Dane County, Wisconsin - Chapter 6: The One-Crop Period, 1905

Chapter 6: The One-Crop Period

It will no doubt be objected that there never was in southern Wisconsin a time when one crop was raised so exclusively as to warrant the title given to this chapter. We look back to the tobacco culture of early Virginia, or to the cotton production of the gulf states in ante-bellum days, and unhesitatingly speak of them as one-crop periods. We speak glibly of the old Norfolk fourcourse system as practiced in England for a century previous to the depression of 1875, yet does anyone suppose that the tobacco growers of Virginia or the cotton planters of the South would have accepted the term "one-crop system" had they been accused of practicing it ? Or does any student of English industrial history think that the Norfolk system was followed with such conscious care and precision that one could predict the periodic return of a certain cereal to a particular plot as an astronomer predicts an eclipse of the sun ? However, the term "one-crop period" was chosen advisedly and serves the purpose of giving a general idea of the conditions of these different times and places. Likewise, it must not be understood that every other crop was insignificant; yet seen in perspective even at this short range, it appears to the observer that dairying, stock raising, the growing of other grains, were, all combined, but mere incidents in the general business of attempting to grow wheat. That is to say, wheat was the staple ; it was the crop produced for the market; the crop from which a money income was expected.''^

The reasons for turning attention and energy so exclusively to wheat culture from the first settlement up to about 1870 are too numerous to be stated in a sentence. To begin with, the question as to what crop would flourish in the new country was a grave one. The belief was general that corn could not be raised to advantage. True it was raised by the Indians, but this was a small variety, and was not a sufficient testimony to overcome the preconceived notion that Wisconsin was a little too far north to be reckoned in the corn belt. Or, suppose corn could be raised in large quantities, it was too bulky and too cheap to stand transportation a thousand miles to market. This latter argument was also conclusive when applied to the alternative of raising oats, it being conceded that oats would do tolerably well, at least as to yield.^^ Barley ^* and rye did not seem to gain in favor for a long time, principally because there were greater possibilities in wheat.''* As a matter of fact they were both more certain to make a fair yield, and towards the latter part of the period barley did gain a considerable significance.

The reasons urged against stock raising were mainly two : first, it was not generally believed that grass or clover would flourish here ; and second, quite as important, it was thought that the winters were so long and cold that the cost of housing and feeding must necessarily consume the profits. The poverty of the settlers was one of the most important factors in deciding the channels along which their energies should flow.''* It required capital to invest in stock, and the l^eeping of stock required the additional outlay for fences and barns.

The belief that feed could not easily be produced was only natural, since cultivated grasses and clover do not take kindly to the conditions of early pioneer life.''* They will not choke down weeds or brush in the woods ; and not until prairie grass has been partially killed by cropping and trampling can anything better be induced to take its place ; even if the wild land is first plowed, tame grass does not succeed well until after the sod is rotted.

In the case of wheat all seemed promising; it would do well on new land ; in fact it was on new land that it did its best. Very little capital was required to begin wheat farming. A breaking team and plow, a harrow, and some seed wheat was enough for a start. While the acreage was small this was about all that was required with the exception of a wagon in which to haul the crop to market. The entire work of harvesting was done at first by hand. The sickle and the cradle in the farmers' hands constituted the reapers. The flail was sometimes used in threshing, but more often oxen or horses were made to tread out the grain as in ancient times. Men even made it a business to go about the country to do threshing with a pair or two of cattle as the sole threshing outfit. The grain was stacked around a circle or open space some thirty or forty feet in diameter. Preferably the stacks were left till the ground froze and then on this open space, scraped as clean as possible, the grain was spread, and the thresher, with his own oxen and those of the farmer for whom he was working, entered the ring and used alternately the lash and the pitchfork to keep the cattle in motion and the grain properly turned and shaken. In this way two men could thresh and clean in an indifferent manner fifty or sixty bushels of wheat in a day, and the thresher would take his pay in wheat, probably about four bushels.''^

These very primitive methods soon gave way to something more modern and effective. The fanning mill was introduced about 1840; a "moving threshing machine*^ came into use, and went out almost simultaneously, in 1846.''® This machine consisted of little besides a small cylinder and a set of "concaves," with the ordinary teeth. The machine was mounted on a wagon, the power being applied by a chain running on a sprocket-wheel attached to one of the rear wagon wheels, and the work done as the vehicle was driven about the field. The straw was scattered broadcast from the rear of the wagon while the grain, chaff, and dirt fell promiscuously into the box. It is needless to say that farming operations were not revolutionized by this invention.

