trade, and $40 was a good price for a horse; trained oxen were from $25 to $30 a yoke, and dressed hogs brought from $1.25 to $1.50 in Cincinnati. A veal brought 75 cents, and wheat from the granary brought 35 and 40 cents. The hams of deer brought 25 cents each and the settler generally sold the hide in Cincinnati. Deer hides were used for patches in the days when buckskin breeches admitted men to the best society. When a man cut a bee tree in the woods he was sure of 25 cents a gallon for the honey. Shelled corn brought 50 cents a barrel, and when men went out among farmers they received from 25 to 50 cents a day and their board. The clearing and the harvest field afforded labor and the sons often went out among their neighbors, and the scale of wages in war times makes it seem an incredible story. When farmers wagoned to Cincinnati they planned to haul something both ways, and when the Indians were intimidating the settlers the story is told that Andrew McBeth and Jeremiah Reese brought a four-horse load of powder from Cincinnati for Moorefield Township farmers. Although the Indians did not use guns, they respected them, and Moorefield Township settlers were taking time by the forelock - in time of peace they made ready for war.

In the early days the distilleries along Mad River gave the Clark County farmers a market for their corn. While other mills and distilleries changed hands often, the Snyder distillery was in operation through many years. It is described as a hip roof frame with cog wheels on the roof, and for many years it was the workshop of James Leffel, who invented the famous turbine water wheel and who is credited by S. S. Miller as having coined the expression "It is better to wear out than to rust out," heard so frequently. In the days of the Snyder distillery, there was a Snyder cooper shop, where many "old timers" used hoop poles and staves in making barrels. How could the "wet goods" be marketed only in barrels? There were by-products then as now, and the slops were used by farmers who furnished cheap pork on the market.

When the Snyder distillery was in operation, whisky was on the market at 15 cents a gallon. When capitalists began investing more money in breweries, rye was used in the manufacture of whisky and f the price was higher, whatever the quality. When the mast was ripe in the forests the settlers would round up their hogs and mark them, each settler having his separate identification and then it was "root hog or die" until butchering time, and they would round up the stock again, each settler taking any animal bearing his private mark. They would pen the hogs and cornfeed them to improve the quality of the lard, and that casts some light on the low prices. The pork was on the market without much expense, hogs selling by the head without the trouble of weighing them. Live chickens were sold at $2 and $3 a dozen and turkeys at 30 to 50 cents apieces ; ducks at 25 cents and geese at from 25 to 50 cents. Butter was 7 and 8 cents, and beefsteak was 6 and 7 cents, but who has benefited from it ?

The best paid labor was 50 cents except in harvest, when it reached 75 cents. There was a gradual increase until the breaking out of the Civil war, when there was an advance because of the withdrawal of large numbers of able-bodied men from productive industries, and who will say that history did not repeat itself in that respect when the United States entered the World war? Between 1840-50 farm labor reached $16 ft month without board and $12 with board, but in 1862 it had advanced to $18 and $14, or 90 cents a day without and 75 cents a day with board, and by '65 the scale was $26 and $20. with transient labor in harvest at $1.50 without and $1.25 with board, and some fabulous prices were recently paid, many farmers unable to secure labor. One of the diaries consulted says that when 50 cents was the maximum daily wage men worked from sunrise till sunset, but when wages advanced to $1.50 ten hours constituted the day.

The hours of labor are shorter in the towns and that explains the exodus. When a factory man engages to work on a farm he still wants to regulate his hours by the whistle at the factory. Springfield and Clark County folk encountered the profiteer while the United States was at war and they are assured that pre-war prices will never prevail again. While eggs were 3 cents a dozen in reconstruction following the Civil war, eggs and butter are two commodities that still command war-time prices. People have hqard of the difference between the high cost of living and the cost of high living and that it is the consumer who pays the freight - the high cost of everything. While it is said there was an agricultural society organized in Clark County in 1840, it did not accomplish as much in the way of controlling the markets as is accomplished by the farm organizations of today. The society of that period accommodated both Clark and Madison counties, but there is little known about it. The Institute, Grange and Farm Bureau have all advanced the interests of agriculture in Clark County.

