Valley of the upper Wabash, Indiana, with hints on its agricultural advantages; plan of a dwelling, estimates of cultivation, and notices of labor-saving machines

Front matter

* <f? ^ oVJsAK * AT ^ •

V

« o

Introduction

The writer of the following pages was led to their preparation from a desire to answer numerous inquiries addressed to him by friends, and inability to effect that object, without a great expense of time and labor, in the ordinary modes of correspondence. To the daily routine of his profession, have been added the constant claims of an extended agency, and in the midst of all these duties, letter after letter has accumulated on his hands. The interrogatories, too, which they contained, wers often those requiring a minute investigation. Information has been sought in regard to the purchase and sale of lands ; the cost and profit of their cultivation ; the products best adapted to their soil; the income to be derived from different agricultural operations ; the benefits resulting from the introduction and use of various labor-saving machines ; together with the lines of communication open, or to be established, as well for travel as the exportation of produce.

To impart suc'i information is the object of this work. Over this extended field, the writer has endeavored to proceed and gather those particulars which will enable his readers to arrive at just conclusions in regard to the inquiries mentioned. He acknowledges, v/ith pleasure, the benefit he has derived from personal communication with many of the most intelligent d an successful farmers of the western States, whose kind attentions and assistance will bo iv INTRODUCTION.

long remembered. He is also indebted to others interested in the objects he has been pursuing-, and to none more than the Honorable Henry L. Ellsworth, of Washington, District of Columbia, whose extensive correspondence with agriculturists throughout the Union, he has been permitted to examine and to use. From sources such as these, joined to his own observations, has this volume been prepared.

It is fortunate for this young country that the study of scientific agriculture, in its various branches, is fast gaining the attention of those whose discriminating minds perceive at once its vast advantage, and whose means cdlow a full indulgence in its hicrative pursuits. Periodicals, which have for their sole object the advancement of this great source of national aggrandizement, are arising into notice, and disseminating the most valuable information through all portions of our nation. It is here, if any where, that this science can attain its greatest height. We are emphatically an agricultural people, destined to derive from the productive country with which Providence has blessed us, much that will contribute to our future wealth and honor. Fettered by no blind attachment to customs which have nothing to commend them but their long existence ; in a new land, and surrounded by a fresher nature, we are free to enter on a field of hitherto unknown experiment, where prudence and attention must insure success.

And to no portion of our Union can remarks like these apply with greater force than to the western States. The surpassinsf fertility of their soil, the general mildness of their climate, and their most felicitous

INTRODUCTION. V

position, seem to mark them as a spot more suited than all others to the purpose we have mentioned. And yet, how little has been known of their true prospects and condition ! Who, beyond the mountains that divide these States from theeastern portion of our Union, can estimate their wonderful rapidity of growth, and their approaching greatness ? Who can calculate the future vastness of that population, to which, not years, but days, and hours, and moments, are continually adding ?

No better description of the actual condition of the northwestern .States can be found than that furnished in a late report from the Committee of Ways Means to the Legislature of New York, While considering the benefits to be derived from the enlargement of the Erie canal, and the enormous results to ba expected from it as a thoroughfare for the immense products of the west, the author of that report (S. B. Ruggles, Esq..) presents the following graphic sketch of the present w-ealth and approaching greatness of that portion of our Union:

'• The western termination of the Erie canal looks out upon Lake Erie, the most southerly and central of the great chain of navigable lakes, which stretches far into the interior from our western boundary. Around these inland seas, a cluster of five powerful States is rapidly rising. The territory which they comprise, and which is to become tributary to the canal, embraces that great area, extending from the lakes on the north to the Ohio on the south, and from the western confines of this State to the Upper Mississippi, and containing 280,000 square miles. To measure its extent

Tl INTRODUCTION.

by well known objects, it is fifteen times as large as that part of the State of New Yorlc, west of the county of Oneida ; nearly twice as large as the kingdom of France ; and about six times as extensive as the v/hole of England. It contains ] 80 millions of acres of arable land, a large portion of which is of surpassing fertihty.