^Th\B is from a conyeraatlon with a Mr. Payne of Prairie da Sac, who worked at this kind of threshing as far back as 1845. See also Life in Prairie Land, Eliza W. Famham, 283.

A year or two later, a small stationary threshing machine was imported from Scotland;^* still this was not a "separator" and it was not till the appearance of the well-remembered "Buflfalo- Pitts Vibrator" about 1848, that anything striking was seen in the work of threshing. This with the appearance of the McCormick reaper in its various forms, the N. P. Many combined reaper and mower, and a little later the "Marsh Harvester," made it possible to raise wheat in large quantities.®®

The amount of wheat raised before 1840 was insignificant and was about all used up near the place where it was grown. The yield had been good and the anticipations of the farmer were aroused to fever heat. Yields as high as sixty or even eighty bushels per acre were reported and the quality was beyond anything else received in the eastern market.®^

In 1840 the crop exceeded all previous records; the straw stood stiff and tall, yet loaded almost to breaking with heads filled with plump, hard grain. Everything favored a maximum yield. The soil was still rich in phosphates, due largely to the ashes from innumerable fires. It was principally winter wheat which was then grown and the deep snow of the previous winter had kept it blanketed from the weather and left it in prime condition for growth in the spring. Reports of Wisconsin wheaJ:-growing went the rounds of the press and it was made to appear that a few acres of this matchless soil would secure a family against danger of want for all time to come.®^ This was just on the eve of the great influx of Norwegians and Germans, who were accustomed to wheat fields in their native lands, and thus were easily convinced that wheat was the crop above all others to rely on here. Strange as it may seem, the question of markets did not become alarmingly important for some years, the immigrants requiring the bulk of the surplus. The milling industry was for a long time inadequate to the needsi Probably this was owing to the poverty of the settlers, and to poor communication with the East,

-^''The amount of land that a farmer could cultivate was determined by the amount of grain he could harvest." - From a letter from Mr. Robert Steele of Lodl, Wisconsin.

-»See Niles* Register, 58, 310. Many such articles may be found In the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal, etc., for the year 1840.

With these conditions it can easily be understood why there was no great excitement over canals or railroads during the greater part of the decade between 1840 and 1850. The world had not then learned to want the news of the antipodes to be served at breakfast ; the question of selling produce was not vital ; and as to buying articles from the East, the westerners were passively willing to be humbugged.

The first intimation that there was a limit to the wealth of the wheat fields came in the disguised form of some partial failures in the winter wheat crop during the '40's ; that is to say, failure and prosperity had about the same start in the race. Part of the wheat winter-killed and it was soon noticed that the only place where it seemed reasonably safe from this trouble was in the well-sheltered fields in the woods and to a less degree in the oakopenings ; on the prairie it uniformly failed.'* But spring wheat had been tried and found to produce a good crop in these open places, so the wheat fever was merely allayed a bit and showed no symptoms of subsiding. Spring wheat never equalled winter wheat at its best, either in quantity or quality, but while the land was new the returns were moderately good.

Being thus soothed and reassured, the farmer was ill prepared for the rude awakening which came with the failures of all varieties of wheat from 1847 to 1853. For a time he would not be persuaded that the shortage was anything worse than a mere temporary misfortune caused by unfavorable weather; his faith in the soil was unshaken ; and his hopes for the future were slow in waning. But there were several dormant forces which now asserted themselves, and compelled the farmer to face the facts^ First in importance and persistency were the debts, contracted recklessly^ which now became due.'*^ Creditors had previously been satisfied with the interest, which at the rates charged would equal the principal somewhere within four to eight years. Now

Another force whfch injured the farmer had been working away quietly - ^impoverishment of the soil. It was believed that the soil was good for an age without any attention to replenishment. How any intelligent set of men could be so blind to the fundamental truth of farming as to think it possible to subtract from a given sum without decreasing it, is beyond comprehension; but it must be remembered that Wisconsin soil did appear almost infinitely richer than the granite farms of New England, and even those who came from New York or Ohio had not, for the most part, lived in those states long enough to see the first virgin richness of the soil destroyed. At all events, the vision of a soil which could hold its own under the system of constant robbery was pretty thoroughly dispelled by 1851. No longer could the failure of wheat be charged to caprices of the weather, to poor seed, or to sowing in the wrong time of the moon ; the fact of weedy, hard, unresponsive fields was in evidence. All at once there was great interest in scientific farming; the I-told-you-so prc^hets were ready to account for all the trouble; agricultural societies sprang into existence in nearly every county, and the poor farmer was berated and advised by editor, money-lender and his own fellow sufferers. Accounts of the conditions, and some of the causes for them are given by contemporaries :