On January 23, 1910, the Springfield News carried a feature story, "Trapping in Clark County an Established Industry," and "once upon a time" the Fountain Avenue and Main Street crossing was designated at Trappers' Corner because of the number of skins handled by Springfield merchants. The newspaper article begins: "If some of the conquerors of the air now making such spectacular flights would fly above the fields of Clark County just at daybreak some morning, rather an unusual sight would greet their downward gaze. They would see the frozen and snow-covered areas dotted here and there with trappers as they made the early morning rounds of their traps. Few except those who do the trapping realize the scale on which the fur business is carried on, nor do they realize the amount of trapping done, hundreds of men and boys making good livelihoods by trapping skunk, mink, muskrat and raccoon. One man in Harmony Township has realized over $100 every month this winter."

Creek, which was the last one seen in Springfield. George Bennett had deer hunting dogs that would catch a deer and hold it until he could "stick it." Once when he had shot a deer and was ready to cut its throat, it attacked him. One time Ephraim Vance of South Charleston, who was a celebrated hunter, was in the woods at night when a pack of wolves were howling on his trail. He knew they would tear him to shreds and started to run for a tree in an open field. Seeing a haystack, he climbed it, not having time to reach the tree. Driven by hunger, the wolves were desperate. They surrounded the haystack growling and fighting through the night, but when daylight came they sneaked away to their dens in the forest. It was a cold night and Mr. Vance was almost frozen when he slid off of the stack and went home for breakfast.

When game was plentiful about South Charleston, the settlers would send rabbit hams to Cincinnati by Nat Moss, who drove the stage. They would salt the rabbit hams and pack them in barrels, and Moss, who was a mulatto, would market them in Cincinnati or Columbus. One night he was burned to death in Columbus. Albert Reeder relates that one time when the squirrels were migrating across Lisbon Creek, the settlers caught them on the water gate. They stood there with clubs and killed all they could carry home. A squirrel is a timid creature and it is an unusual story. When wild turkeys were plentiful, men and dogs would round them up over the open fields. The dogs were trained to stay under them and keep them on the wing until they were exhausted and when they would drop the settlers rescued them from the dogs without apparent injury.

While the Smithsonian Institute now offers a premium for wild pigeons, there was a time when they flew across Clark County in such numbers as to darken the sky. They would form figures and fly in military precision. A flock of wild pigeons in transit made more noise than a flock of aeroplanes today. Because of the encroachments of civilization they have no place to rear their young and they are almost extinct. There is no rendezvous - the wire fence does not afford a friendly shelter. While pigeons are domesticated and squabs are on the market, there was a time when wild pigeons were numerous where livestock was fed for the market. Even the wild geese and ducks do not migrate in such numbers as when there were friendly shelters en route. There used to be cranes along Mad River and the smaller streams.

When R. Q. King, who was an out-of-door man, lived, he wanted to have a farm with nothing but cranes on it and there used to be both white and blue cranes in the forest now Snyder Park. There was a time when all kinds of wild animals were found along Lagonda Creek at the mouth of Mill Run. There was a thick growth of trees and underbrush and the holes in the rocks forming the cliffs afforded hiding places and everything known to the forest was found within the area now covered by Springfield. It was always the hunting grounds of the Shawnees. Who would not like to return to the halcyon days of nature in Clark County? Even the stork does not make many visits in some households.

An old account says : "Turkeys were seldom shot, as the ammunition was too valuable to waste upon them. They were generally caught in traps or pens, with the lower part or one side left open. Corn was strewn around and inside the pen and they became easy prisoners. If the turkey was young it was skinned and roasted on a spit, the grease being caught in a dripping pan. Stoves were unknown and all cooking was done on the hearth or over fires kindled out of doors. In the scarcity of other game, opossums were used for food - the dish in special favor among the negroes. The skins were prepared for use by the hunters, and a mark of the cabin was the hides stretched to dry outside of it. How about the traveler who asked if there were any Lutherans in the community, and the woman of the cabin said there were all kinds of skins on the mill - they might be Lutherans.