"The productive power of this region, and its capability of supplying tonnage for export, are greatly strengthened by the facilities which it enjoys for cheap and easy transportation. In this respect, no country on the face of the globe enjoys greater natural advantages ; for it is nearly encircled by navigable waters ; and its broad area is intersected in numerous directions by streams furnishing ample means of conveyance, while unusual facihties for the construction of canals, and other artificial channels of communication, are afforded by the level and uniform character of its surface.

'' These being its geographical advantages, it needs only the requisite number of inhabitants, to fully develop its agricultural resources. Its progress in this respect has been truly surprising. In 1816, Ohio was the only organized State Government within its limits. ]n that year, Indiana, having obtained the requisite number of G0,00() inhabitants, entered the Union, and took its place by the side of Ohio. Illinois and Michigan were then distant and feeble territories, with a few settlers thinly scattered over their broad surface; while Wisconsin, unknown even by name, was an undistinguished portion of the great JNorthwestcrn Territory. In the brief period of twenty-one

INTRODUCTION. VH

years, such has been" the influx of population into this great district, that Ohio, the eldest member in this brotherhood of nations, now numbers 1,400,000 inhabitants ; Indiana, upwards of 600,000 ; Illinois and Michigan, (both of whom have organized their Governments and come into the Union,) 700,000 ; while west of Lake Michigan, not only is Wisconsin rapidly rising, but even beyond the Upper Mississippi, 30,000 citizens have already laid the foundation of yet another State. Such is the onward march of this population, that the amount of its annual increase alone exceeds in number the white inhabitants of ten of the States of the Union. The population already embraced within the district in question, falls little short of three millions, and if the same rate of progress shall be maintained for the twelve years next to come, by the year 1850 it will exceed six millions.

" The peculiar activity and energy of these people, and their power most rapidly te develop the resources of the broad domain which they inhabit, are also worthy of consideration, in estimating the eventual extent of their trade. They probably possess a greater aggregate power of production than any other portion equally numerous of the human race. Their population is made up almost exclusively of the young, the resolute, the vigorous, and the intelligent, who have gone from the more crowded communities in the eastern and middle portions of the Union, to seat themselves around this chain of waters, and there build up an empire. They have taken with them the laws, the habits, the language, and the institutions, civil and religious, of their parent States : but above

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

all, they have carried into tliat vast field an honest love of labor ; and in the very act of organizing their governments, they testified their willingness to exert and rely on their own energies, by prohibiting slavery forever, throughont all their limits." *

Such is the present situation of these States which, a few short years ago, presented little else than one unbroken forest, tenanted alone by the untutored savage. How rapid and startling has been their elevation ; how proud their position, and how flattering: their prospects!

From this fertile and rapidly increasing portion of our country, the writer has selected Indiana, and of that State, the rich Yalley of the Wabash, as the subject of his remarks throughout the following pages. He has done so partly because it was his residence, and of course best known to him ; and again, from its acknowledged inferiority to no portion of similar extent throughout the Union. Indeed, the position of that valley, the extraordinary productiveness of its soil, its delightful climate, and its means of rapid communication with the markets of the northern and southern States, seem to designate it as a region better adapted than any other as the field of agricultural experiment, and the home of the enterprising setder. And if, in conclusion, he shall liave pointed out to one deserving emigrant the path to honorable independence, or added aught of interest to the abode which he has chosen, he will not regret the few short hours of labor he has spent amid the pages of this volume.

HENRY W. ELLSWORTH.

Lafayette. iSeptcinber, 1838.

* For fui'thei- extracts from this valuable Report, see Appendix.

Chapter I

Geographical posilion of the Wabash valley — General description of its soil and appearance — Causes which have existed to retard its settlement — Mode of their removal — Wabash and Erie canal — Position of Lafayette — Tippecanoe county — Depth of prairie soil — Geological position of Indiana the cause of its fertility — Coal formations at Danville, Illinois Page 1

Chapter II

Danville and Mississippi railroad — Lafayette and Danville railroad — Advantageous provisions of its charter — Probable cost of the work — Amount of capital stock — Inducements offered capitalists for investment — Central railroad of Illinois — Great advantages to be derived from these works when completed — Sketch of important towns in northern Indiana: Fort Wayne, Wabash, Lagrove, Peru, Logansport, Delphi, Lafayette, South Bend, St. Jo County, Indianapolis 8

CHAPTER HI.