"As to the manner of cultivation it is rather slovenly. First they have attempted to cultivate too much land with very limited means ; next, they have been deluded with the notion that wheat could be grown successfully for an indefinite period of time . that manuring, rotating crops, seeding down with timothy, clover, and other grasses . . . was altogether unnecessary. To surround a quarter section of land with a sod fence, break and sow it to wheat, harvest the same and stack it, plow the stubble once and sow it again with wheat, thresh the previous crop and haul it to the Lake, was considered good farming in Rock county and it continued from year to year ; hundreds confidently expected to win by going it blind in this very unscientific manner. Three years out of eleven have produced good crops of winter wheat/'®*

That the deterioration in quality was fully as serious as the decline in quantity of wheat, is shown by the fact that Wisconsin wheat brought the lowest price in the market wherever it sold.*^ A little care on the part of the farmer would have served to keep the quality up somewhat, at least for a time. A few seemed to know that ordinary barn-yard manure had a wholesome effect on land that was losing its available plant food, yet it was with rare exceptions that even the small amount of such fertilizer which each farmer had at his disposal was utilized. Handling manure was not fashionable, and no one wished to be thought eccentric Yards were left till they could no longer be used conveniently because of the annual accumulations; horse stables were moved when the available space for dung heaps around them was occupied. Occasionally the manure was carted off to a marsh or creek and there dumped where it would no longer offend the eyes and nostrils of the aesthetic farmer but would be carried as far as possible from his premises.'®

Occasionally a farmer tried the experiment of fertilizing a piece of land and published the results.®® The Englishmen were the exceptions to the general rule in this respect, they having learned the importance of fertilizers in their home country, and in consequence were among the most successful farmers of southern Wisconsin.®® mentioned summer fallowing but it was seldom tried, in fact there is no reason to believe that it was practiced in this county at all, though it was not entirely unknown in other parts of the state.** Fallowing has not at any time become common in this region, and for a very good reason: it is not needed; but at the time when small grain was raised eight or ten. years in succession on the same land, it would have destroyed weeds and given the soil a tilth such as was unknown from the time the land was new till the advent of com as a main-stay in farm economy.

Thus at the beginning of the second half of the century the Wisconsin farmer was involved in debt ; was following the same groove which was started by the earliest settler ; was thoroughly discouraged; He blamed the weather, the banker, and the legislator, but considered that he himself had done all that strength of body and mind could enable one to do under such adverse circumstances. The weather had for some years been unpropitious and a change for the better took place ; the legislature also became kindly disposed and passed several bills in the interest of the farmer, among which was one appropriating one hundred dollars a year to the country agricultural societies ; recommendations for tariff reform were made to Congress, and inducements were offered to manufacturers to establish industries within the state.** These expedients were not wholly in vain, but they were inadequate to repair the damage already sustained. The bankers shoved no unwonted tenderness toward the embarrassed farmers, and the number of foreclosures of mortgages from 1846 to 1853 was not only great but continually on the increase.** For the most part the whole farm was not taken at once, but a forty or two for part payment of a debt.

In very many cases the amount of encumbrance under which these executions were made was no more than two or three dollars per acre. Interest remained at about the same figure, that is, nominally at ten per cent, for long-time loans, twelve per cent, on short time, while practically it was whatever the exigencies of each particular transaction would bear, - often double these rates. The inability of the farmer to pay these absurd charges was the immediate cause of so many mortgage foreclosures. Many gave up farming as a bad job, others moved to a newer country, not a few went to California.**

Perhaps the hardest to be remedied of all the ills which beset the farmer were those acquired or inherent weaknesses of his own character, for with all his admirable qualities he was in many ways improvident. He complained that he could not keep cattle because it would take so much extra bam room and fence; yet

**Tlie records in the office of the resrister of deeds show this to be true, and advertisements of land to be sold nnder mortgages may be found by the score in the Wisconsin State Journal for the years named.

there was plenty of material near at hand, often on his own farm, to build all the fence he could possibly need ; and as for barns, at least comfortable stables could be built with no other outlay than the labor required to cut the logs and put them in place ; or they could be sawed and made into a fine frame buildSng if a little money could be raised to pay for the sawing and carpenter work. In many parts of the country convenient building stone was to be had for the taking, and some very respectable houses and barns still standing were made of it. These are some of the historic possibilities; the facts are that the improvements up to the time under consideration were pitifully poor.®®