Deer skins were tanned by Clark County settlers. The hair was first removed by ashes and water and the skins were then rubbed with soft soap, lye and the brains of the deer, all these substances containing alkali. After lying a few days in a steeping vat or trough, the deer skins were stretched over a smooth, round log from which the bark was removed and scraped with a graining knife. Such dressing rendered them soft and pliable, and many of the settlers were skillful curriers. Bear skins were dressed with the hair on, and they were used for robes, carpets or bed clothing. While wolves were numerous and panther screams occasionally pierced the forest, domestic animals were seldom destroyed by them. Fish were plentiful and were caught in different ways - hook and line and sometimes with a gig. This is a game for the boys in boats. Quails came later - seemed to follow civilization.

The department of fish and game reports that deer are still at large in portions of Ohio, and the biological survey under the United States Department of Agriculture reports that following two recent mild winters there are thousands of coveys of bob white, Ohio listed among the states where they have multiplied rapidly, and it is said that Ohio is soon to have a forest reserve game sanctuary and public hunting grounds comprising 10,000 acres along the Scioto. The State Department of Agriculture has been instructed to acquire it. It is an unpro* ductive area and hunters and fishermen are promoting the scheme and doing much to perpetuate nature conditions. Within the last year 140,000,000 fish were produced in hatcheries and distributed in the rivers and lakes of Ohio. The game conservation and propogation system established several years ago is yielding returns already, as indicated in the survey made by the United States Department of Agriculture.

On November 15, 1921, a news item in Springfield papers read: "Hundreds of Clark County hunters will journey to the field today in search of rabbits. The season closes January 1," and 2,410 hunting licenses had been issued to date, hunters having prepared in advance for the opening of the season, and for six weeks all farms that are not posted against them will be the mecca of hunters. In a desultory article published January 8, 1922, Dr. J. W. Gunn of Springfield says that Nimrod has sold his shooting irons, and invested the whole proceeds in golf stocks, and he quotes: "Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them," but, like the parable of the sower, that Bible assertion was made under different conditions in the world.

The first and second annual fox drives in many localities were announced in the winter of 1921-22, and while Reynards galore would be rounded up they usually escaped except one or two unfortunates, the people in automobiles watching the drives not rendering effective service when the foxes wanted to go through the lines. The fox drives were social affairs, the women serving sandwich lunches and the proceeds being used in community work. There were two sides to the question, some commending and others condemning it. When the fox was auctioned off, the churches received the proceeds, $nd people thus patronized the fox drives who would not sanction the bull fight. Along this line of defense one comment was that Clark County was overrun with ravenous foxes raiding hen roosts and carrying off children. The menace does not seem to warrant such defense. The fox drive was supplemented in some communities by raids on rodents, and this seems warranted, since in Clark County alone thousands of dollars worth of grain is destroyed every year by rats. The settlers sometimes took the puncheon floors out of their cabins in breaking up the rendezvous of rodents. When driven by hunger they would attack the sleeping family.

While trapping seems to belong to the pioneer period in the history of Clark County, it is said that the knobs bounded by South Vienna, Catawba and New Moorefield - the highest portion of the whole county - still afford good trapping, and hundreds of traps may be seen along Sinking and Beaver creeks and in the fields of that locality. It is nothing unusual for one man to look after fifty traps covering an area of 500 acres. If along the streams alone that number of traps would cover the distance of two miles, four hours will be spent in visiting them. The genuine trapper may be seen trudging through the snow with his gun and the traps thrown over his shoulder. He goes alone long before the sun rises, and if he meets with success he has a busy day skinning the animals and stretching the pelts to dry so that he can dispose of them in Springfield.