General sketch of various lines of communication between the eastern and western Slates — Ohio canal, Miami canal, Chicago and Illinois sloop canal — Natural communication between the Mississippi and the Lakes by Green Bay — Lafayette and Alton railroad — New York and Erie railroad — Facilities of travelling afforded by these routes 17

Chapter IV

Errors of emigrants — A healthy climate no less desirable than a fertile soil — Situations combining these two requisites — Latitude ®f the Wabash valley — Its numerous prairies one great cause of its advancement — Comparative importance of timber land and prairie — General treatment of stock and management of a stock farm — Rearing and exporting hogs, a source of great profit to the West — Stock cattle — Cultivation of the sugar beet — Profits of a single year sufficient to repay the cost and ordinary expenditures of a prairie farm. . 32

X CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Vast agricultural importance of the Wabash and Maumee valle5's — Baden corn, Italian wheat, &c. — Cost of improving G40 acres — Cost of improving 320 acres — Ditching machines — Hedge fences — Plan of a neat and comfortable " prairie cottage," for the settler — Ra3'mond's shingle-cutting machine — Tenoning and mortising machines — Estimate of the cost of cultivation and products of 320 acres in flax — Estimate of the cost of cultivation and products of G40 acres in wheat — Estimate of the cost of cultivation and products of 640 acres in grass 44

Chapter VI

Exportation of hay to the southern markets -Cost per acre of preparing it for market — Average yield per ncre — Cost of transportation — Price at New Orleans — Estimate of costs and profits of one thousand acres seeded down Avith grass — Estimate of costs and profits of six hundred and forty acres — Hussey's mowing and reaping machine — Its great advantages 62

Chapter VII

Adaptation of the western prairies to the cultivation of flax — (Quantity of seed to be sown, and time of sowing — Amount of stem, and its worth — Amount of seed — Amount of oil from a bushel of seed — Hill and Bundy's macliine for dressing flax without dew-rotting — Notice of the short staple produced by a new process — Manufacture of paper from flax and other materials 79

Chapter VIII

Manufacture of beet sugar— Broom com — Tobacco — Hemp- Corn stalks as fodder — Cultivation of the sun flower — Breaking prairie — Common and standard weight of grain — Recapitulation of the machines referred to in this work 93

Chapter IX

The hour of the emigrant's departure — The true condition of the country he has chosen — Its intellectual and moral situation — Its general health — The errors of the emigrant ofien the true cause of all his suffering — The course to be adopted to remove these evils — His advantages compared 108

Chapter X

The effects resulting from the rapid means of intercourse between distant nations — The appearance of America, as presented, for the first time, to the traveller — The cause of her origin — Her present situation and prospects — The vast emigration to her borders — Conclusion of the work 119

Appendix 129

LETTER TO THE AUTHOR FROM THE HON. H. L. ELLS- WORTH, OP WASHINGTON CITY.

WASHIJfGTON CITY,

September, 1838.

Mr Deaii Sin : I have just finished the perusal of your sketches of the " Upper Wabash," and doubt not the friends to whom they may be sent, will read them with the same degree of pleasure as myself.

Your remarks on the geographical and physical advantages of that valley, are well calculated to arrest attention. Some of the estimates given of cultivation and produce, may be viewed with incredulity ; still, enough remains after a deduction for contingencies, to encourage and stimulate any one who has a spark of enterprise.

If the health of the inhabitants can be so easily promoted, by the sub. stitution of a comfortable cottage and well, for the coarse log cabin and the running brook, I sincerely hope the adventitious aid of labor-saving machines, will be invoked to bring the expense within the means of every proprietor. A thirst for immediate profit has been too much the master passion of our enterprising emigrants, and hence the sacrifice of so many valuable lives to avarice. Health is paramount to riches, and I rejoice in every attempt to secure or improve it.