These conditions were in a great degree the outcome of wheat farming but, and this was more serious, these very conditions were beyond all else, the deciding influences in preventing a change to a better regime. Cows were to be had for twelve or fifteen dollars apiece, but this availed nothing to a man without money or credit even though he were paying twenty-five dollars a year for butter and cheese and letting grass and hay go to waste.®^ The same difficulties confronted him at every turn and thus we have the anomaly of a class of intelligent men who could not raise wheat, yet who were unable to quit the attempt and begin one of a dozen things which oflfered more returns for less energy. It seemed that something would of necessity happen before long or the very inertia of the system would carry the farmer to the foot of the ladder and all but compel him to start on a new career in a rational way - and something happened. The price of wheat rose from thirty-one cents to a dollar seventy cents between May, 1854, and the same month a year later.'®

This remarkable rise in price is usually attributed to the Crimean War, and no doubt correctly. Other produce advanced in price, but not in the same proportion, as wheat was the specific article in demand. The eflfect of this boom was electric. There

--"... a western settler will live for many years on hiar farm without ever haying a bam, or other out building of any kind, except a very small corncrib, and sometimes -a stable, the dimensions of which correspond better to those of a poultry house than anything else. If bams are built they come along after many years under the head of admissible luxures." - Life in Prairie Land, Eliza W. Farnham, p. 283.

was no longer any thought of quitting the wheat industry, for even if the yield was small, the prospect of nearly twice as many dollars as bushels was enough to overcome all tendency to radical change. So the change that actually did take place was manifested in a new crusade in search of wheat land. Immigration from the eastern states and from foreign countries took a new start Prairie land which had once been black-listed, now became so much in demand that it would sell at almost any price and on any terms. One man who still lives in the town of Dane paid twenty dollars per acre for an eighty, with interest at twelve per cent, and thirteen per cent, commission, making it twenty-five per cent, for the first year. As elsewhere noticed, it was under these conditions that the prairie was finally settled, and the prejudice against such land once for all silenced. The new impulse to wheat was sadly brief, but it was sufficiently long to bring with it evils which were long-lived. Prominent among these was the craze for horses to take the place of oxen ; this was the first general move in that direction and the purchase of a team was in many instances the first act of a little play in which bankruptcy was the last. A span of good horses sold as high as four hundred dollars, and twenty-five per cent, interest was not unusual.*' It takes a year or two to subdue raw prairie and reap from it a crop of wheat, and by the time any considerable quantity had been produced on this high-priced land the price of wheat had dropped to its old level or thereabouts. Did the farmer then revive his disposition to try another form of agriculture? By no means ; he had again renewed his vision of wealth to be gleaned from his wheat fields, and this vision, even if a trifle dim at times, kept him plodding faithfully along in its pursuit through the remainder of the decade. Prices were low, crops were poor, debts accumulated ; but in i860 when it again seemed that a change to profitable farming was imminent, another lease of life came in the form of a remarkably heavy crop.^^ This is not hard to account for. The drouth, and rust, and rain, and blight, had in turn or in conjunction prevented the wheat from sapping the nutriment from the soil, and now they took a year off and the granaries were filled to bursting. The price was still low but this was offset by the yield, and again the farmer tacitly resolved to sink or swim with the wheat industry.

With the outbreak of the Civil War the following year, prices started on the up-grade and continued high for the remainder of the wheat period ; but there were other considerations even more serious than the price.^ About i860 the chinch bug on his northern march had reached Wisconsin; this was certainly ominous, but no considerable share of the crop was destroyed until 1864, in which year and for the two succeeding years, the insect made a clean sweep of the wheat fields.* But thinking that when things were at their worst they must mend, the farmers kept the acreage up to a point near the maximum, and until almost the ' close of the '6o's "the wheat crop scarcely lost prestige with our farmers." There were new forces at work to keep it in the lead, among which were, "scarcity of labor essential to all hoed crops, and the increase of mechanical facilities for harvesting" which caused wheat to be cultivated "with more than former zeal and energy."' Other cereal crops about held their own.*

The increase in the pi ice of wheat and the scarcity of labor during the war turned the attention of many ingenious men to the improvement of labor-saving machines to be used in sowing and harvesting wheat. Wisconsin was in the lead with these inventions. A Mr. Warner of Prairie du Sac constructed a reaper which is said to have done satisfactory work, and E. W. Skinner of Madison likewise won the admiration of the farmers by making a reaper which seemed to them wonderful.* However, there was one of Wisconsin's soldier boys carrying an ordinary rifle in the Army of the Tennessee who was getting ready to be heard from. In the first place, he was dissatisfied with his rifle and spent his leisure moments throughout the war in attempting to

^As in the prosperous period of the preceding decade the farmers decided that oxen were too slow for the times, and within a few years almost eyery man owned a team or two of horses. As before, horses were high, bat general bigh prices enabled the farmer to meet most of his obligations, and the transition from the one class of draft animals to the other was accomplished.

