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Hibbard, Benjamin Horace, 1870-1955 / The history of agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin
(1904)
Chapter I: Transition from simple to complex agriculture, pp. [145]-148
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Page [145]
CHAPTER I. THE TRANSITION FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX AGRICULTURE. The change from simple to complex agricultural con- ditions did not happen in a day. It came so gradually that those who made the changes, and were themselves at the same time un- dergoing a modification no less pronounced, hardly realized that anything of far-reaching consequence was happening. These re- sults were brought about primarily by economic causes already noted, together with some important social influences, while later, political movements were of equal significance. Among social influences a few stand out with unmistakable clearness. The Ohio people, in the southern, the northeastern, and the northwestern, parts of Dane county, all engaged to greater or less extent in sheep raising. They had all learned something about the business before coming and were able to bring a few sheep along with them. The Vermonters were also disposed to own sheep, and occasionally an Englishman or a Scotchman ven- tured to invest in a small flock. There were many drawbacks to the business, yet it persisted in a tentative way from its introduc- tion in the early '50's until a time when opportunities came to give it more attention. To the Ohio people is also due the credit of in- troducing tobacco culture. The explanation of this is analogous to that of the introduction of sheep-they had learned the busi- ness at home and brought it with them. Cattle were of course indispensable, but it was the cheapness of this kind of stock in the older states of the Northwest which accounted for the fact that cattle raising came in as fast as it did. Hogs were kept as exten- .4
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