Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/578



round numbers, 12,000,000 pounds of butter, and 918,000 pounds of cheese. Of hay there were 813,000 tons, largely made from prairie grass.

The earlier settlers were building frame houses and barns. Pretentious business blocks, substantial churches, better school-houses and tasteful private dwellings were beginning to take the place in village and city of the log structures which everywhere prevailed in earlier years. Factories were relieving the overworked women in making cloth for the family clothing. Farmers were buying reapers to displace the grain cradles and mowers were taking the place of the scythe. Pine lumber was coming down the Mississippi River in huge rafts, supplying boards to relieve the slavish toil of rail-making for fencing, and lumber for farm buildings in place of logs. Improved cattle and swine were driving out the scrubs, while spring wagons and carriages were slowly coming into use in place of the saddle horse and lumber wagon. The young men in many localties wore factory made clothing in place of the home made butternut or linsey-woolsey, and the women dressed themselves in calico and muslin, which was a desirable and comfortable substitute for the home-woven fabrics of pioneer times. This relief from spinning and weaving gave the women and girls a little rest from the never ending drudgery of the household and leisure in evenings to read. Many ambitious girls now found time to study and prepare for teaching the country schools.

High schools and colleges were affording facilities for better education and the bright farm girls began to crowd out the ancient men teachers who had long ruled with the birch rod.

Boys from the farm were beginning to turn their eyes to the learned professions where social advantages were within their reach and visions of public offices in the future spurred them to acquire knowledge of the world in broader fields than those of the father’s acres.