^We haTe here an example of the helplessness of an indlTidoal In competltloii with a wealthy firm; either of those men coold make a reaper that would satiafy the trade, but neither, nor both, could keep abreast with Cyrus licCormiek^ who could buy the patents of a dozen Inventors and combine them.

perfect the "pin-fire'' breech. In this he was at least partially successful, but a shrewd fellow came around and tried to bluflE him out of a patent, accusing him of stealing the idea ; however, the stranger would compromise, and they struck a bargain at seventy-five thousand dollars. Taking this money, the inventor at once turned his attention to a self-binding attachment to the harvester. There was already a machine which bound by using wire, but to this there were many objections, and a "twine binder" had been suggested by both farmers and inventors.** This man had watched his mother at her wheel, tie, with her left hand alone, what was called the "granny knot," and it seemed to him that it was done so easily and mechanically that an artificial hand moved by a chain or gearing could be made to perform the same trick. To make a long story short this was John F. Appleby of Mazomanie, Wisconsin, who, after spending the money received for h*s gun and as much more loaned him by a friend and fellow townsman named Thompson, perfected the famous "Appleby binder" which may be seen today on almost any binder in the market.®

Thus Wisconsin had evidently solved her own problem in the matter of wheat production ; it could now be harvested with little additional expense for labor ; but the blaze of triumph turned out to be a torch at her own funeral. The economy reacted in favor of her competitors for the great wheat fields of the West now came to the front with their endless quantities of a superior quality of grain. The only advantage Wisconsin had over the farther West was in transportatioUj and this was a matter of small moment after railroads were once built,^ in no wise adequate to balance the unexploited fertility of the new districts. The verdict was read in the weedy fields and shrunken and chaffy grain of Wisconsin, in marked contrast to the clean, full-weight product of Minnesota and Dakota. It was merely a new chapter in the same law which a generation before put Ohio at the head of the list of wheat-growing states and then remorselessly dropping her down to insignificance, passed the honor along to be held

wire binder which seems to have worked well was inyented by S. D. Carpenter of Madison. See Wisconsin State Journah December 29, 1866, Aogusrt 25, 1867.

for brief periods by Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and so on in turn. Wisconsin had held out well in the struggle, she had used up a considerable share of the fertility of her soil; had worn out a generation or more of hardy farmers ; - she can never be charged with inconstancy, for she held on till the bitter end. During the latter part of the '6o's, wheat crops in Dane county were almost complete failures and by 1870 wheat could no longer be called the principal crop. In a minor way wheat culture persisted and still does, but for the great majority the wheat tragedy had ended.

Aside from the question of making a living for himself and family there was no subject of more vital concern to the farmer than that of transportation facilities for surplus produce. This was not merely a problem for legislative consideration ; it was a live, personal interest, and every farmer was ready to assume, not only his little share of responsibility in deciding between two pos« sible contingencies, but the leadership, so far as he could com* mand it, in shaping the course that public activity should follow. It could hardly be expected that any body of men of such different characteristics in nationality, politics, and education, would agree on the means to a solution of even so general a question as road building ; and they did not. One party looked to the federal government for aid in the form of land grants ; another advocated the bonding of cities and towns for bonuses to be given, with the prospect of indirect returns from the company thus encouraged ; many persons were willing to mortgage their farms for a thousand or two thousand dollars, or take shares in the road ; a very few would have the state take charge of the matter." To a degree, each of these factions accomplished its end.

