The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-04-03


little delta of 1cung's creek and the Hurricane.
On this rich, moist alluvial land the forest
growth was wonderful. Sycamore, oak, poplar,
walnut, elm and ash OF largest size were here.
And there were also beach and sugar trees,
blackberry and buckeye and all the other wood
indigenous to our Indiana forests. Wild grape
vines thick as a mans leg sprung to the tops OF
the tallest trees. Beneath was thlcket OF
spice wood twenty feet high" interpreted
with other bushes and young saplings, while
the ground itself was covered with down logs
from the newly fallen tree to the log so rotten
that blow of an ak would knock it to pieces.
Through this forest, made up 1t was of the
sprouting and the growing, the young and the
old, the big and the little, the living
and the dead, the down and the stand
ing the deer made their "runways" with CON-
parative ease; but the movers on that early
spring day, sixty-six years ago, were from sun
10 sun cutting wagon road from knoll TO
knoll-a distance that brisk walker OF to-day
on our streets can easily pass over In ten
minutes
Now / do not wish TO be understood as say
ing that the timber everywhere was as heavy
as on this fertile spot of alluyium ON which our
town stands. In other places there was lit
tie thinning out: the grape vines were scarcer;
the big trees less big or the saplings less
abundant, but everywhere heavy forest was
encountered by the pioneer farmer.
Before the pioneer farmer could plant grain
he had 10 cut or clear out his patch or field in
the woods. Think of the toll that engenderedl
The first thing after the cabin was
the clearing. Everything had to be done
clearing was to cut down all trees eighteen
inches and under at the knee" All the down
logs, save the largest, were cut or fingered
into lengths for rolling. The larger trees were
burned to death with the brush and trash"
o, the draft upon muscle and Drawn the old
lOg-rollings made / have interviewed in times
past more than a hundred of the pioneer
farmers on this very subject, and all told the
same story in substance. Let me say that while
the custom was 10 cut down everything
eighteen inches and under" a few farmers
cleared smooth" from the beginning. TheO-
dOre List Of this county cleared eight acres
"Smooth" the first year. He once told me the
logs were so thick that man could have
walked all over the clearing IN rows as close as
corn rows and never touch foot to ground.
1t required the log-rolling force Of his neigh
borhood four days to roll those logs.
Every able-bOdied pioneer farmer spent from
two to four weeks every spring rolling logs. L
have heard men say they frequently were
called upon to go four miles TO roll logs.
Every lOg-roller had a clearing of his own going
on and If his logs happened to be In heaps his
custom to fire fright up" and pick trash"
often till 10 o'clock at night and be up and out at
4 the next morning TO firing and "rightlng up.
before going to the neighbours rolling In his
absence the wife and children, If any, were
clearing. 1t took man on an average OF three
weeks to clear an acre of land ready for corn,
and you see that the pioneer farmer
who made his bread had in the language OF the
times, to "stir his stumps."
have spoken of the general poverty of the
people and of the swampy conditicz of the
country and of the great forests that had 10 be
cleared away. Let me briefly refer to another
fact worthy of being kept in mind in this dis
cussiOn, and that is the general unhealthtulness
of the country. For more than twenty years
after Indiana was made a state, hardly year
passed without the more or less prevalence Of
the most fatal sickness in certain parts. Some
years it would be mostly confined TO the low
lands and on others to the high lands. But so
general was its appearance during the fall sea-
sons that the people, IN some places at least
made preparation for il. They put their houses
in order. The mortality among the men was
greater than among the women, and hardly a
fall passed that in every neighbOrhOOd there
not heard the wall OF the widow. Other
circumstances might prOfitably be mentioned
in this connection was there time for II, such
as the early and late froSts and the want of
markets. But have dwelt long enough on the
pioneers unfavorable surroundings. The pic
tuTe present is made by only touch here and
there 1t would take a book and no little book
at that to tell the whole story.
The little field cleared, it may not be unprOf-
liable to take a peep at the farmer at his plow-
ing anu DldnllnZ. All sOflb OF SlllllS were
made to raise the first crops of corn. More
men than you would now imagine got along
without any blowing. Men planted and till ed
with the ak, the mattOck, the hoe. the shovel,
in a word, with any implement with which they
could dig up and stir the ground. Still, these
were the exceptions. The great majority
plowed-after a fashiOn-frOm the start. Poor
horses were the rule in Indiana in the early
days, and poor horses made weak pillow beasts
then as now. ii the farmer had but one horse
he broke his land with the shovel pillow. In
deed the first breaking was very generally made
with the shovel pillow, drawn by one horse, no
matter how many horses the farmer owned.
The old shovel pillow had a broader and shorter
bit than is the case with the ones | here and
there see nowadays; and II was generally con-
structed with bar of iron passing through the
beam down to the point of the shovel. When
the pillow struck a root or a stump, 1t hoped
over the obstruction and ran into the earth on
the other side. This made poor blowing, no
doubt but il was the best that could be done in
land cleared in the green and 1t served the pur-
pose better than you might think. Corn and
beans and pumpkins and turnips planted and
sown in the virgin earth that had been plOwed
with shovel pillow grew amazingly. There was
a freshness and verility in the new soil that
long tilling has done much to eliminate. The
wire edge" has been taken off, so to speak.
The implements used by the pioneer farmer
were few, and, tested by the implements in use
to-day, they were cheap. If the farmer did not
stock his own pillow, more skillful neighbor
did it for him. His pillow gears were hand
made His trace-chains he in general. bought,
but everything else he could make, at least with
the aid of an ingenious nelghbOr. The corn
crop was, by all odds, the most important crop
OF the Indiana pioneer farmer. He relied upon
it to make the bread for his family, as well as
the food for his horses and cattle. 1t was pc
culiarly well adapted for green woods cultiva-
ton. No other grain could be so well grown in
the beginning: indeed, may safely say Indian
corn was the only grain that could be success
fully grown at the start Oats soon followed,
and next came buckwheat Wheat came last
of all. On the little wet shaded and new fields
wheat refused to ripen, or, If 1t did, II was of
very inferior quality. or, worse, sick wheat"
"Sick wheat" was quite common in the early
history OF farming in this state and sick
wheat made bread that made sick men.
have often wondered how Indiana could have
been settled had it not been for the Indian
corn. Without it, it's settlement would have
been delayed for many years
detailed description of the pioneer farmers
implements would enable you younger men 70
appreciate more than you do the vast strides
that have been made since his day. But there
Is no time for that now. l can barely refer to
the "bar-share plOw," the pillow with which he
broke his fields just as soon as the roots began
TO rot. The bar-share was low down in the life
of the pillow 1t was little farther removed
from the oriental farmers pillow, made of a
forked tree with one fork cut long into beam
and the other cut short into pillow, than II is
from the best improved plows OF to-day.