CHAPTER XXV __________ AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. Iowa's primacy in agriculture is due to unparalleled richness of soil and favorable climate, together with the fact that its fertile acres have been settled by intelligent, progressive farmers. Its lands may not be superior to the best land of adjoining states, but it has the distinctive advantage of containing the least percentage of non-productive or waste land. Fully 95 per cent of its area is exceedingly rich in the elements necessary to plant growth, and doubtless the remarkable increase in amount and value of agricultural products in the state and, relatively, in the county, is due to the fact that Montgomery County, lying in the heart of the corn belt, is not excelled by any county of equal area in the United States. The value of real estate in the county is approximately $23,000,000 and of personal property something like $2,500,000. Pottawatamie County, cornering with Montgomery on the northwest, a much larger county, has the distinction of producing the greatest amount of corn of any county in the United States and of being in a congressional district producing a greater amount of this cereal than any other district in the United States. Wheat, oats, hay and potatoes, are produced in large quantities in Montgomery County. There has been a gradual evolution from prairie grass to wheat, from wheat to clover, from clover to corn—and Corn is king, and his dominions are ever extending. "No human monarch ever ruled with such inexorable law and exact justice and brought to his subject such riches and such development of all the virtues of industry, aspiration and providence, as King Corn, in his great empire of the Middle West." The yearly Page 215 revenue to the county derived from this source is large. In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the annual production of corn by those who have adopted scientific methods in its production. A school in charge of the professors of the State Agricultural College, who give instruction in the selection of seeds, the preparation of the soil and rotation of crops, promises to largely increase the annual yield. The preparatory crop of clover renders the soil as fertile as the decaying roots of the grass of the virgin prairie. Twenty-five years after the first settlement of the county, there was no apparent necessity for fertilizing the land and no attention was given it. First came the plowing, or, as it was called, the breaking of the prairie. This was always done in the growing season, that the roots of the grasses might more easily decay. If the roots had been allowed to harden before this work was performed, they would not have decayed for several years, and the land could not have produced the best results. Corn was often planted in the following manner: The tough sod was cut through with an axe and into the openings thus made, grains of corn were dropped and covered up by stamping the dirt with the foot. The corn thus planted was called sod-corn and was not afterwards tilled. The next spring, the prairie soil would be torn apart with a heavy harrow, the desired distances marked off with a sled-like marker and the seed covered with a hoe, the women and children usually assisting in this work. There arose a demand for some better and faster method of dropping corn, and, under the spur of necessity, the corn planter was invented, which planted and covered two rows at a time. This was supplemented by a plow drawn by one horse, which followed along one side of the row to cultivate the growing plants, and returned on the other side. Subsequently, a plow with two tongue-shaped shovels and drawn by one horse, rendered it necessary to go only once between the rows. Then, in obedience to the law of evolution from lower to higher, from Page 216 good to better, a cultivator was invented which was drawn by two horses and which did double the work of the former one. This was similar to the ordinary cultivator now in use, but it was, however, heavy and unwieldly, and without wheels to regulate the depth of the cultivator, and was in time thrown aside for the modern corn plow with wheels. This comprises a check-row, dropping evenly two rows at once, and covering the corn at the same time, and a walking or riding cultivator, some covering one, some two rows at a time. On the larger farms, in order to hasten the labor of planting, the lister is brought into requisition. This combination plow and planter drills and covers the seed on one row, enabling the workman to plow and plant from six to ten acres a day. After the corn plants have grown to the height of from four to six inches, corn cultivators plow out the elevations made by the lister in the first process. By the tools and improvements now in use, a saving of over 90 per cent of the physical labor is effected over those employed three decades ago. The old method of sowing, reaping and threshing small grain is now obsolete. The sickle made way for the cradle, which was followed by a man to rake and another to bind the sheaves. This in turn gave place to the reaper with a man standing on the platform, and, with a rake, removing each bundle, followed by from four to six men to do the binding. The bands made of straw were tied while walking from one bundle to another. After the binders, came two men who put the bundles together in shocks. Now all this labor is done away with by the self-binder, which not only simplifies the work, but saves the farmer and his wife the expense and care of so many men during harvest time, for this machine cuts, binds and drops the bundles into convenient piles, so that one man is able to do the shocking. The old process of threshing grain in the first settlement of this county is merely a memory. A threshing floor, say thirty
