272 Percy Wells Bidwell 



slitting-mills whose principal produce was nail-rods, of which they 

 turned out about 100 tons per year.^ In Bridgewater scythes, axes, 

 edge-tools, muskets and cannon were produced. The manufacture 

 of nails was the particular branch of this industry pursued in Middle- 

 borough. The ore was dredged from ponds within the town limits, 

 smelted in local furnaces and rolled and slit into nail-rods. These 

 rods were later turned into nails by the farmers of the town in winter. 

 This union of agriculture and manufactures was commented on by 

 travelers.^ In fact, it seems to have been prevalent all through 

 this section. The business of the inhabitants of a typical town in 

 Plymouth County was thus described in 1814: "Supplying the fur- 

 naces with coal {i.e., charcoal), and Plymouth with fuel, together 

 with the sale of a surplus of rye, and some other productions, are the 

 usual resources of the inhabitants, most of whom are farmers, with 

 some mechanics; and in the summer months furnishing a few fisher- 

 men from Plymouth."^ Here we see that although somewhat of a 

 market was now open to the farmers, due to the extension of the iron 

 industry, yet agriculture and manufacture are not yet separate 

 industries. 



Of the iron manufacture in Rhode Island Bishop says: "Manu- 

 factures of iron, including bar and sb' -iron, steel, nail-rods, and 

 nails, farming implements, stoves, pots, ».nd other castings and house- 

 hold utensils, iron-works for ship-buildei anchors and bells, formed 

 the largest branch of productive industry in the State toward the 

 close of the eighteenth century."* In Providence County where the 

 bulk of the manufacture was carried on, there were in 1810, 20 trip- 

 hammers, 2 furnaces and 1 rolling and slitting-mill. Since many 

 of the towns in which these and other works were located were also 

 engaged in commerce, the effect of this industry in creating a non- 

 agricultural population can best be discussed in a later section.^ 



' Morse, Gazetteer, 1810. 



2 Dwight, Travels, II. 31 says: "In the winter season the inhabitants of Mid- 

 dleborough are principally employed in making nails, of which they send large 

 quantities to market. This business is a profitable addition to their husbandry; 

 and fills up a part of the year, in which, otherwise, many of them would find little 

 employment." See also Mass. Hist. Coll. I. 3:2. 



'Mass. Hist. Coll., II. 4:276. Similar conditions are described in Wareham 

 and Kingston. Ibid. II. 4:286, and II. 3:205-207. 



* History of Manufactures, I. 503. 



'" See infra pp. 281-282. 



