Many inventions

     Before the settlement of Iowa, farming had been carried on with a few simple tools for hundreds of years. Few improvements of these tools had ever been made, and few new ones had been invented. But just about the time that the pioneers of Iowa staked out their claims on the Sac and Fox purchases, European and American mechanics began to invent numerous useful farm machines, which, because they made it possible for a man to do more with the same or even less effort, were called "labor saving". The first of these were threshers, mowers, and improved plows. Soon there were also corn planters, grain drills and seeders, potato planters, rakes, corn shellers and fanning mills. Since most of these machines were drawn by horses, an impetus was given to the raising of better horses.

The wonderful grain binder

     The most valuable of all these labor saving machines was probably the American grain binder. The first machines for harvesting�

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>...grain were made in England more than a century ago. In 1831 two Americans patented reapers. Another American, Cyrus McCormick, Staunton, Virginia, patented a reaper in 1834. It proved practical, and the inventor decided to locate a reaper factory in Chicago, as this city was close to the great Western grain fields. In 1848 McCormick manufactured 500 machines, and

A grain binder in operation

from that time on, the manufacture of harvesting machinery increased by leaps and bounds. The first reapers were used both for cutting hay and grain. Later kinds of reapers cut the grain and raked it off into bundles or sheaves, which were deposited on the ground and bound by hand. Binding was very hard work because the men had to hurry to keep up with the machines, and inventors were soon at work to lighten the work of the binders.

    The Marsh harvester then appeared. It was equipped with a platform in which two men stood and bound the grain as fast as it was cut. McCormick then improved his reaper by an automatic attachment to bind the bundles with wire. But the farmers complained that the wire in the straw was harmful to the cattle, and bits of wire getting into the grain threw sparks while grinding, sometimes setting the mills on fire.

    These drawbacks were overcome in 1872 when two inventors almost simultaneously invented twine-binding attachments. These were utilized later by the McCormick and the Deering harvester companies. By 1880 the grain binder was complete as it existed down to the present time except for minor improvements.

    The latest development of harvesting machinery is the combine, which cuts and threshes the grain and leaves the straw in windrows in the field.

Bugs and beetles cause hard times

     During the fifties and sixties Iowa farmers began to buy labor saving machinery. In the seventies and eighties thousands and thou-�.

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....sands of such machines were sold to Iowa farmers, often on credit. In years when locusts, chinch bugs, or potato beetles injured or destroyed the crops, many farmers had difficulty in meeting the payments on the machines. Still, the farmers welcomed the new machinery. It lightened their labors and, in the long run, promoted prosperity.

Conservation of the soil

     Iowa soil was so productive that the pioneers gave little attention to the conservation of its fertility. But smaller yields made it evident that something should be done to keep the soil

Farm scene near West Liberty. About 1870

productive. So the farmers turned their attention to the value of fertilizers, rotation of crops, and drainage. Instead of leaving old straw and barnyard manure to rot around the barns, they were spread on the fields. And instead of planting wheat in the same field year after....

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.... year, clover followed wheat; and corn, clover. This is what is called rotation of crops. Cultivated tracts of land were also improved by ditching and tiling. The first tiles in Iowa were laid in Des Moines County in the year 1857. Large areas of swamp lands have since been reclaimed by tiling and open ditches, and in this way farmers have increased the productive land area of the State.

    The latest methods of conserving the soil are building dams in gullies and contour cultivation to prevent the washing away of top soil. Irrigation is also being considered in some parts of Iowa, and a soil bank has been proposed.

    For several decades wheat was one of the principal crops of Iowa. Of the ten large wheat producing states in the Union, Iowa ranked second in 1869 with an annual yield of nearly 30 million bushels. Ten years later Iowa ranked fifth, and in 20 years more, tenth. While the wheat crop was decreasing the farmers struck out on other lines of production such as fruit growing, bee keeping, the raising of hogs, cattle and horses.