May you, my dear sir, not be disappointed in your present expectations. The field of usefulness is great, and if I am not much mistaken in the character of the State you have selected, you will find a generous, and noble hearted people, ready to appreciate professional and benevolent efforts. Expecting to meet the ordinary trials and discouragements of a new country, you will, I know, bear them with fortitude. These small privations of early life seem inseparable from the lot of western pioneers, but they greatly heighten the fruition of our riper years.

If distance must separate us from each other, we welcome the approach of those events which are so emphatically to remove the barriers of space, and afford us the endearments of social intercourse. The country in which you dwell, needs only to be known, that it may be justly estimated. I can truly say, that after a personal inspection of a great part of the United States, I have seen no portion of our Union

Xn LETTER TO THE AUTHOR.

more beautiful in its appearance, or one combining so many advantages, as that which is watered by the Wabash river.

I hope you will extend agricultural improvements, as far as your means will allow. I shall cheerfully communicate, from time to time, such information on that subject as I can collect. In addition to the machines already ordered for Lafayette, I shall soon send others, calculated for ditching, sowing, reaping, raking, flax pulling, &c., all of which, though they are of late invention, have been sufficiently tested to be introduced without hesitation.

I will not add more to my letter, bearing the approval of your small publication. With courage to undertake, industry to execute, and perseverance to continue our designs, much indeed can be accomplished in man's short existence ! But alas, "our purposes may be broken off," and the hopes we cherish may be blasted in the very bud of promise. The past admonishes us of the mutability of all things human ; confirms the conviction that there is little here below which we can call our own, and directs our thoughts to that high destiny which awaits on immortality.

With many wishes for your present and future happiness, I remain, as ever,

YourSj affectionately,

H. L. ELLSWORTH.

To Henkt W. Ellswohth, Esq.,

Lafayette, Indiana.

Chapter I

Geograpliical position of the Wabash valley. General description nf its soil and appearance. Causes which have existed to retard iLs settlement. Mode of their removal. Wabash and Erie canal. Position of Lafayette, Tippecanoe county. Depth of prairie soil. Geological position of Indiana the cause of its fertility. Coal formations at Danville, Illisois.

Whoever casts his e3'e over a map of the United States, will be struck with the geographical poshioa of the Wabash valley, and wonder why so little is known of its physical resources. The State of Indinna contains an area of 37.000, square miles, and a population of 700,000 inhabitants, yet the northern portion is almost unsettled. That part of the State has hitherto been held by tribes of Indians, whose titles, if we except a few reserves to the Miamies, are novv'' extinguished, and is daily coming into market under the most favorable circumstances. No location offers to the settler inducements superior to those presented by the valley we have mentioned.

The valley of the Wabash is that tract of land receding from 20 to 40 miles on each side of the Wabash river, throughout its whole extent. It may be regarded as commencing about 20 miles southeast of Fort Wayne. The soil is one of extreme fertility, the climate mild, and various lines of communication are nov/ in process of construction, which will greatly facilitate emigration, while they furnish a sure eastern market for produce. The traveller \vho passes through this most productive valley, meets continually with much calculated to excite his admiration. For miles, his course frequently meanders along the borders of some gently rolling prairie, whose surface, as far as the eye can reach, seems gemmed with flowers of all varieties, the brilUancy of whose coloring baffles all description. Again, his path, more open than before, will lead him through these beantiful parterres of nature, and along the banks of many a sweet stream, that winds round and round in almost innumerable convolutions, as if flowing with reluctance to pour out its treasures on the waters of the Wabash. Again, leaving this enchanting region, he journeys amid the deep solitudes of a western forest, whose silence is broken only at intervals by the bounding footstep of the deer, or the sharp crack of the rifle.