It is reported that "Bully" Harrington and David Cuddy of the Knobs secured eleven skunks from one hole, receiving $30 for the pelts. Muskrats are found along the stream while mink are found in hollow trees. Both traps and dogs are used in catching the mink and raccoons are caught at night with "hound dogs." When a dog strikes the scent of the raccoon, he soon "trees" it, and many trees have fallen because of wild animals sheltered in them. Men would chop down trees for the "coons," who would not do it for the firewood in them. Opossums are found in hollow logs and are trapped or hunted with dogs. High water is welcomed by trappers as it drives the animals out of their hiding places, and when there is snow on the ground any kind of an animal may be caught more readily. Trapping is good while snow lasts, the mink being the first animal in and the last out, in the trapper's parlance with reference to the condition of the fur. When the snow leaves it loses its gloss, and the pelts are not worth the trouble of catching the animals. The skunk ranks second and both are best in the months of January and February.

breakfasts, luncheons and dinners of Ohio's feathered folk consists of about 3,000,000 pounds of weed seeds and other things, and the farmers of the state will be saved $3,000,000 because of their appetites. The bulletin is issued by the United States Department of Agriculture. It is estimated that twenty pounds of weed seed will cover an acre, and with the seeds and worms consumed by the birds they are an advantage rather than a menace to agriculture. With four quails on each square mile in Ohio, 600 tons of weed seeds are consumed in the winter months, and the reports of the biological survey indicate that quails consume 130 different kinds of weed seeds, but, like sin, weeds are not eradicated without continual watchfulness on the part of the husbandman and farmer.

The last word is not written about agriculture until horticulture is given its relative place in farm economics. The Clark County Horticultural Society was organized February 15, 1896, for the promotion of horticulture and relative industries. It meets the first Wednesday of each month, and a basket dinner is a feature of each meeting. W. N. Scarff of White Oaks farm and nursery has been its president from the beginning and the present roster is : Vice president, Dr. P. E. Cromer, with Mrs. Cromer as secretary-treasurer. N. E. Deaton and Mrs. Scarff are in charge of the musical features. The fruit growers of Ohio are well organized and the Clark County horticulturists rank foremost among them.

America has given to the world its principal food plants and long before the white man came the Indians were engaged in intensive agriculture. They made use of nuts and berries, particularly the hickory nut, walnut and black haw and the cranberry was also used by them. While the Indians used these things in their wild state, the white man has cultivated and improved the varieties. The man who plants a fruit tree is a benefactor, doing something for those who come after him, and in 1800 James Galloway planted an orchard on Mad River, being contemporary with Johnny Appleseed, whom tradition says, once visited Clark County. There is a Chapman Creek and his name was John Chapman. He was born in 1775 at Boston and died in 1847 at Fort Wayne.

An article in The Survey says: "The tale of John Chapman or Johnny Appleseed is already taking its#place among the folklore stories of the continent. For fifty years he went barefoot through the wilderness, clothed only in an old coffee sack with holes for his head and arms. He sowed orchards. To the Indians he was a great medicine man. He made his medicine with the first west-flying bees and the first of the west-blowing wheat." Vachel Lindsay, who affects something of the Johnny Appleseed character, writes :

"J. Appleseed swept on Every shackle gone Loving every slashy brake Loving every skunk and snake, Loving every little weed, J. Appleseed - J. Appleseed."

The story goes that Johnny Appleseed visited cider mills in Pennsylvania and collected the seeds which he distributed throughout Ohio and Indiana. When he entered a home he would lie on the floor and ask if the family wanted a blessing from heaven, and sometimes he planted the seeds in alluvial soil, returning years later and asking remuneration when someone had located there. He was spoken of as a Christian going to heaven through the Northwest Territory. Were he going through today a lunacy commission would investigate him.

In the reminiscent notes of S. S. Miller is found the statement that the berry or small fruit industry in Clark County began at Husted, which draws from Mad River and Greene townships. Berries thrived in that locality, many growing raspberries, blackberries and strawberries as a source of revenue finding a market for them in Springfield. They were not cultivated at all by the pioneers. The tomato is another delicacy not used for food among the settlers. Clark County farmers who study the adaptability of the soil, find that undulating land allows of both agriculture and horticulture, and it is said that the Scarff nursery has put New Carlisle on the map of the world. While there are other nurseries, the one at White Oaks is the oldest in Clark County.

