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EARLY AGRICULTURE - 191 CHAPTER XII. EARLY AGRICULTURE-REFUSE LANDS—MARKETS. " Nature here wanton'd as in her prime." WITH very rare exceptions, the first settlements throughout the county were made along the larger streams, the bottoms and lowlands. A variety of reasons may be assigned for this action and choice of the pioneers. It was dictated by a sound judgment and a clear comprehension of the exigencies of the situation. The bottoms and lands adjoining the streams presented a richer quality of soil than was perceivable upon the uplands ; the underbrush, such as the mulberry, willow, alders, crab, haw, wild plum and thorn, and other scrub growths of timber, could be more speedily, and with greater ease, removed than the huge forests that occupied the hillier and more elevated portions of the county. A few acres of the valley lands could with surprising facility be prepared for either the fall or spring crop of the first settlers. In some instances there were considerable areas in these valleys which were wholly destitute of any timber growth, and all that was needed was to break their surface to make their future cultivation desirable and profitable. These bottom ranges furnished a delicious native pasturage, which was a most valuable consideration to the emigrant from a remote corner of a distant State who had driven a single cow over the long, weary miles he had traveled, to be a part of the expectant support of his wife and little ones in his new home in the wild, strange places he had chosen as his own. In the summer they could be mowed, and when the grass was properly dried it made 192 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. a sweet and esculent feed for cattle. Numerous cool fresh water springs, bright, bubbling and healthful, issued from the hillsides, and were the faithful little feeders of the streams ; and hence the question of water contributed no embarrassing ingredient to the situation. With him, well-digging and well-diggers were myths. Nature had generously provided for him, and at her invigorating fountains he drank, and was strong. The pioneer, by virtue of his condition was, and had to be, self-dependent. If he did not originally possess the qualities, the circumstances developed foresight and penetrative sagacity in him. His chosen proximity to the streams had an immense meaning. His wheat would ripen, his corn mature, and mills had to be erected to grind his meal and flour. Here in his midst, flowing by the very door of his cabin, nature had put her forces to play, and in cheerful dalliance she was waiting to have her energies utilized. " On these streams," said the pioneer, " mills will be built to grind our grains ; here is the natural force by which to propel them! " Moreover, the uplands of the county and the heavy timbered table levels and wooded ridges were conceived by the early settlers to be sterile and unprofitable regions. They were occasionally denominated " barrens," and theories of their successful tillage were flouted and disbelieved. "This idea of the barrenness of the upland soil is supposed to have originated in the fact that the substance of its surface had been for a considerable period annually exhausted by fire. These fires, for obvious reasons, rarely swept over the lower plains, and hence their fertility continued unimpaired. The practice of devastating by fire the upland forests, and thus defeating the operations of nature, doubtless had its origin with white hunters from the tramontane regions, who had introduced this with other more flagrant vices of civilization among the aborigines, after the latter had become instructed in the use of fire-arms and the practice of white hunters. The effect of the fires was to change the natural qualities of the soil—to incrust the sur- EARLY AGRICULTURE - 193 face of the earth with a material similar to a vast sheet of brick, and where anything like pulverized earth made its appearance it bore the semblance of white brickdust. Notwithstanding this periodical exhaustion, the natural vigor of the soil during each spring following the autumnal burning, would become so far recuperated as to produce a very rank growth of vegetation, known as sedge grass, pea vines, etc. This vegetation afforded excellent pasture from early spring until about August. The sedge grass when cut in July, or earlier, afforded very nutritious and palatable food for domestic stock during the winter months. "In the lapse of time it became a matter of necessity with the cultivators of the soil upon the bottom and valley lands, to fight and subdue these autumnal fires for the protection of their own fences, cabins, granaries, and other property; and, after a few years of rest from the exhausting process, the uplands very soon resumed their natural fertility ; a radical chemical change became apparent all over the surface of the soil, and efforts at cultivation demonstrated the fact that those rejected acres are now among the most fertile of any in Ohio for the production of the staple which is the chief source of our agricultural wealth."* The early agricultural experiments of the pioneers were not of such a character as to produce in their minds the greatest encouragement. The first ticklings of the soil did not so promptly respond to the laughter of harvest. The united testimony of the old settlers is, that, for several years, they realized but little from their crops. One old pioneer said to us: "Why, even our garden stuffs did but little good ; our potatoes did not mature, and the acreage of our corn and wheat was scant." They were but poorly compensated for their first labors ; they labored hard, and were often disappointed. The old wooden mould-board that many of the pioneers transported in their carts and wagons from the Eastern States, and the horses with which they usually conveyed them, were not of the * Knapp's Ashland County. 194 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. kind to break through the webs of green, tough roots they found upon their partially cleared fields. Their plows were not adapted to the work, and their horses too often unsuited to the heavy and oppressive task. The soil could be but imperfectly tilled, and the seeds deposited in the ground could scarcely find moisture enough in the loosened soil to germinate. Whether this was the cause of it or not, the farmers complained of " sick " wheat and soft corn and watery potatoes. There was but little incentive to cultivate the soil in those days, only to produce what the family consumed and what would sup-. port the stock and pay the taxes-the latter, the farmer very frequently not being able to realize enough of money from his crops, to do. There was no market at home, no foreign demand, and if there had been, it would have been been beyond their reach. One of the early and oldest of the living pioneers in the county assured us that, upon one occasion, he hauled a load of wheat to Wooster, and, after doing his utmost to sell it, failed, and was compelled to exchange it for other commodities. In this exchange he wanted some tobacco, which was refused him by the merchant, unless he could pay money for it, as it was a cash article. Having no money, he had to go home without tobacco. A countryman on one occasion asked Hon. John Larwill what he was paying for wheat, to which he jocularly replied, "I will give you twenty-five cents per bushel if you will bring enough to make a walk across this muddy street." The root of the wild ginseng which grew quite abundantly in the forests, was about the only product that commanded a cash value. It has a pointed, fleshy root, of the size of the human finger, and when dry is of a yellowish white color, with a slight odor and an agreeably bitter taste, and is supposed to be a tonic and stimulant. In the spring of the year many persons made a practice of gathering it. It was a cash article to those who had it to sell, and was worth twenty-five cents per pound. It is now worth one dollar per pound, and, we believe, is no longer found in the county. EARLY AGRICULTURE - 195 As we have elsewhere remarked, the opening of the Ohio canal in 1827 was the first god-send to the early settlers of the county, and after that the completion of the P., Ft. W. & C. R. R. imparted value to every product of the farm, and insured prosperity to every phase of agricultural labor and largely enhanced the prices of real estate. |