When one thinks of farming, it always seems like an old method of cultivation; however, it is impossible to have any food on our plates in the absence of agriculture. We discuss the earliest practices of farming in Ohio, a non-farm country.
Due to climatic conditions and uncontrolled growth, Ohio was a complex farming region back in the early ages. Cultivators in the early 1800s believed it would require a lot of hard work to make the land suitable for framing, but they eventually did it!
Who Discovered The Ohio Land As Capable Of Farming?
History suggests that Ross and Highland counties sent people to Ohio to settle down and start their new chapter there. Little did they know that these people would plan something long-term to fit the whole country.
Men and women settlers started to gather different kinds of seeds and brought them back to Ohio. They sowed batches of wheat, corn, rye, plums, and peaches in the cultivating season.
Soon as winter fell, the plantation bloomed, providing fruit and raw material throughout the land. It was indeed a joyous occasion for Ohio.
Different Farming Practices In Ohio
The people mastered the skill of understanding seasons and the growth of yields; the seeds sown in winter bloomed in summer; that’s how the cycle went on.
1. Classic Farming Techniques
Men used to swarm the crop yields with sickles, thrashed the wheat batch to set the grains free, and drivers used to load the grains to the mills.
2. Grist Milling and Horses
Creed’s Mill is the first Mill in Ohio’s history of farming, where the farmers lined up in queues for their turn to initiate the wheat grinding process. The fun fact is that horses were used to supply power to the grinding machinery.
Horses were attached with long sweeps and were made to run all around the grinder in circles with speed. It made the machine run, resulting in the grinding of wheat grains.
3. The Mill Boys And The Families
The famous mill boys, as history states, were barefoot and dressed in rags, which also helped in the procedure. Mil boys and the harvesters’ wives and daughters used to separate the bran and flour through a sieve cloth. Indeed it was a time-taking and difficult task, but there were not a lot of options back then.
Why Did It Take So Long To Grind The Grain?
As limited machinery was available, each harvester usually needed a few days to grind their wheat batch. It took a lot of time as the horses also needed a resting period, and so did the machinery, a cooling period.
The Breadbasket Of The Nation
It was in the 1850s when Ohio finally settled upon cultivating wheat and grinding it into flour. Some became the largest wheat, flour, and corn distributor as about two thousand mills were installed on the farm side to grind the wheat and meet the required production unit.
Therefore, Ohio is known as the breadbasket of the nation. The persistent hard work and motivation of the settlers and harvesters in Ohio are what has made them today a settled and renowned state!
