The story of agriculture in the United States

Preface

Those who are acquainted with the present state of historical investigation in this country know well that the great field of agricultural history has been by no means thoroughly explored. Consequently, a complete history of agriculture in the United States is not yet within the range of possibility.

In this book, the author has hoped merely to gather, as far as they are now available, the more important facts of our agricultural history, and to enliven the account with interesting details and descriptions. The idea that a history such as this should be accessible to those whose lives are associated with the occupation of agriculture is the result, in part, of the author's interest in the present-day movement for rural betterment; it follows logically, also, from the acceptance of the educational doctrine that much of the material for the instruction of young people should be drawn from their environment.

While/{he book is intended primarily for boys and girls who live on farms\the author hopes that it will be of interest to others, many of whom may have had experiences similar to those here recorded, /its best purposes will be fulfilled if the reading of the book makes the study of American history more vital and significant, if it adds dignity to the life and work of the farm, and if it helps to furnish a mental background upon which the routine of daily duties will appear more pleasant and the possibilities of rural improvement more real.\

The author is especially indebted to Professor W. J. Trimble, of the North Dakota Agricultural College, through whose historical skill and practical knowledge of agriculture many errors iv PREFACE

have been avoided; and to Professor C. R. Rounds, of the Milwaukee State Normal School, whose kindly criticism has wrought improvement in both the form and the substance of the chapters. Thanks are also due to other friends who read parts of the manuscript and contributed suggestions; among the^ are Professors E. L. Bogart and John G. Thompson, of the V ersity of Illinois; O. M. Dickerson, of the Winona Normal . , .ol; nd H. N. Sherwood, of the LaCrosse Normal School. Mrs. T.,.rC Douglas contributed valuable details for the accounts f nd on pages 153-158 and 275-277. Encouragement and suggestions have come from still others, including the publi hers, whose assistance is hereby gratefully acknowledged.

Numerous maps and illustrations have been obtained through the courtesy of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, The International Harvester Company, and The LaCrosse Plow Company. For the plan of buildings at Mt. Vernon (p. 85) credit is due The Century Magazine.

Albert H. Sanford.

LaCrosse, Wisconsin, December, 19 15

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Indians as Farmers i

II. The First Farmers of Virginia 12

Chapter I The Indians As Farmers

The first farmers in America were the Indians. The tribes that were found upon the Atlantic coast by the earhest explorers and settlers depended largely upon agriculture for their living. While they frequently separated into bands and left their villages to go upon hunting excursions, they returned and planted their crops regularly in the springtime. Besides game and fish and the crops from their fields and gardens, they obtained much food from the wild nuts, fruits, and roots that grew abundantly in the forests.

De Soto saw the cornfields of the southern Indians. Cartier and Champlain found the tribes on the St. Lawrence River planting corn. Henry Hudson said that while on the Hudson River he ''saw a house well constructed of oak bark and a great quantity of maize or Indian corn and beans of last year's growth, and there lay near the house for the purpose of drying, enough to load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields."

It will be remembered that some of the first Englishmen who tried to settle in America were sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. One of the leaders of their unsuccessful colony on Roanoke Island said that the Indian King

''sent us divers kinds of fruites, Melons, Walnuts, Cucumbers, Gourdes, Pease, and divers rootes, and fruits very

excellent good, and of their country corne, which is very white, faire, and well tasted, and groweth three times in five moneths : in May they sow, in July they reape; in June they sow, in August they reape; in July they sow, in September they reape : onely they cast the corne into the ground, breaking a little of the soft turfe with a wooden mattock, or pickaxe: . . , they also have Beanes very faire of divers colors and wonderful plentie: some growing naturally, and some in their gardens."

When the Pilgrims were searching for a good place to build their homes, they found on Cape Cod mounds in which the Indians had buried their corn for future use. This they took and afterward paid for; it helped them to live through that first terrible winter. Later, Squanto, the good Indian friend of the Plymouth settlers, showed

An Indian Village

This picture occurs in The new found land of Virginia by Thomas Hariot, who was a member of the party sent out by Raleigh in 1585. They attempted to settle upon Roanoke Island.

THE INDIANS AS FARMERS

Flint Spades and Hoe them how to plant corn and advised them to put into each hill a fish as fertilizer.

The settlers at Jamestown in Virginia were saved from starvation by the Indian corn that John Smith bought — • at one time seven hogsheads and later several hundred bushels. It was through the wisdom of John Smith, who learned from the Indians their method of raising corn and who compelled the settlers to cultivate it, that Jamestown became our first permanent settlement.

