The Broad and Fertile Acres

The Broad and Fertile Acres. They Lived Long on the Land. , This land was home to Shawnee People who established their villages on the uplands of the north side of the Mac-A-Cheek valley and their corn fields in the bottom lands along the stream. The earliest white settlers also favored the bottom lands for growing corn and wheat. For a brief period both the Native Americans and the settlers ground corn in the West Liberty mill. , , Corn was an important crop for the Piatt family. Benjamin used it to fatten cattle and swine. He marketed it for human consumption by grinding it into flour at his grist mill and producing alcohol in his distillery. After 1850 the Piatts began to grow more wheat. By 1880, they planted 154 acres in corn and 120 acres in wheat. , , Rather than wheat, most farmers in the Mac-A-Cheek valley now grow soybeans. Corn remains a primary crop and it is grown in rotation with soybeans. The fields surrounding the Castle are now farmed by the Barger family who for several generations has also owned a nearby farm that was once part of Benjamin Piatt's 1700 acre property. , , "Gen. Piatt has harvested this year 5,400 bushels of oats, 1,000 bushels of wheat and 900 bushels of rye. He has 90 acres in corn." , "Gen. A. S. Piatt," Bellefontaine Examiner, 1902 , , "My dad used to grow hay, wheat, oats, corn and soybeans. I remember when he started growing more soybeans in the 1960's." , Gary Barger, 2007 , , "... The hilly land is mostly limestone, with a clay soil, and produces excellent grazing, as well as fine crops of grain. The bottoms have a black loamy soil, and are highly productive." , History of Logan County, 1880 , , Always an inventor, Abram Piatt urged members of the Logan County Agricultural Society in 1855 to increase their yields by planting corn in rows rather than the traditional method of hills. He reported producing 140 bushels of corn to the acre on his good bottom lands using this method while other area farmers were yielding 40 bushels per acre. , , Abram and his son William were interested in the advances in planting and harvesting technology brought about by the transition from mules and oxen to faster work horses. Both men crafted improvements in several agricultural machines including hay rakes, reapers and corn harvesters. William also followed the later transition from horsepower to the internal combustion engine, patenting a self propelled binder in 1916. , ,

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, Elizabeth Piatt Smith, as a tribute to her namesake grandmother, described autumn in the Mac-A-Cheek valley in an 1863 poem, "The Birthday Ride." Twenty years later, Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley was similarly captivated by scenes from this valley on his visit to Donn Piatt at nearby Mac-O-Chee Castle. Back home, Riley wrote his famous poem about autumn, "When the Frost is on the Punkin." Both poems include stanzas describing corn standing in the fields: , , O'er the hill the sun shines brightly, , Where the woods sweet odors yield, , And the cornstalks, bound so tightly, , Stand like tents across the field. , Elizabeth Piatt Smith, 1863 , , The husky, rusky russel of the tossels of the corn, , And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn; , The stubble in the furries-kindo lonesome-like, but still , A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill. , James Whitcomb Riley, 1883