338 Percy Wells Bidwell 



important article of his diet. In cheese, moreover, an article was 

 found for which the demand in the Southern states and in the West 

 Indies was considerable. Cheese had also enough value in propor- 

 tion to its weight to bear the expense of transportation by land for 

 some distance. A few towns in Litchfield and Berkshire Counties, 

 on the western edge of New England, and a few others in Rhode Island 

 along Narragansett Bay, and in Windham County in Connecticut, 

 exported large quantities of cheese and grew prosperous in conse- 

 quence.^ 



Oxen and Horses. 



The cattle not only supplied the farm with beef and dairy products 

 but also furnished a part of its labor force. Oxen were from the 

 beginning the favorite, and, in fact for many years, the only draft 

 animal on New England farms. Although horses were steadily 

 coming into more general use, they did not seriously compete with 

 the slower-moving steers for general farm work for many years after 

 1810.2 In 1784 there were about 45,500 horses in Massachusetts 

 and over 162,500 oxen and draft cattle.^ In 1792 in New Hampshire 

 the proportion of horses to neat cattle was only one in twenty.* 

 By 1812 this ratio had increased to about one in seven.^ In spite of 

 their slowness of gait the oxen had certain advantages which justi- 

 fied the farmers in their use. These are succinctly set forth by 

 President D wight as follows: "The advantages of employing oxen 

 are, that they will endure more fatigue, draw more steadily, and 

 surely; are purchased for a smaller price; are kept at less expense; 



1 The town of Goshen, in Litchfield County, was noted for its cheese. Dwight 

 wrote of this town: "It is, perhaps, the best grazing ground in the state; and the 

 inhabitants are probably more wealthy than any other collection of farmers in 

 New England, equally numerous. The quantity of cheese made by them annually, 

 is estimated at four hundred thousand pounds weight. Butter also is made in 

 great quantities." Travels, II. 355. Pease and Niles give the amount exported 

 from this town in 1819 as 380,266 lbs. Gazetteer, p. 248. A neighboring town, 

 marketed 100 tons of cheese in 1811, besides 6 tons of butter. Morris, Statistical 

 Account of Litchfield, p. 122. 



^ One writer puts the date of the beginning of such competition as late as 1870. 

 See Marquis, J. C. An Economic History of Agriculture in New England since 

 1840. Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University for the degree of 

 Master of Science in Agriculture. 1909. Ms. p. 148. 



^ These figures are given in the American Museum, VII. 54. 



* Belknap, History of New Hampshire, III. 144. 



^ Merrill, Eliphalet and Phinehas, Gazetteer of the State of New Hampshire. 

 Exeter, N. H., 1817, p. 16. The figures are 32,000 and 211,500, respectively. 