One may well ask, how could the Indians raise their crops of corn by the hundreds and thousands of bushels, besides great quantities of beans, peas, squashes, pumpkins, melons, tobacco, and gourds, without any of the iron and steel implements that our farmers use? Instead of the iron hoe, a flat stone was chipped to the proper shape and fastened to a handle by means of thongs or withes. A broad shell, or the shoulder blade or antler of a deer, might be used as the blade of this crude hoe. Sometimes a sapling was found that had a strong root standing out at right angles to the stem; the trunk was used as a handle and the root was shaped like a pick or hoe and perhaps hardened in the fire.

The English settlers found that the Indians generally selected the richest soil for their fields. When it was necessary to clear the ground, they first pulled out the underbrush and then girdled the trunks of the trees near the ground; that is, with their stone hatchets they hacked a belt around each tree through the bark and sapwood. This killed the trees; the leaves withered and let the sunlight through. Later, the dead trees and stumps were burned.

In the spring the dry weeds of the fields were gathered into piles and burned; then with their rude hoes the Indians dug shallow holes, three or four feet apart, into

A Stone Hatchet Tied on with Thongs

each of which they dropped a few kernels of corn and a few beans. There were several varieties of corn, including the flint, sweet, and popcorn. Sometimes the seed was soaked before being planted. As the corn grew, it was hilled up, and the same hills might be used many years in succession. Between the corn hills the seeds of pumpkins, squashes, and peas were planted. When the corn ripened, the hungry flocks of wild birds became so troublesome that Indian boys and girls were stationed on platforms in the middle of the fields to frighten them away. Even then the corn frequently had to be picked before it was ripe. At harvest time the Indians gathered the ears in hand baskets and carried these to larger baskets, in which the corn was taken to the villages. When

THE INDIANS AS FARMERS husking time came, among some of the tribes there were jolly husking bees, and anyone who found a red ear received two from each husker of the company.

The Indians had many ways of cooking corn and also of keeping it for future use. Much of it was parched for use in winter or to be carried for food on their hunting trips. The Indian method of drying corn was to spread it out on mats in the sun, covering it at night; or, to place it upon a low platform under which a slow fire was kept burning. Often the husks were merely turned back and braided together, and the strings of ears were then hung up to dry.

Corn was stored by being put into a pit lined with reeds, mats, or bark. Or, a cave might be dug in the hillside where the ears would be carefully laid in layers with dried grass between. Some of the southern Indians built corncribs of small logs, raised from the ground and plastered inside with mud.

The Indians were very fond of roasting corn on the cob. To do this they first dug a shallow trench and extended a long pole slightly above it, then leaned the ears against this pole over a fire in the trench. They had several ways of cooking green corn that was cut from the cob. It was sometimes mashed to a paste in a wooden mortar made by hollo'wing out the end of a stump or a block of wood. Cakes of this soft corn would then be wrapped in leaves and put into water that was made to boil by

Indian Boiling Pot placing hot stones in it. The water was held in large

pots made from clay mixed with crushed shells and then

burned in fire until hard. The corn cakes were eaten

with oil made from the seeds of sunflowers, or with bear's

grease.

When hominy was made, the kernels were first soaked

in lye made from wood ashes, as a means of loosening the

hulls. The mass was then placed in a basket and soused

in water to get rid of the hulls, which would float on the

surface and could then be removed. If the hominy was

pressed through a basket sieve, the result was a kind of

meal, which could be dried. Later, this meal could be

made into cakes and be either fried or boiled.

Hard corn was cracked in a wooden or stone mortar

and ground upon a stone that had a hollowed surface.

It could then be sifted and the

larger particles pounded or

ground again. Beans and peas

were boiled with the corn to

make ''succotash." Squashes

and pumpkins were boiled in Stone Mortar for Pounding ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^1 ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Grain

der the embers of a fire or m

a clay pit which had been made hot by a fire that was

afterwards removed. These vegetables were often cut

into rings and hung up to dry over a fire.

The North American Indians did not cultivate the

white potato. This was brought into the colonies from

England, after having come originally from South America.

The sweet potato was an important food crop among the

southern Indians, however, and from them the whites

learned to cultivate it.

THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 7

It is not certain that each Indian family owned its own field. Usually the cultivated lands were owned by the clan or tribe living in a village; but a certain tract was assigned to each family for cultivation. In Virginia each family also had a garden near its wigwam. It was common for the Indians to work their fields together, each helping to cultivate the others' crops. Tobacco was an important Indian crop, and in most tribes it was cultivated by the men and was usually smoked by them only. It was used in connection with religious ceremonies.