The party which looked to the federal government for aid was from the beginning a strong one, and the advantage to be gained from these contemplated improvements was always shown to be national, not merely local. In a letter to the territorial representative in Congress, Governor Doty stated the problem as it then appeared : "To open a free communication by water from Lake Michigan to the upper Mississippi so that the Mississippi steamboats can meet the lake boats, is a great national object. . . . No calculation can be made of the advantages to trade and to the Union, hereafter, of this navigation."* A siscorid recommendation was for the improvement in navigation of Rock River and its branches, Pecatonica River, and Eastern Fork, to connect with Milwaukee River, and of the latter stream to Lake Michigan.

gress asking for an appropriation of money for constructing a railroad from Milwaukee to some point on the Mississiiq)i. It set forth that the territories of Iowa and Wisconsin had contributed so much to the national treasury from land sales that it would be but fair to appropriate money for the construction of the road so much needed.^®

The petition further urged that the contemplated road was destined to be a paying investment from the first, as the great quantities of lead and the newly developed grain fields required an outlet more favorable than the long route via New Orleans. This view was general, and well founded, as seen in the schedule of freight charges on fourteen million pounds of Wisconsin lead.

^<>As a stronger plea It was urged that "when the National Import of the Improyement is taken Into view, it would seem as if the enlightened wisdom of your patriotic Bodies could not possibly consent to retard the prosperity of our beloved country by withholding the comparatively trifling appropriations which would secure to the Union ffenerally, advantages such as human capacity cannot estimate; . . . This road . . . would prove of paramount utility in the not impossible event of foreign invasion. ... It would constitute a great link In the great Oregon Railroad to which the indomitable spirit of American enterprise will, at no distant day» exhibit to an admiring world." - Wisconsin Enquirer, November 2, 1839. A memorial was sent to congress in 1836 asking nearly the same things, and two thousand dollars was appropriated for a preliminary survey. - Milwaukee Advertiser, July 21, 1836, and Wisconsin Enquirer, December 1, 1838.

and was no doubt reasonable.^^ The question of an outlet for grain was then of secondary importance and it was destined to remain so for more than ten years.

The first desideratum in the matter of roads was the modest requisite of passable highways over which teams could move light loads without danger of being stalled. It is true that there was a little flurry of excitement among the earliest settlers over the problem of markets, hence the above mentioned memorials, but by the time there was any considerable number of inhabitants in the territory the first interest had subsided. The local markets, patronized so extensively by the constantly arriving immigrants who took about all the surplus produce, tended to cool the enthusiasm of railroad promoters. However, it must not be understood that there was ever a time when the agitation ceased ; there was not, but there was a period of ten years when the sentiment in favor of any radical measures to bring about a new era in transportation was at a low ebb. The following words, though perhaps a little extreme, give a picture of the conditions which had to be faced, and at the same time the views of a considerable portion of the inhabitants :

"We are highly gratified with the course which our legislature is taking in relation to internal improvements; railroads and canals seem to occupy little of their attention. . . .They seem more disposed to adapt their acts to the circumstances of the people, instead of being hurried away by chimerical extravagances which have already dragged some of the neighboring states to the very brink of bankruptcy. . . . Railroads will not be needed in this territory for the next twenty-five years - perhaps never. The utility of such works is almost exclusively confined to the transportation of passengers on some great thoroughfare. For carrying country produce to market a good common road is just about as valuable, and a macadamized road vastly superior. Upon these farmers can travel with their own teams and the expense of transportation is hardly perceptible. We venture to assert that if the railroads authorized to be constructed in Illinois were once completed they would, over and above the

"The great fault of our western legislators seems to have resulted from their incapability of reducing their ideals to a level with their circumstances. Colleges and universities and railroads and canals have been all their themes, while common schools and common roads seem to have been regarded as altogether unworthy of attention ... if they had been content to walk upon the earth instead of endeavoring to fly through the air their schemes, if not so splendid, would have been useful. We congratulate our citizens upon the prospect that legislators are about abandoning the fashionable gewgaws of fancy for the humble blessings of reality"^* This eminently practical and terrestrial legislature had certainly done commendable work in forwarding the construction of common wagon roads which were necessary whether railroads and canals were made or not. During the year 1839 the road from Madison to Milwaukee was located and ten thousand dollars expended in its improvement; it was estimated that five thousand more were needed to put it in shape to satisfy the demands.^* From this time until about 1862 almost every legislature voted money for building plain wagon roads, and by that time there were seven main-travelled roads leading from Madison to the various parts of Dane county and beyond.^*^ In the same period projects continued to be rife for canals and river navigation. The Rock River canal was begun July 4, 1839. It was never finished, yet the vision of running steamers from the Mississippi to the lakes by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers persisted in the minds of many farmers and legislators for more than a generation. The whole subject of water transportation may be dismissed briefly by stating that the only grain of any consequence ever carried in this way from Dane county was taken up the Wisconsin from Prairie du Sac to Portage after the railroad had reached the latter place, and was there re-shipped. This was merely a make-shift and cost from three to six cents a bushel for wheat, above the charges from Madison, and so continued until the Chicago, Milwaukee and St

