TIMES ARE CHANGING

Barbed wire for fences began being used about this same time, and was seen as a less expensive and work intensive form of fencing than rail or board fences. Its introduction enabled many to build fences
where it could otherwise not have been done. Many saw disadvantages claiming it maimed the stock, particularly horses.

A very important improvement was the erection of buildings for the protection of grain, stock, and housing of implements, tools and machinery; even the wagons were carefully housed. By caring for these
necessities of the farm, thousands of dollars were saved annually.

Orchards were expanded as families planted new more hardy varieties to not only provide for their needs, but to provide quantities for market as well.

The pioneer farm implements were crude and farming was conducted in a slipshod manner. The plow used was a “bar-share” plow the iron point of which consisted of a bar of iron two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was a beam six or seven feet long, to which was attached handles of corresponding length. Some still used the even more primitive mound-board plow which was a wooden one split out of a winding timber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn the soil over.

In the spring time, when the ground was prepared for seed, the father would take his post at the plow, with the daughter in possession of the reins. If the pioneer was blessed with a daughter old enough and
the sons were not yet old enough, she would be called on to drive the plow for her father. She wore a homespun dress, buttoned up behind, leather boots, and a bonnet. This was a grand scene–one full of grace and beauty. In the planting of corn which was always done by hand, the girls always took part, usually dropping the corn and then covering it with a hand hoe. Later a horse drawn check-row planter was used.

In the cultivating of wheat, the land was plowed the same as for corn, and harrowed with a wooden toothed harrow, or smoothed by dragging heavy brush over the ground weighted down if necessary with
stick of timber. It was then sown broadcast style by hand at the rate of about a quarter bushel per acre, and harrowed in with the brush.

At harvest time the expert crawler was paid big wages and was much sought after, up and down the country, as was also a good stacker. There were few farmers who did not know how to swing a scythe or
cradle, and there was no more pleasant picture on the farm than a gang of workmen in the harvest field.

Three cradles would cut about ten acres a day. One binder was supposed to keep up with the cradle. As soon as the shocks were sufficiently cured, they were hauled to some place on the farm convenient for threshing, and there put in stacks. The threshing was performed in one of two ways, by flail, or tramping with horses, generally the latter. The flail was used in stormy weather, on the sheltered floor, or when other farm work was not pressing. Threshing by tramping was commonly done in clear weather, on a level or well tramped clay floor. the bundles were piled in a circle of about 15 to 20 feet in diameter, and four to six horses were ridden over the straw. One or two hands turned the straw over and kept it in place.

When sufficiently tramped, the straw was thrown into a rick or stack, and the wheat cleared by a fanning mill, “a wonderful wind machine” few of which were sold in each township, or by letting it fall from a
height of 10 or 12 feet, subject to the action of the wind; when it was supposed to be ready for market.

By the decade of the 80’s Hardin county was regarded as one of the best agricultural counties in the state, with soil suitable for all cereal grains. They were finding more and more fruits would grow as well.

In 1874, there an estimate made of the number of acres under cultivation, and what was grown. The estimates are as follows.

In that year there were 128,831 acres of improved land bearing the following crops:
Spring wheat…38,454 acres
yield, 497,251 Bushel
Corn……………41,304 acres
yield,1,379,960 Bushel
Rye………………….147 acres
yield, 2,445 Bushel
Oats…………….10,982 acres
yield, 356,945 Bushel
Barley……………1,785 acres
yield, 29,646 Bushel
Sorghum…………….204 acres
yield, 1,977 gal. syrup

Lesser crops also grown were buckwheat, and flax. There were 1789 acres of bluegrass for pasture; 5216 acres of tame grass; 135 acres of Hungarian grass. There were 5,078 tons of tame hay, and 20,766 tons of prairie hay. 961 acres of potatoes were grown producing 75,410 bushels. Other crops included onions,

turnips, beets, peas, and beans which totaled 8,683 bushels.

Fruit trees included apples, pears, plums, and cherries. Fruit production had greatly increased in the years after 1874.

All are small by today’s standards, but quite good when you consider it was all planted, nurtured and harvested by hand and horsepower.

In 1861 B.F. Reed began a business of raising, buying and selling nursery stock. This was considered to be the first nursery in Clay township. The business was good enough that after Reed ran it for a number
of years, and it was then taken over by J. Wells.

When the earliest settlements were made in the area, it was thought that fruit would not grow here because of the climate. After some trial and persistence it was proven the climate was quite suitable for
many fruit bearing trees.

Benjamin F. Reed, a native of New Hampshire, settled southeast of Steamboat Rock on a farm of 255, acres where he began his nursery. When he retired from the nursery business, Mr. Reed had an elaborate orchard of ornamental fruit trees, evergreens and grape vines. Reed is credited with the advancement of fruit growing in Clay township