The cause which has hitlicrto prevented the true advantages of this delightful valley from being known, is found in the extreme difficulty of gaining access to it, by any of the established routes of Indiana. The Wabash river, susceptible as it is of improvements which would secure a constant navigation, has, until lately, furnished an uncertain thoroughfare. A journey to the Upper Wabash, from the Ohio river, by land, owing to the extreme roughness of the roads ; the ditficulty of obtaining suitable vehicles and accommodations, and withal the distance, was one of extreme fatigue, while all approach from Lake Erie, by the Indian trails and traces of the Maumee river, could be undertaken only with a sino"le horse, and often at a risk of long and serious detention, from innumerable by-paths, and streams almost impassable. The single pioneer and hardy hunter could indeed press through these obstacles ; but the emigrant, with his family, could travel only the more convenient routes along the borders of the State, Thousands in this way, emigrating from our eastern sea-ports, have passed from Buffalo to Detroit, from thence to Chicago, and finally settled on the lake shore, or near the water courses. This facility of water communication has already caused the settlement of parts of Michigan. The enterprise of her citizens has opened roads to ihe interior and southern portions of her growing State, and many arc now emigrating from thence to the adjoining portions of Indiana. Those, who after a short residence in Michigan, dispose of lands at $15 or $25 per acre, can find tracts even more productive at $1 25 in Indiana.

Such have been the causes which existed to retard, the settlement of northern and northwestern Indiana. They are now rapidly disappearing; a few months more will witness their complete removal, and an emigration to a spot so well fitted by nature to sustain it, will take place, hitherto unprecedented even in tlie history of western settlements. The magnificent internal improvement schemes of Indiana, involving an expense of many millions, are fast developing the vast extent of her resources, and opening in all directio-ns certain avenues of quick communication to the enterprising settler.

During the ensuing year, (1S39,) the Wabash and Erie canal, a work conducted by the States of Ohio and Indiana, and designed to form an important link in the great chain of communication now opening between the Mississippi riv'er and the city of New York will be completed. At the present time boats are running daily from Logansportto Fort Wayne, a distance of about 80 miles. The heavy sections on the remaining portion of the canal between Lafayette, the head of steamboat navigation on tiie Wabash, and Logansport, are now completed, and the hghtcr are in progress, and will soon be finished.

From the vigorous exertions of Ohio, and the time as settled by contract, there is little doubt but what that portion of the canal which passes through her territory will be completed by the 1st of October, 1839. The opening of this canal throughout its whole extent, will indeed be a proud era for the Wabash valley ; and furnishing, as it does, tlie most direct and natural cliannel of communication between the east and west, we can hardly estimate the travel that will flow in this direction.

The place at which this great canal first strikes the Wabash, at a navigable point, is one of vast importance, and is occupied by the town of Lafayette, the county seat of Tippecanoe county, situated in the very heart of the Upper Wabash valley, at the present and perhaps permanent termination of the canal above described. At the termination of a railroad which will be soon constructed to the State line of Indiana, and thence by the State of Illinois to the Mississippi river, and with rail and Macadamized roads, running north and south to Michigan and the Ohio river, for which anple provision has been made, Lafayette is destined to become by far the largest town of the Upper Wabash valley ; and, with the exception of Fort Wayne, the most important point of northern Indiana.

The county of Tippecanoe, in which Lafayette is situated, contains an area oi 504 square miles, and yields in point of fertility to no portion of similar extent throughout the State. It embodies and is immediately surrounded, by some of the most beautiful prairies and plains of Indiana — such are theWea, Shawnee, Wild Cat, and Grand prairies; and contains numerous rapid and never failing streams, affording excellent mill sites. Bluch of the prairie land which forms the borders of the Wabash is admirably adapted to grass, as well as wheat and grain of all descriptions, and varies in depth from three to thirteen feet, according to its position, as upland or bottom prairie. These latter acquire their depth of soil from annual deposites of the Wabash and other rivers.

The opening of the Erie and Wabash canal will afford an immediate outlet for much of the produce of this and the adjacent counties. The main channel for the exportation of produce heretofore has been the "^v^abash river, by means of which vast quantities have been shipped annually to the States bordering on the Mississippi and to New Orleans. Many exceedingly profitable speculations have been made in pork, and a large amount is put up every season. Investments of ^ capital, yielding great returns, can easily be made from well conducted stock farms, — by raising and pressing hay for the southern markets, — from wheat, corn, &c. &c. The recent introduction of labor saving machines, all of v/hich are admirably calculated for the prairies, has materially reduced the former expense of cultivation. The cost of cultivation, together with the yield of different grains, and the profits attending various branches of agriculture, v/ill be detailed under their respective heads hereafter.

