PREFACE. 



The following chapters are a part, only, of a larger work which 

 I have undertaken, a history of the changes in the rural economy of 

 New England in the nineteenth century. In broad outline such 

 a history falls into three periods: (1) The period of self-sufficient 

 economy, which had existed since the settlement of the country, 

 reaching the highest point of its development at the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century; a period in which the characteristic features 

 of rural economy were the absence of any market for farm produce 

 and the consequent dependence of each town and, to a large extent, 

 of each household, even, on its own resources for the satisfaction of 

 its wants. (2) The period of transition to commercial agricul- 

 ture, under the stimulus afforded by the rise of manufacturing en- 

 terprises in inland towns and villages and the consequent demand 

 for food and raw materials on the part of the newly-arisen non- 

 agricultural population; the years included in this period being 

 approximately the two generations from 1810 down to the close of 

 the Civil War. (3) The period of the decadence of New England 

 agriculture, extending from the close of the Civil War to the end 

 of the nineteenth century; a period in which the increasing pressure 

 of Western competition caused the abandonment of large numbers 

 of New England farms and a decline in both the quantity and qual- 

 ity of the rural population. It was thus that the Rural Problem 

 of New England arose. From an appreciation of the importance 

 of the problem have arisen organized efforts looking toward its solu- 

 tion, toward an economic and social rehabilitation of rural life in 

 this region. 



The chapters here presented constitute a survey of the rural econ- 

 omy of the three states of southern New England at the close of 

 the first period. 



I desire to make acknowledgment of the courtesies extended 

 to me by the librarians of the American Antiquarian Society, the 

 Connecticut Historical Society, and of the Harvard and Yale Uni- 

 versity libraries. My thanks are due also to various members of 

 the Department of Economics of the Graduate School of Yale Uni- 

 versity, and also to Professor F. W. Taussig of Harvard University, 

 for encouragement and helpful suggestions. 



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