Ohio ranks sixteenth as an apple-producing state and plans are under way among orchardists to perfect an organization for marketing apples. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is the slogan of the Apple Growers League, and The Ohio Farmer suggests the slogan, "Sell Ohio Apples in Ohio." In past years good apples have decayed in the orchards because dealers were considering quantity instead of quality. When there were more Clark County forests there was better protection for the orchards, and half a century ago apples were plentiful and there were many cider mills in operation. The apple-cutting afforded the social opportunity, the young people of the community meeting to peel and core apples, and apple butter was made as regularly in the same kettle that was used for soap-making or butchering. Sometimes there was a brass kettle used in "stirring off" apple butter.

In "them days" a barrel of cider would be supplied to the town family who wanted it for $1.25 a barrel, and they would be furnished home-grown apples for their own apple butter. The children on the farms knew what it meant to pick up apples for making cider. The load of apples and the cider barrel were taken to the mill and the farmers ground their own apples fcnd squeezed them into pumice in the press, coming home at night with sweet cider in barrels. It is related that Frederick Funston, whose grandson became the famous Gen. Frederick Funston, was killed in an accident at a Donnelsville cider press. The Clark County Horticultural Society makes a study of pruning, spraying and all that is connected with fruit culture. What has happened to all the old-time rambo, pippin, winesap and russet apple trees? Those names were household words years ago.

Springfield is known as the greatest plant-growing center in the world. It is the greatest producing center for roses and small shrubbery that may be sent by mail or shipped by express. While there are

Clark County nurseries that ship their products to all parts of the world. Millions of roses are shipped from Springfield. The Innesfallen Greenhouse established by Charles A. Reeser in 1877 and since operated by the George H. Mellen Company was the first mail order house in the world to ship rooted plants, although catalogue houses are numerous now in Springfield. Mr. Reeser learned the florist business with Peter Henderson, who deals in seeds, and urged him to propogate roses and ship the rooted plants. Mr. Reeser later came to Springfield and demonstrated the possibilities, conducting the business for several years and making a success of it.

While there are now half a dozen big mail order houses shipping rooted roses to all parts of the world, using catalogues to secure the patronage, there are about thirty smaller growers who wholesale their product to the mail order houses - and thus millions of roses are grown in Springfield. In the mail order greenhouses very little comes to maturity; it is the stock they produce, leaving their customers to produce the roses. At the Innesf alien greenhouses there are 110,000 square feet under glass, and many people are employed in conducting the ever-expanding business. Some of the other greenhouses are as large as the Innesfallen, which happens to be the oldest in the world specializing on rooted roses. Sphagnum moss is used in wrapping the roots. It is a Wisconsin product that holds moisture, and much care is exercised in preparing stock for shipment. Roses and ferns are rooted and shipped in quantities from Springfield.

While much of the rose culture is under roof, hardy varieties are propagated and they are also grown in the open field. Roses and ferns predominate in the rooted mail order plants, and the American Rose Company originated the Teddy Roosevelt, which is a spore from the Roosevelt fern. While ferns grow wild, the Boston fern is the first improved variety. Hybridizing is a science in both rose and fern culture, and thus new varieties are placed on the market. There are , "infinitessimal nothings" to watch in the life of the florist, and that is one job in which "eternal vigilance is the price of success."

Springfield is the city of roses - the best 60,000 population city in the world. The sale of rooted roses has given the city its appellation and few exhibition roses are shown in local greenhouses that cater to the mail order patronage. The growers do not allow their stock to bloom, but hold it back to vigorous growth, leaving the customer the pleasure of having the roses. While they are grown under glass, many roses are produced without artificial heat and they do not suffer from being transplanted to the lawns and gardens. Each mail order house has its list of customers, but at the Innesfallen greenhouses when customers do not respond for two years their names are omitted. The list of names remains in fireproof vaults only when in use, trucks being provided so that heavy books are pushed in and out with the minimum of labor, women being employed in the mailing department.