The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1902-09-16
Agricultural Pro d U c t
MakesExceilen Mt Show
ina in This County.
SHUTDOWN ENDS Toll OF THOUSANDS
I'm me nse Returns Wrested d from
Mother Earth Compare Fav-
orably With Immense
Manufacturing Output.


People who live in the country, or
those who ride about in the rural dis
tricts. see only few farms, with their
grain fields, the cattle that Craze in
the pastures, or the horses that plod
the furrow or haul in the rlpened
grain. 1t Is seldom, however, that
even che more thoughtful stop to think
OF or estimate the aggregate OF the
products of the toll and care OF the
man upon whom all the worid must
depend for food and the raw material
for raiment.
Stark county, with her numberless
factories, her railroads and mines, her
cities and banking institutions, is sell
dom counted an agricultural section.
The smoke of the factories rather
blinds the eye of the onloolter. The
manufacturing establishments are
punched in the cities ana Kowns and
can come under the immediate vision.
When the whistle blows in the evening
large armies can be seen coming frog.
their daily .oil in the cities and the
magnitude of the institutions that /
nish work for so many men and wom-
en- is forced upon the m'nd vividiy.
NATURES WEALTH.
But it is different in the country
districts. To the sound of the dinner
horn, or when the sun has set behind
the slant horizon, a vast multitude
of sons of the soil drop their farm
ing implements and wend their way
homeward. They are not punched up
on a narrow pavement. They do not
walk almost with a lock step one close
upon the heels of another, but by
twos and threes, few here on this
farm others on that, all over the coun-
tiy, there are thousands upon thou
sands of men, women, boys and girls,
who labor not for eight hours, or for
ten, but from sun up to sun down, up
on the hundreds of farms in The coun-
ty, compelling Nature to deal out with
lavish hand the resources that are hid
den within the bosoms of mother
earth.
These tillers of the soil cultivate
in Stark county each year 1879 acres
of ground, while they care for the
cattle, sheep and horses that Craze up
on $4,000 acres that are given over to
pasture. The tosal acreage of the
county is 2T1, $50 acres, OF which 5000
is waste land, mostly swamp. This
swamp land, however, is being grad
ually reclaimed by system of private
and county bitches, and when it is once
fit for cultivation 1t is the best soil
that les out of doors. 1t is rich
black loan that produces celery, gar
den truck, and anything that is de-
In such abundance that the best land
of this sort can hardly be purchased
at any price, selling often for as high
as $500 an acre.
STARK STANDS HIGH.
An examination of the crop reports
and statistics for the past ten years,
and reference to the table of products
for the year 1900, shows thaa If Stark
county is not first In agricultural I'M
portance, she is at least good second
in the state of Ohio
Taking into consideration the unre-
pot.ed products, such as are produced
by the market gardeners, 1T is safe to
say that this county leads all others in
the state i'm her soil products.
In the production of whead she
stands alone. leading all other counties
In the state by good margin. Her
yield in 1900 was 421 1893 bushels, 49,
3G6 acres having been harvested that
year. The crop was not up to the
average, or her lead would have been
much greater. The general average
was only12 bushels ito the acre. The
next county to her that year was Paul
ding, with 395 900 bushels. Only two
other counties In the state reached over
the 100000 mark.
f SOME FIGURES.
The same year Stark county pro-
duced 1,209,319 bushels of OATS, be-
ing second in this regard in the state
The average was Al bushels to the
acre. Mercer led by small margin,
and only nine counties In the state ex-
ceeded the million mark.
In the production OF potatoes, STARK
county took high rank, standing fifth
among the So counties. The yield was
86s, 100 bushels, the average yaad pei
acre being 400 bushels. This is one Of
tho best showings In the staTs.
Her corn crop. while large was ex'
essded BY number Of other counties