Among the Indians the principal work in the fields was done by the women, but it should not be understood that the women did more than a fair share of all the work, or that they were slaves and drudges to the men. Hunting and fishing, the work of the men, were not sports, but serious and difficult tasks. Besides, the canoes, bows, arrows, and stone weapons and implements were made by the men; this required much time, skill, and patience. Then, with most tribes, wars were frequent and kept the men busy. Where there was less war, the men worked in the fields with the women. In addition, it was the duty of the men to spend much time in learning and conducting all the ceremonies of Indian government and religion. This was no small task, and took much of their time and strength. The squaws were aided in their farm work by the old men and the children. This occupied but a few weeks in the summer. But since the women also prepared the food and clothing, theirs was a busy life.

The most intelligent Indians of the Atlantic coast were the Iroquois, who lived in what is now Central New York State. Here there were large towns surrounded by palisades. The fields of a town were sometimes one hundred or more acres in extent, and there were orchards of apple, plum, and pear trees besides. During the French and Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War, the white men's armies more than once invaded this country; and it is reported that one expedition destroyed 160,000 bushels of corn.

The Indians of the Mississippi valley, no less than those of the Atlantic coast, were farmers, sometimes on a large scale. Agriculture was naturally more important in the South than in the North. Where the buffalo was more common, agriculture was less depended upon as a source of food. In the dry regions of the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains there were some tribes that carried on little or no agriculture, but considerable corn was raised by tribes Kving along the Missouri River.

In the region now called New Mexico and Arizona the Indians carried on agriculture by means of irrigation. They had reservoirs and many miles of ditches. These were in some cases cut out of solid rock; and in one sandy

THE INDIANS AS FARMERS 9

region they were made seven feet deep and lined with day to hold the water better. It is thought that in the Salt River Valley of Arizona 250,000 acres were irrigated. Here were raised vast quantities of corn, sunflowers, cactus, yucca, mesquite beans, and agave.

Among the Pacific Coast Indians there was little or no agriculture. They lived upon sea products (fish, clams, sea-grass, etc.), the abundant wild fruits, nuts, acorns, and grains, besides wild beasts and fowls. The early missionaries, instead of learning from these Indians as the early settlers of the Atlantic coast had done, found it necessary to teach them how to cultivate fields and to raise crops.

Among some of the Indian tribes who lived about the Great Lakes, wild rice was the chief source of food. This plant grows in the shallow waters of streams, lakes, and swamps, and a great field was usually divided among the families of a tribe. Before the grain was ripe, the women went through it with their canoes, twisting and tying the growing stalks into bunches. This prevented the wind from blowing the ripened kernels into the water and made it more difficult for the birds to get at them.

To harvest the grain two women went out in a canoe, one sitting in each end. One had a forked stick which she thrust down into the mud, and this guided and steadied the canoe. The other carried two sticks; one had a crook at the end, with which she bent the bundles of rice over the canoe; with the other she beat out the kernels until her end of the canoe was comfortably filled. The women then exchanged sticks and tasks, and so the other end of the canoe would be filled. To hull the rice, a few quarts were poured into a skin bag; this was placed lO in a shallow hole in the ground and trodden upon. It was winnowed by being tossed up in the air when a breeze was blowing; or, a birchbark fan was used to blow the husks away. The rice was dried or parched by sun or fire, and was thus kept for winter use.

The Indian's agriculture was closely connected with his religion. A religious festival was held at planting time, with prayers to Mother Earth for a good crop. Here is the address given before the council of elders of an Iroquois clan:

''Great Spirit, who dwellest alone, listen now to the words of thy people here assembled. The smoke of our offering arises. Give kind attention to our words, as they arise to thee in smoke. We thank thee for this return of the planting season. Give us a good season,

THE INDIANS AS FARMERS ii

that our crops may be plentiful. . . . Preserve us from all diseases. Give strength to us that we may not fall, preserve our old men among us and protect the young. Help us to celebrate^ with feehng the ceremony of this season. Guide the minds of thy people, that they may remember thee in all their actions."

Some tribes also had their thanksgiving harvest festival, which was a most joyful time, as it is with us.