Page 217 or forty feet in diameter, was prepared by removing the prairie grass and making the ground as smooth and hard as possible. The grain was placed upon this, and tramped out by horses or oxen, their sharp hoofs taking the place of the flail, and, from time to time, the straw was turned. In this manner the grain and straw were separated and nature did the winnowing, for it must be remembered that there was a constant breeze, unimpeded by grove or other obstruction, and by throwing up the chaff and the whole wheat, the former would be blown away. Now, with a threshing machine driven by steam, the band-cutting, feeding, threshing, winnowing, measuring the grain and stacking the straw, is one combined process, a steady stream pouring from its side many hundreds of bushels a day. Mr. John Hayes, Ex-President of the Iowa State Agricultural Fair, an old resident of the state and county, a man of large affairs, and of keen observation, well states in a newspaper article published some time ago the wonderful transformation that has taken place in the last century: "Fifty years ago the fertile acres of Iowa were largely a part of the National domain, the titles rapidly passing from the United States by pre-emption, by cash entry, by land warrant locations and by railroad land grants. "Forty years ago the better part of Iowa remained untilled and vast areas were still called inaccessible, no railroads having penetrated its western point. "Thirty years ago Western Iowa was in the full flush of development. With the advent of the railroad in 1868, a new era came to "the slope," and during the ten succeeding years the almost limitless stretches of native sward were broken; the luxuriant grasses and beautiful flowers of the prairie disappeared." HORTICULTURE After the people of Montgomery County awoke to the fact that the county was adapted to fruit growing, they entered upon Page 218 this industry with enthusiasm. Orchards, vineyards and small fruit plantations came to be in evidence. All through Southwestern Iowa, thirty years ago, the belief was general that all that was necessary to make a success of fruit growing was to put seeds, plants and trees in the ground, and nature would do the rest. That any special knowledge or judgment was required to insure success, was something which was not taken into consideration. Many successes but more failures were the outcome of this mistaken idea and real remunerative results did not come until careful, scientific methods were adopted. Of late years, much progress has been made, and this field is generally occupied by legitimate horticulturists. The orchards of Montgomery County took first premiums at the World's Fair at New Orleans, but they were old orchards and have now fallen into partial decay. Iowa had the honor of taking highest awards at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, taking sweep stakes for the largest exhibit of apples. At the World's Fair at Chicago, she ranked high in competing with her sister states. In the past three years, Iowa has planted more acres of orchards and vineyards than any adjoining state with the exception of Missouri. Her people are progressive and believe in home making. One has only to pass over the county to see the many beautiful homes, surrounded by hedges and protected by trees, among which the evergreen is conspicuous. In the very earliest period of the settlement of the county, it was the universal verdict that fruit could not be grown on our rich, deep and alluvial soil, and this opinion was entertained, notwithstanding the object lesson before them that along the water courses and nooks of ground protected from the annual prairie fires, grapes, plums and crab-apples grew in abundance. So rapidly did the public opinion on this subject change, that as early as 1883, 1884 and 1885, it was no uncommon occurrence to furnish eastern markets with carload lots of apples con- Page 219 signed to places which had previously been looked to for their supply. Perhaps there was no one thing that the people, who had left a fruit growing country, missed so much as apples. The scarcity of money and their high price rendered it almost impossible to obtain them. It became a common saying of those who had become discouraged of living out west that they were going back to their wife's relations, where they could raise fruit. But, as it was discovered after at time, the county is well adapted to raising apples of excellent quality and of sufficient quantity to supply the home demand. 
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