The real struggle in which wheat growers were concerned was that between the advocates of railroads, on the one hand, and promoters of plank, or other wagon roads, on the other.^* The country roads were in deplorable shape^^ and the only reason they could be tolerated was because they were needed so little. Such things as dry goods and groceries do not count up into tons rapidly where the population is still sparse, and farm produce was not yet demanding attention. By 1845 ^t was apparent that some kind of improvement must be made to afford means for reaching a market. This was no sudden awakening. The early settlers were already familiar with the stage coach, having come a considerable part of the - distance from the eastern states by this means. They were accustomed to the slow movements and high charges,^' yet there was little complaint. It may thus be understood why plank roads were looked upon as a boon while the demands for transportation facilities were moderate.

Wisconsin began her territorial existence at the. most opportune time for avoiding the slough of indebtedness, such as had come near being the ruin of some of her neighbors, and thus we find little disposition for state activity in road building. The plan adopted was to charter private companies and allow them tp build the roads and charge toll. It was calculated that the cost of hauling freight over a good plank road did not exceed twenty-five, or at most, forty per cent, of the cost on a plain dirt road.**

The first charter for a plank road was secured in 1846 and from then till 1871 no fewer than one hundred fifty such companies were chartered.^** Few of these enterprises concern us. However there was some enthusiasm over such roads from the time wheat production made transportation a question

^*For an excellent treatment of the whole subject of "Railroad Legislation,' see article by Dr. B. H. Meyer, Wis, Hist. Coll., XIV, 206. ^"^WiaconHn Enquirer, October 22, 1848. ""Stage Route: Twice e week each way. From Mineral Point to Madison, $5.00. From Madison to Ft. Winnebago [Portage], $4.50. 25 pounds of baggage allowed each passenger.**

- Wisconsin Enquirer, November 15, 1839. '* Madison Argus, December 5, 1848. *^ Thesis by W. L. Bolton, 1897. Library of University of Wisconsin.

of prime importance, and in 1853 a plank road from Milwaukee reached the eastern part of Dane county.*^ That it was an improvement over the old wagon road no one will deny, but the warm advocates of such a highway became rapidly fewer. The lolls were considered too high and many teamsters turned off to the old road long enough to avoid the toll stations and yet get considerable benefit from the plank road. The oxen could hardly be kept on the planks because it made them foot-sore. Another trouble came from the unevenness in the way the planks settled into the spongy soil, and many a heavy load had to be taken from the wagon because a wheel had slipped over the side of the slanting road. Besides all this, the planks'* were laid with almost no foundation except the ground itself and in an incredibly short time decayed and became merely an impediment. We are, therefore, safe in saying that plank roads were a disappointment, and in no sense a solution of the transportation difficulties. As the central and western parts of the state became thickly settled by farmers, who gave almost all their energy to the growing of a crop which must find its market in the eastern states, the demand for railroads at once overshadowed all other plans for meeting the requirements. By 1848 the interest in railroads which had been dormant, began to show signs of awakening.*' Meetings were held in almost every town and in very many cases there was a strong sentiment in favor of voting bonuses to aid in the construction of the proposed road.** In some cases these were actually paid.** The town of Lodi, which joins Dane county on the north, was bonded for forty thousand dollars to induce the Chicago & Northwestern to build through its territory. A proposition to bond the town of Medina for twenty-five thousand dollars to be given as railroad bonus was lost by two votes.**^ Dane township bought ten thousand dollars worth of stock in the Baraboo Air Line Railway Company and when the road was actually built by the Chicago & NortE-

"For the aid given In the form of public land grants, see "Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railway," by John Bell Sanborn, Bulletin of University of Wisconsin.

Bulletin Of The Univeesity Of Wisconsin

western Company the stock was surrendered at thirty per cent., and the township raised and paid the diflFerence of seven thousand dollars.**

This was wild financiering and in every case resulted in humiliation and repentance, but the reason for taking such steps is easily understood.*^ The increased production together with the advancing prices of wheat hastened the construction of railroads, and by 1854 the Milwaukee & Mississippi load had reached Stoughtcxi ; the next year it came to Madison, and when in 1856 it was extended to the west, reaching the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, the momentous question was solved.