Creameries or butter factories

     The pioneers had made cheese and butter mainly for their own use. What little they couldn't use at home, was sold to the merchants. But mixing the butter made it different farm homes lowered the quality of the resultant mixture. Such butter sometimes sold for only a few cents a pound. In the fifties cheese factories were built, and in the early seventies, creameries. One of the first creameries in Iowa began to be....

An early Iowa creamery

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....operated in Manchester, Delaware County in 1872. Iowa butter was awarded the gold medal at the World's fair in Philadelphia in 1876. The butter was made by W. S. Carrington at Strawberry Point in Clayton County. "That was worth more than making a speech on the hustings (platforms at political meetings) or enacting a law in congress, " Cyrenus Cole has truly said in A History of the People of Iowa. In 1880 one third of all the butter made in the United States was produced in Iowa.

    With the establishment of creameries, the milk was taken to the creamery to "set" until the cream had risen and could be skimmed off, after which the milk was returned to the farmers. Or the milk might be "set" at home, skimmed, and only the cream sent to the creamery.

    Since the milk had to "set" 24 hours, it often soured before being skimmed, and this made poor feed for the calves. It was evident that a machine which could separate the cream from the milk as soon as it had been milked, would be of great value to the dairy farmers.

    Such machines were first manufactured in Sweden and Denmark. As we have already seen, a Danish immigrant, living near Cedar Falls, imported a centrifugal cream separator from Denmark- the first to be used in Iowa and in the United States. Several makes of this kind of separator were soon manufactured in the United States.

    A few years after the introduction of the cream separator, a professor at the State Agricultural College of Wisconsin invented an apparatus by which the amount of butter that could be made from a definite quantity of whole milk, could be accurately determined. The apparatus is known as the Babcock tester. Though at first there were doubts about its practical value, most creameries were soon using it.

    The number of Iowa creameries increased from 449 in 1879 to 725 in 1896, and cheese factories from 52 to 71. Many of the creameries were co-operative, that is, owned jointly by the farmers.

    In the present century the trend has been towards large central creameries, which buy both whole milk and cream from the farmers, and produce, butter, ice cream, and powdered milk. By 1949 the number of creameries in Iowa had dropped to 390.>/p>

Barb wire

     A great improvement was made in fencing during the seventies. The pioneers had several kinds of fences - rail fences, board fences,....

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.... ditch and wall fences, and hedges. Though hedges and board fences have not entirely gone out of use in all parts of the State, none of these early fences were very satisfactory. They would not always "turn" cattle nor the "fence despising" hogs.

    A real boon to the farmers, therefore, was the invention of barb wire, in which several Iowa mechanics had a prominent part. When the practical value of this fencing material had been demonstrated, there was a big demand for it and a number of barb wire factories were built in several states. They combined and raised prices. The farmers in Iowa then formed a protective association and began to manufacture barb wire themselves. In the end, the competing factories lowered the price, and the farmers' association disbanded.

    With better fences there was more interest in gardens, orchards, and lawns. These could now be protected against the stock. The result was more beautiful homesteads.

Societies to help the farmer.

     Many of the improvements on Iowa farms during these years were prompted by farmers clubs, the Granges, the Farmers Alliance, and other farm organizations. The county agricultural

Modern farm scene in Iowa

societies put on county fairs where there were departments for not only the farmers, but manufactures, housewives and children. The State Agricultural Society conducted the State fairs. A State horticultural society, organized in 1866, stimulated interest in better gardens and orchards. The State Department of Agriculture was or-....

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....organized in 1900. It supplanted the State Agricultural Society, which ceased to exist after 40 years of activity. The newest farm organizations are the Farm Bureau, the Farmers' Union, and the Four H Clubs.

Questions and Exercises: Make a list of labor saving machines used on Iowa farms. What part of the grain binder was the most difficult to invent? What insects did a great deal of damage on Iowa farms? How is the fertility of the soil conserved? Why did Iowa farmers after a while raise less wheat? Why could better butter be made in creameries than on the farms? Find out how cream is separated from whole milk in a cream separator. What is a Babcock tester? Who own co-operative creameries? What did the farmers do to reduce the price of barb wire? List the societies that have helped the farmers.