AREA HISTORY:  Introduction of Lime, Hopewell Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE INTRODUCTION OF LIME – Page 749

Lime as a fertilizer was introduced into the eastern part of Hopewell in 1830.  
During that year Henry Manifold, on his way home from Baltimore, brought seven 
bushels of lime, which he purchased near Towsontown, Md.  All of his neighbors went 
to his farm to see what was then considered a curiosity.  The effect of the 
application of lime was watched the next year with the greatest interest.  It 
resulted in success and revolutionized the business of farming in this section.  The 
next year Henry Manifold, Joseph Edgar and Benjamin Payne built a kiln, and brought 
the limestone down the Susquehanna to McCall’s Ferry, and burned it in this 
township.  So manifest was the success that the burning of lime became an important 
business, and many farmers erected kilns.  Before the introduction of lime the soil 
had become very much impoverished.  Except on newly cleared land, very little wheat 
could be raised in Hopewell, and indeed in the entire lower end of the county.  
Wheat for family use was obtained from the region around York.  Corn and rye could 
be raised in small quantities by a judicious application of manure as fertilizer.  
Flax and wool were raised for clothing and sale.  Buckwheat grew quite luxuriantly, 
and produced well.  Farmers depended mostly on marketing to Baltimore as a means of 
gaining a livelihood; at this business some prospered.

The recent use of phosphates has produced a marvelous change in the whole aspect of 
“The Barrens,” a name absolutely inapplicable now to any part of that section.  
Improved modes of agriculture, careful cultivation of the land, the introduction of 
the new fertilizers have caused Hopewell, and its adjoining township to bloom and 
produce like the fertile region around far-famed Damascus.  An intelligent farmer 
will no longer say that limestone land is most valuable.  There is faithful evidence 
that corn produces well here, and wheat, during the past few years, has yielded so 
abundantly, and in such excellent quality, as to astonish, not only the farmers of 
our limestone regions, but the wide-awake descendants of the Scotch-Irish 
themselves.

Tobacco farming began in Hopewell about 1874.  It is now considered a very 
profitable crop.  The land is specially adapted to its cultivation.  It produces 
well, and is of superior quality, and finds a ready market.  In the eastern part of 
Hopewell it is raised in large quantities.  On one tract of two and three-quarters 
acres as many as 6,800 pounds were raised.  Within the past year Havanna leaf has 
been planted, and yielded well in all of the lower end of the county.  

Potatoes, in large quantities, are raised in this township, especially in the 
vicinity of Stewartstown.