The geological position of Indiana is the main cause of its fertility, and to no porlion of the State will the remark apply with greater force than to the Upper Wabash. In addition, also, to this fertility of soil, other advantages occur, in the bituminous coal formations which are found at no great distance from the town of Lafayette, along the Wabash.

The following remarks from D. D. Owen, Esq., a gentleman of high talent, and State geologist of Indiana, as embodied in his report of December, 1837, are well deserving a perusal. After mentioning the three principal geological formations of the State, which he classes as a bituminous coal formation, a limestone formation, and a diluvium, he proceeds as follows :

"If we were to speculate from geological observations on the future condition of Indiana, we should say that the western counties are destined to become one day the chief manufacturing counties, since, with a iew exceptions, all large manufacturing tov/ns and districts are situated on the coal formations."

" In several places, particularly towards the base of the coal formation, or near its eastern boundary, as at Attica, Williamsport. on Pine creek, and near the French lick, with a little care, freestone, white and fine grained, and excellently suited for architectural purposes, may be readily obtained. In character and geological position it resembles the celebrated Scotch freestone, of which the new town of Edinburgh, and a portion of the town of Glasgow, are built." * * *

"Some of our clay in the coal formation answers well for the manufacture of stoneware: such wares are now manufactured from them at Troy.

''• It is well known to geolog-ists that that soil is most productive which has been derived from the destruction of the greatest variety of different rocks, for thus only is produced the due mixture of gravel, sand, clay, and limestone necessary to form a good medium for the retention and transmission of nutritive fluids, be they liquid or aeriform, to the roots of plants. Now, Indiana is situated near the middle of the great valley of northwestern America, and far distant from the primitive range of mountains, and her soil is accordingly formed from the destruction of a vast variety of rocks, both crystalline and sedimentary, which have been minutely divided and intimately blended together by the action of air and water. It has all the elements, iherefore, of extraordinary fertility."

The excellent locations of freestone mentioned by this able geologist, are nearly all situated within a few hours ride of Lafayette. A few miles beyond the State line of Indiana, immediately contiguous to Danville, a most flourishing town of northeastern Illinois, and the point of connexion between the Lafayette and Mississippi railroad, will be found coal formations of great depth and extent ; all of which can be easily worked, and the product conveyed along tiie lino of railroad and canal communication to any portion of the Upper Wabash. It may be well to mention, in passing, that salt-works, of great yield, are now in operation a few miles from Danville.

Chapter II

Canville and Mississippi railroad. Lafayette and Danville railroad. Advantageous provisions of its charter. Probable cost of the work. Amount of capital stock. Inducements offered capitalists for investment. Central railroad of Illinois.* Great advaniages to be derived from these Avorks when completed. Sketch of important tovvus in northern Indiana: Foi,"t Wa3'ne, Wabash, Lagrove, Peru, Logansport, Delphi, Lafayette, South Bend, St. Jo County, Indianapolis.

By an act passed at the General Assembly of the State of Illinois during its session of 1S36, securing similar internal improvements to those of Indiana, sums are provided for the completion of several works of great importance. We propose to notice hastily one or two of those connected with the outlets of the Wabash valley. By section 18 of the bill referred to, a siim of $100,000 is appropriated to remove the obstructions of the Wabash river, (a similar snm having been granted for that object by the State of Indiana.) Further appropriations have been made for this purpose, and work to the amount of $107,000 is now under contract.

By the ninth clause of the same section, the following provision is made for a railroad " from Quincy on the Mississippi river, via Columbus and Cia^^ton in Adams county, Mount Sterling in Schuyler county, Meredosia and Jacksonville in Morgan county, Springfield in Sangamon county, Decatur in Marion county, Sidney in Champaign county, and Danville in Vermillion county, and thence to the State line in the direction of Lafayette, Indiana, &c. tfcc. ; for the construction and completion of \vhich said raih'oad and appendage, the sum of one million eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated, exclusive of the necessary sum for constructing a bridge over the Illinois river, to be appropriated whenever said bridge may be authorized by the Legislature."