Such, in brief, was the agriculture of the Indians who lived north of Mexico. Through long ages, no one knows how long, these people had been slowly learning, without books, schools, or teachers, how best to till their soil aud raise their crops. Why had they not made more progress when America was discovered? Some think it was because they had no domestic animals except the dog. With cattle they might have become herdsmen and learned to make dairy products. With horses and oxen they would probably have learned to plow the land and so to raise larger crops.

It was very fortunate for the white men that the Indians were to some extent farmers; otherwise, both Jamestown and Plymouth, and perhaps other settlements, would have perished. Indian agriculture was the starting point from which the English settlers in America made their successful beginning; thus it became, to a larger extent than is usually thought, the basis of our agriculture. In this chapter there are numerous instances of Indian practices that were adopted by the whites; and there were still others that will appear as the story of American farming proceeds.

Chapter II

When the first settlers of Virginia, about one hundred in number, were ready to start upon their long ocean voyage from England, they were given some good advice by the Council that had charge of their affairs. They were told to find the most wholesome and fertile place for a colony, and then to set a part of the men to work at once to prepare the ground and sow. Moreover, they were not to depend upon the seeds they brought over from England, but to obtain grain from the natives for seed, as that would be most likely to prosper. Had this advice been followed, the early history of Jamestown would have been quite different from what it was. However, the Council was at fault also, for there seem to have been no farmers sent with the first shiploads. Few of those who came could wield the ax and hoe, and it was two years or more before a plow was brought from England.

Although .there were great hopes of finding gold and pearls in Virginia, the officers of the London Company should have known that the settlers whom they sent out would need to get their support from the soil. In those days Englishmen were not accustomed to founding colonies in strange lands, and they had to learn by experience.

The landing at Jamestown was made on May 14, 1607, but it seems to have been nearly the firs : of June before much planting was done — too late to get the best crops. Some vegetables were planted (including potatoes and melons), and a small amount of wheat; also some pineapples, cotton and orange seeds, — but no Indian corn. Englishmen called all the small grains "corn;" but they knew nothing of maize or Indian corn. This grew only in America, and the settlers here and in the other colonies

Log Houses of Early Settlers had to learn how superior it was to English wheat as a means of support during the first years in this country. Wheat did not flourish at Jamestown. The climate was too warm and the soil too rich; so the stalks were rank and the heads small. During the first winter in Virginia, the colonists were obliged to depend upon food obtained from the Indians. Some of them bartered their hoes, axes, and guns for corn and game.

The second season saw little improvement over the first, though the settlers set about clearing land. Instead of following the Indian methods, the "gentlemen" settlers blistered their hands chopping down trees. This

brought forth many oaths, for each of which the punishment was a can of cold water poured down the offender's sleeve at the end of the day.

No corn was planted this spring (1608). The men were discouraged because no gold had been found; some wanted their crops to fail so they could return to England. Then, the autumn, John

_ (Richmond^, ^lUuJmilun

Map of Virginia

Smith took charge of affairs and, by his influence in securing corn from the Indians, saved the colony from starvation. The next spring (1609) Smith had two Indian prisoners teach the settlers how to raise corn, and forty acres were planted. Unfortunately, Smith was obliged to return to England that fall, and all the food was eaten as soon as it was ripe, instead of being saved for the winter. Some cattle, hogs, and chickens had also been brought from England, and these were next eaten. The settlers then ate their horses. Many died of starvation, and the survivors were about to return to England when Lord Delaware and more colonists arrived and stopped them. More cows and hogs were now brought over and in the spring of 161 1, under Governor Dale, corn was planted and a section between two rivers was fenced off, within which the cattle could be kept.

It will be remembered that at first the settlers all worked for the London Company — that body of merchants and other investors in England who owned Virginia and expected to make money from it. The fields were worked in common, and everything produced in the colony went into a ''common store." This is one reason why agriculture did not succeed better at Jamestown in these first years. But this was changed when Governor Dale took charge of the colony in 161 1.

Dale rented to some of the best among the settlers small tracts of land, three acres each, to work for themselves, upon payment of two and one-half barrels of grain per year; but each man must still work for the company for one month during the year. This plan gave the men more incentive to raise good crops and to take care of their tools and stock. Later, each family of new settlers was given a house and lot of twelve acres free of rent for a year, besides tools and live-stock. It was a number of years before those who had been working for the Company were given complete freedom and could get farms for themselves.