Hardly had the eloquence of after-dinner speeches in laudation of the new wonder subsided, when the tones were changed to denunciation of the "giant monopoly" which was fleecing the farmer. This was especially flagrant when it was remembered that the farmers had so recently given of their means and influence to assist in the building of the road. The objections were well founded, for unfair discriminations began at once and continued in the face of vigorous and persistent remonstrances. The railroads had the upper hand; there was no competition from Madison and vicinity to Milwaukee, and the amount of wheat to be hauled was enormous. Early in the year 1857 the opposition to exorbitant profits began to take shape. It is to be regretted that this opposition was not more effective.

'^The value of wheat and com per ton at different distances from market bb affected by cost of transportation, by railroad and over tlie ordinary roads of the country as s^ven in IndustrHca Resources of Wisconsin, John Gregory, p. 236, was as follows: then dropped just enough to cut off all such competition.** The overcharges were computed at ten cents a bushel on wheat, making fifty thousand dollars for Dane county. Other produce was estimated to bear an equal tribute.

The grain dealers at the various shipping points were in disrepute as well as the railroads, and to cope with them the Dane County Farmers' Protective Union was organized. This "Union" was directed against the grain buyers, but even if the charges were true, it still appears that the railway extortions were equally obnoxious.^®

But even in its attacks on the weaker of the two monopolies the farmers' union was an abject failure. An elevator was built at Madison, and wheat was brought from all corners of the county and there stored, in custody of a man chosen to act as agent. The agent sold the wheat, pocketed the proceeds and took "French leave." The chagrined farmers hushed the matter up so that hardly a line relative to the matter appeared in print. The elevator burned down, and the Farmers' Protective Union collapsed.^®

By the fall of 1857 the railroad managers had become sufficiently alarmed to make some concessions, for matters had reached a serious state.*^ On September ist, 1857, rates on wheat from Madison to Milwaukee were cut down from fourteen cents to eleven cents, and on this basis the local buyers filled their elevators. Nineteen days later the rates were restored to the old

^''Hitherto this wheat [i. e., from Dane county] has not been worth as much as wheat at Prairie du Chlen, one hundred miles west of Madison, because the railroad conveyed wheat from the former place, two hundred miles to Milwaukee at five or six cents less per bushel than it charged for carrying it from this city one hundred miles. A railroad connection with Chicago is about to put an end to this order of things. The farmers of Dane county will be able to get five or six cents a bushel more for their wheat than tiiey have heretofore received upon the market at Milwaukee. Say the amount is five cents per bushel and that we produce a surplus of 600,000 of the 1,000,000 bushels annually raised. This will put $30,000.00 more money In the pocket* of the farmers the present year than they would receive but for the railway connection with Chicago." - Wisconsin State Journal, April 28, 1868.

*^The reasons for the remonstrances and something of the feeling manifested are thus pointedly told: "The Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad charges ajB much for bringing freight from Milwaukee [to Madison] as the other traneportaton companies do from eastern ports to Milwaukee. People prefer to ride Jn a stage rather than aptronlze their enemies." - W<8con«in Statb Journal, August 22, 1867.

figure and the grain buyers brought suit against the road for violation of implied contract. Even the building of the railroad from Chicago to Madison offered but temporary relief, and the same abuses again called forth the same cry of distress. For a time the struggle between the river transportation to St. Louis and the roads connecting the Mississippi with the lakes resulted in favorable rates to towns along the Mississippi, while Dane county farmers paid nearly the rates formerly charged for hauling by wagon. After this war had been settled in favor of the eastern route, and it looked as though fair play might as well be practised, the different roads began underbidding one another for the carrying trade from the great wheat fiields of the west, and the wheat grower of Iowa and Minnesota received more for the same grade of wheat than did the discouraged farmer of Dane -county three hundred miles nearer the market.'^ Thus the struggle for transportation facilities was continuous and bitter, and not till after the farmer had been forced out of wheat production as a main business was an3rthing approaching fairness in freight rates obtained. In all this time - 2l period of nearly twenty years - it does not appear that the fanners had been able to exert any telling influence in the struggle for their rights. Here was a case where nothing short of state regulation could set matters right, and although vastly in the majority, the farmers, it is painfully evident, were not the dominant force in state politics. One explanation of this is seen in their slowness to comprehend the fact that railroads, and railroads alone, must be the means of carrying grain ; they never gave up the belief until the transportation question dwindled in importance, with the change to less bulky productions, that competition between railroads and river or canal transportation, was the only source of relief.'*