Farming in Jefferson County: 1848

This 1848 letter from John Craig, a Scottish immigrant who probably lived just north of Madison, not far from North Madison, is the most detailed description of early farming in Jefferson County that I have seen. The fact that he boasts about his results on under seven acres of cropland and needed four or five hand during harvest says much about the typical farm in that era.

The Cultivator a Monthly Journal, Devoted To And To Domestic Aid Rural Economy. New Series—Vol. V. Albany, New-York: Published By Luther Tucker, 407 Broadway. Office in New-York City, at M.H. Newman & Co.'s Bookstore, No. 190 Broadway, from the press of Van Benhuysen 1848


IRA HOPKINS having stated in the November number of the Cultivator, (1848.) how thirty bushels of wheat could be raised to the acre. I have concluded to tell you how I raised one hundred bushels on three acres, and eighty-four bushels on three acres and eighty-nine rods, the past season, on land that produced but thirteen bushels to the acre in 1839, which was one of the best wheat seasons in this neighborhood, we had been favored with for the last ten years.

In the spring of 1847, I plowed three acres of clover and timothy sod, as deep as possible. On the 16th April, harrowed, cross plowed, harrowed again, made drills about two feet eight inches asunder, manured the drills liberally, dropped potato sets in the drills, about nine inches apart, covered by running the plow both ways in each drill. Some days after, pulled a little off the top of each drill with a hoe. When the plants were 8 or 10 inches high, plowed the soil from each side of the drills, run a cultivator between to level and pulverise; run the plow both ways, and threw back the soil to the plants.

On the 14th September, commenced raising the potatoes with the plow, by taking eight or ten drills at a time, and plowing round them, the first furrow turned one side off the two outside drills, the next throw out the middle, the next turned over the other side, the next furrow turned up the space between the drills; thus plowing all the ground thoroughly, and so deep as to turn up a little of the subsoil. Used hoes after the plow, and when all was plowed, harrowed both ways. Then plowed the ground as deep as possible into lands, 2 rods wide. Sowed one rod at a round, and on the 30th of September, sowed one and a half bushels of Mediterranean wheat to the acre.

We may let the wheat grow till I tell you of the produce of the potato crop; but I cannot tell you this exactly, though I can tell enough to show that a medium potato crop produces move value than a good corn or wheat crop. I sold 350 bushels at 25 to 30 cents per bushel — $92.07. Kept 101 bushels of the middle-sized for seed. Gave the small ones to the cows, and supplied a family of thirteen persons eleven months, besides a man half of the time, and four or five hands a month in harvest.

I may say that potatoes, last season, did not produce half' as much, as they took the rot during a very wet time in August. When the weather changed the rot ceased, and none have rotted in the cellar. This is the first appearance of the potato disease I have seen, except the two previous years, the end attached to the stem, rotted in a few instances.

You will observe the number of plowings this piece of ground got. From conversing with an Englishman and reading the Commissioner of Patents' Report for 1847, I find that the English and Germans, generally plow the ground twice at least, before sowing wheat.

The three acres eighty-nine rods, was clover and timothy sod also, and was manured in the winter of 1845 and 1846, with 80 two-horse wagon-loads of barn-yard manure, plowed deep and harrowed, and planted in corn. The cultivator was run four times through the corn, but the plow never. I think it produced 60 bushels to the acre. I did not measure it, but I measured another field the same season. The spring of 1847, sowed it with barley, and it produced only seventeen bushels to the acre, and never got more than this of spring barley to the acre.

After harvest, I scraped up all the manure I could get, and scattered it over the stubble, plowed it down, and on the 11th September sowed six bushels of what is called red-chaff wheat, on the furrow, and harrowed it both ways. Reaped on the 22nd June, got it thrashed by a machine, on the 6th September, and had 84 bushels bright plump wheat, rather over 63 lbs. per bushel.

I delayed forwarding this, till I had got out some barley, the produce of three acres and 157 rods, on which I sowed 11 bushels, or 2 3/4 bushels to the acre, which is half a bushel more than I ever sowed before. It was highly manured in the spring of 1847, and planted in corn and pumpkins, and brought about 60 bushels corn to the acre, and an immense quantity of pumpkins. The produce is 70 struck bushels, weighing rather less than 48 lbs. per bushel, which is the legal weight of barley in Indiana. In 1847, I sowed eight bushels on three acres eighty-nine rods, or about 2 1/4 bushels to the acre, and had 61 1/42bushels, weighing 49 pounds per bushel— each producing about 17 or 18 bushels per acre. In 1846, I sowed 11 bushels on 5 1/2 acres or two bushels to the acre, and had but 77 bushels, or 14 bushels per acre. Part of this land was rather flat and wet, and I suppose all my land is too heavy for barley — it bakes very hard alter rain.

JOHN J. CRAIG. Madison, Indiana, January 16, 1849.