In 161 2, John Rolfe, who afterward married Pocohontas, began the cultivation of tobacco. A hundred years earlier, tobacco had been taken from the West Indies to Spain; and its use had extended from one country to another in Europe. There was great demand for it, and the price was high. It was soon found to be a very valuable crop, so the Virginia settlers planted it, to the neglect of grains and vegetables. To its cultivation they gave up their fields, their gardens, and even the streets of Jamestown. This, though very unwise, was quite natural, because, as John Smith said to the officers of the Company in England, a farmer could get six times as much profit from the same amount of land and labor by raising tobacco as he could by raising grain.

Tobacco Field

As a result, there was actually danger that the people would not raise enough corn for the necessary supply of food. Consequently, Governor Dale made a rule that no one should plant tobacco until he had sowed two acres of grain. Later, there was a law that each settler must keep in store enough grain for food through the winter. When the Indians were troublesome, and especially after the great massacre of 1622, the settlers were loath to plant corn because the fields made good ambushes for the red men. A law was then made requiring each parish or group of farms to support a pubhc granary, to which every person over eighteen years of age must contribute a bushel of grain yearly.

When all the farmers in Virginia were raising as much tobacco as they possibly could, the result was that the price fell from three shillings a pound at the beginning, to one penny — only one thirty-sixth as much. This led to a number of laws that were enacted by the House of Burgesses. One provided that all the tobacco must be brought to warehouses that were located in convenient places. Here it was inspected by a committee of farmers, who ordered that all of poor grade should be destroyed. Later, one-half of the good tobacco was to be destroyed in order to keep up the price. Other laws hmited the number of leaves that might be gathered from each plant. Before 1680 the price had fallen to one-half a penny and the farmers were desperate. They tried to agree among themselves not to plant any at all for a year. This faihng, some lawless bands started to destroy the growing tobacco in the fields, and two hundred farms were devastated. These riots were finally put down by the militia.

In the meantime, the Virginia farmers were trying some interesting experiments. A glance at the map of the world will show that Virginia lies in the same latitude as Spain, Italy, and northern Africa. Would it not be a fine thing, Englishmen thought, if we could get from Virginia the products we now buy from those countries? So they began the first year to plant pineapples and oranges. Frenchmen were brought over to begin grape raising, with a view to the making of wine, and a law was passed compelling every family to raise ten vines and to learn vine-dressing. The Virginians also tried to raise figs, lemons, almonds, olives, ginger, and sugar cane, but without success. The fact is that our eastern i8 coast has a climate quite different from that of southern Europe. The winds from the north and west come to Virginia over a great land area and are much colder in winter than those that prevail in the same latitude in Europe; consequently, the semi-tropical products do not thrive here.

The Virginians also tried very hard to produce silk, and there were great expectations of enormous profits from this source. The mulberry tree grew wild in Virginia, and silkworms were brought from Europe; some

Silkworm, Mulberry Leaves, Moth, and Cocoons

of these were frost-bitten in the winter. The law obliged every man to plant six mulberry trees annually for seven years. Later, a premium of five thousand pounds of tobacco was offered to every person producing one hundred pounds of silk; this not having any result, the premium was raised to ten thousand pounds of tobacco for fifty pounds of raw silk, and still later fifty pounds of tobacco were offered to the producer of one pound of silk. One reason for the failure of these plans is the fact that the care of silk cocoons and the winding of raw silk required much attention and some skill. But when all the members of the farmer's family were fully occupied

in the tobacco and grain fields, who was left to care for

the silk? In the countries of southern Europe there

were plenty of hands for such work, but not so in Virginia.

Other products that Enghshmen wanted very much

and had to buy, in part, of other countries were hemp and

flax. A law of 1619 required that each family must have

at least one hundred plants of flax; but these crops were

raised only to a small extent. Rice, indigo, and cotton

were also tried, but the crops did not succeed.

^'The colonists were more successful in raising live-stock.

The cattle, sheep, and hogs were allowed to run in the

woods and open glades, where

there was abundance of food ^-^—^

for them, and they increased

rapidly in numbers. At first

the Indians killed them; to

avoid this the hogs were put

upon an island in the James

River, known as Hog Island.

Later, the animals runninar at ^ ,. „, ^

' ^ ° One Form or Worm Fence

large in the woods became

wild and were hunted, just as deer were. The wolves kept the sheep from increasing, and later the colonial government gave bounties for the killing of wolves. Of course, the roving cattle and horses got into the cornfields; this made it necessary for every farmer to fence his fields or else not expect to get damages for the injury done by his neighbors' animals. Since there were no sawmills, and iron nails were expensive, fences must be built of rails spHt from the forest trees. Here