History of Cherokee County |
History of Cherokee County |
| Wheat
is so far the principal crop, being best adapted for subduing the land.
The yield averages from 15 to 20 bushels per acre. It is grown very
extensively, shipments from the county some seasons having bone as high
as 120 cars of the cereal. Individual farmers have as high as 400 acres
to wheat, and in every township a dozen or more can be found who sow
upwards of 100 acres annually. These two years last past farmers have
been more generally diverting their attention to corn growing, as a
complement to stock raising. Corn does exceedingly well, costs much
less labor and owing to the high price of hogs for four years has been
more profitable. From 35 to 60 bushels per acres may be relied upon;
its cultivation is very extensive, being fed to stock, not as a general
thing grown for sale. Oats yield from 40 to 100 bushels per acres, and
used exclusively for horse feed. Barley, rye, and in fact all staple
grain does well. |
| Limiting
the term stock raising to the production of cattle and hogs, it is one
of the principal sources of revenue of this region. Cattle cost almost
nothing to raise. In summer the pasture ranges are so extensive that a
thousand cattle might be fed where there in now but one; also millions
of tons of grass are annually lost because there is no one to profit by
its use. The same kind of grass the cattle eat in summer is cut and
stalked for winter use. This hay is very nutritious; it and corn is all
that is fed to beeves in winter. It is but the work of a few days to
put up a hundred tons of prairie hay, ample feed for 50 to 60 head of
cattle. The market for live stock is always good; drovers are ever
ready to buy and pay cash for stock. In the neighborhood of 100 cars of
stock cattle were shipped from Cherokee during 1877, representing an
income to the farmer of $100,000. Hog raising is now conducted on an extensive scale, forming the principal item of revenue to the farmer. From 1873 to the fall of '77, the price per 100 pounds, live weight, averaged about $4.00, hence wheat growing was not near so profitable. Probably there has been shipped during the year 200 cars of live hogs, representing a capital of $200,000. This branch of industry seems to be limitless in Cherokee. Corn is so easily produced, and hogs are so healthy, not a single case of hog cholera having yet been known in the county. It may appear to some that the length of the winters in Northwestern Iowa presents difficulties in the way of stock raising, as to render it unprofitable. Such, however, is not the case. Cattle glean a portion of their living on the prairie as late as December and herding usually begins on the first of May, at which date it is presumed cattle can subsist without feed. Winter feeding costs little beyond labor. The acreage of grass is practically limitless, and all the hay necessary for any amount of stock can be had for the cutting. The nutritious qualities of Northwestern prairie grass are well known, and the quality of beef fed from it is regarded as very superior. Northwestern Iowa stock commands a very ready market in Chicago, bringing always good prices. The ease with which cattle can be kept applies equally to horses. As yet but little has been done with sheep in this county, but the bluffy lands along the rivers have always been regarded as well adapted for sheep. The profits of stock raising are manifested by the fact that all who have tried it have done well, and it is an annually increasing industry. |
| "But how can people get along without fencing?"
is the question that naturally arises. There are two methods of
regulating the conflicting interest between stock raising and grain
growing. The one is to leave the grain raiser to guard his crops, the
other is compel the stock men to watch his stock. In the majority of
states grain fields are fenced, because stock is permitted to run at
large. In Iowa the state law leaves it with each county to adopt either
system and in Northwestern Iowa the absence of fencing material caused
the adoption of the "Herd Law," by which cattle are not permitted
to trespass on grain fields under penalty. The usual method is for some
one to herd the cattle of the neighborhood by day driving them in the
evening into a corral or pen, where they are kept over night. The
method is simple, inexpensive, and popular with the people. Those who
desire to fence pastures for hogs etc . can purchase cedar p posts at
the lumber yards at $25 per hundred, and fencing boards at $15
per 1000 feet. A barbed wire is used quite extensively, fastened
to posts 16 or 20 feet apart, and makes an effective fence against
horses and cattle, much encouragement has been given to hedge planting,
the state and county permitting a certain rebate on taxation for each
half mile of young hedge. There are in Cherokee County a number of very
beautiful hedges, principally of white willow. It is not at all
probable that the Herd law will soon be repealed, so that fencing is
not really a necessity, yet an enclosure of a few acres is almost
indispensable to every farmer, and this can be had at a trifling
cost. Osage orange has not proved a success, nor is it likely to in
this climate, but the English white willow in many of the Cherokee
hedges is fifteen feet high and bushy as a brush fence. |
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